Bitcoin is becoming more and more present on the Avalanche ecosystem

There are many bitcoin bridges on different blockchains but Avalanche land is advancing and may be more important than the Lightning network.

Some information about BTC.b

BTC.b is a bridge version of Bitcoin native to the Avalanche C-Chain. It was launched in January 2023 as part of the Avalanche Bridge. This bridge allows users to transfer assets between the Bitcoin and Avalanche networks. BTC.b is fully supported with bitcoins locked in a smart contract on the bitcoin network. This ensures that the value of BTC.bi is always equal to the value of the underlying bitcoin.

The popularity of BTC.b has been growing steadily since its launch. In May 2023, over $28 million worth of BTC.b was transferred to Avalanche. BTC.b is currently integrated with several DeFi protocols on Avalanche. Including Platypus Finance, Benqi, and Trader Joe’s. This allows users to earn returns, participate in liquidity pools, and trade BTC.ba on Avalanche.

BTC.ba is a promising project that has the potential to make Bitcoin more accessible to DeFi users. This is still a relatively new project, but it has already grown significantly. The popularity of BTC.b is expected to continue in the future as other DeFi protocols integrate with it.

Here are some of the benefits of using BTC.ba:

• BTC.b has full Bitcoin support, so you can be sure your investment is safe.
• BTC.ba can be used to earn a return on Avalanche, which is not possible on the Bitcoin network.
• BTC.ba can be used to participate in liquidity pools and trade on Avalanche. Which gives you access to a wider range of DeFi opportunities.

During our exclusive interview with the founder of Ava Labs, Emin Gün Sirer even informed us that the BTC.b has more volume than the Lightning network. In fact, if we look at CoinMarketCap on May 15, 2023, we see that the 24-hour volume of the Lightning network is $176,000 and the 24-hour volume of BTC.b is almost $4.2 million. Bitcoin has also broken a new record with more than a million addresses owning at least 1 BTC.

BTC.b is not the only bitcoin on the network

During the Avalanche Summit, we will also have the opportunity to discuss and listen to the Catalog teams. Catalog is developing a BTC-AVAX bridge that works on a web wallet that allows you to have BTC and tokens from the Avalanche network natively on the same wallet. So it will be possible to bridge BTC very quickly into AVAX or other cryptocurrencies, without going through BTC.b. This solution may appeal to Bitcoin maximizers who do not want a cryptocurrency like BTC.b.

Jaz Gulati, co-founder of Catalog explains the main problems with current versions of bridge tokens, especially bitcoin.

First of all liquidity pools need to be recreated: to trade a folded asset, for example xBTC to USDC on Ethereum, you need to create a new liquidity pool x*y=ka on Uniswap for both assets. This usually means that users are encouraged to transfer liquidity from existing pools, such as ETH/USDC. To minimize the amount of slip in the new pool. When new chains are introduced (hope, Aptos, Solana, etc.), this process is repeated, leading to further fragmentation of liquidity and thus lower rates.

Then, account operations require gas tokens for bridge tokens. To send or exchange a return asset like xBTC for Ethereum, you need to hold ETH for gas fees, even if the exchange does not involve ETH at all (eg xBTC to USDC).

Finally, the confirmation delay for the bridge: to use bitcoins in dApps with a return asset, you must first connect them to the corresponding chain, which can take more than an hour depending on the confirmation delays. To return to native bitcoin, you must repeat this process in the opposite direction.

Therefore the future of Bitcoin on Avalanche and other blockchains is a matter of great innovation and creation. Will bridges like BTC.bi prevail or will the native version of Bitcoin as proposed by Catalog be the solution of tomorrow? Case to follow!

Alexis P.

Observer of the monetary, economic and social revolution.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author, and should not be considered investment advice. Do your own research before making any investment decision.