Cardano employs BitcoinOS to incorporate Bitcoin liquidity into its DeFi ecosystem, utilizing zero-knowledge cryptography to ensure cross-chain functionality.
New integration with BitcoinOS (BOS), an innovative contract platform, is expected to give Cardano access to $1.3 trillion in Bitcoin liquidity for its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
The integration is intended to enable Cardano users to securely access Bitcoin without intermediaries, as a press release shared with Cointelegraph stated. This is a step toward the expansion of DeFi and the enhancement of cross-chain functionality.
Zero-knowledge (ZK) cryptography will be instrumental in the collaboration, as it will enable BOS to integrate BTC assets into Cardano through authenticated transactions that do not involve third parties, thereby facilitating a trustless process.
Cardano’s BTC liquidity
The BOS Grail bridge is a critical integration component that establishes a secure connection through BOS’s ZK BitSNARK verification protocol.
DeFi initiatives can benefit from the bridge of BTC transactions and assets onto Cardano’s blockchain without compromising security or decentralization, thanks to ZK technology.
The BOS integration on Cardano will enable access to Bitcoin’s market capitalization, which is approximately $1.3 trillion at the time of writing.
Cross-chain capabilities
The collaboration is perceived by Emurgo, the founding entity responsible for Cardnao’s Web3 adoption initiatives, as a step toward a more interconnected space, as indicated by a press release that was shared with Cointelegraph.
The integration has the potential to unleash new cross-chain capabilities, according to Ken Kodama, the CEO of Emurgo, and could promote the adoption of DeFi.
Kodama stated that the layer one blockchain’s “users, projects, and developers” could access a secure and trustless path to BTC by using BOS’ bridge and ZK tech, which would “further strengthen Cardano.”
The BitcoinOS Grail bridge
BOS collaborated with Merlin Chain, a layer-2 (L2) scalability solution, on September 10 to implement the BitcoinOS Grail bridge and enhance cross-chain transactions without centralized trust mechanisms.
In an interview with Cointelegraph, Merlin Chain founder Jeff Yin stated that the partnership would offer consumers a “trustless, decentralized” bridge for “Bitcoin-native assets.”
ZK-proof-powered trustless bridging is established by the bridge directly inscribed onto the BTC blockchain. This eliminates the necessity for centralized security measures, such as multisig or multiparty computation.
As the collaboration advances toward a more “interoperable Bitcoin ecosystem,” Yin characterized the development as “just the beginning.”
