tBTC Launch Supported by 75 Percent of DeFi Market

2020-04-29

The launch of tBTC, the open-source project that allows people to use Bitcoin safely in Ethereum DeFi apps, began this week with the support of more than 40 companies including MakerDAO, Compound and Uniswap, which collectively represent three quarters of the total DeFi market.

tBTC, a project developed by Summa, Cross-Chain Group, and Keep Network, lets BTC holders safely convert their BTC into the ERC-20 tBTC token and vice-versa at any time at a rate of 1:1, with no signoff needed from an intermediary. Users’ BTC is safeguarded by groups of “signers” selected by a random beacon to minimize counterparty risk.

The launch began Monday, April 27, with the deployment of the KEEP token contract and all custodial and staking contracts. KEEP is the native work token of the Keep Network, whose random beacon selects tBTC signers. Signers must stake both ETH and KEEP in order to perform functions that facilitate the depositing and redeeming of BTC.

On April 24, the MakerDAO community voted to finalize their first ETHBTC feed, deployed specifically for tBTC, and to whitelist the future tBTC contract. The random beacon will deploy May 4 and a week later tBTC will launch on mainnet using MakerDAO’s ETHBTC feed. Starting June 8th anyone will be able to join tBTC’s signers in the KEEP stakedrop, earning fees for acting as signers on the network.

Supporters announced to date include integrations with decentralized platforms, aggregators, exchanges, and wallets as well as stakers, signers, auditors and custody providers. Initially there will be about 80 stakers including Paradigm, a16z, Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital and Draper Associates.

Join the discussion on Discord to Play for Keeps and earn your spot to stake on mainnet as part of the community of stakers and builders.

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Below is a full list of groups supporting tBTC at launch:

tBTC integrations:

  • MakerDAO and OasisDEX
  • Compound
  • Nuo
  • Set
  • SODA
  • Curve Finance
  • PieDAO
  • Shell Protocol
  • Balancer
  • Staked’s RAY
  • Zerion
  • Alkemi
  • Gitcoin
  • Uniswap
  • Radar Relay
  • Loopring
  • Kyber
  • 1inch
  • DeversiFi
  • Token Terminal
  • Argent
  • Authereum
  • Exodus
  • Wyre

Groups Supporting tBTC & Keep Product Development

  • Summa
  • TokenSoft
  • Aragon
  • Cross-Chain Group
  • ConsenSys Diligence
  • Trail of Bits