Nomic has announced that it is taking Bitcoin live in the ecosystem of Cosmos, making it accessible for applications and other platforms to leverage the digital capabilities of the native token. Users can deposit Bitcoin in applications like Levana and Kujira, to name a few.
The announcement was made during Cosmoverse 2023, informing the community that the upgrade will support the IBC transfer of nBTC.
nBTC is an IBC-compatible token that users can utilize without undergoing cryptocurrency conversion at any point. The only criterion is that the blockchain has to be based on Cosmos. Users deciding to make full use of this opportunity will experience minimal steps of integration. The interchain upgrade will start on October 27, 2023, and will be operational by October 30, 2023.
Benefits will be spread across Nomic and Bitcoiners. For instance, Nomic will be able to tap into the supply of $500+ billion worth of Bitcoin. For Bitcoiners, it means that they will have access to exciting DeFi products in the days to come.
Nomic created nBTC to solve the problem of insufficient decentralization and seamlessness. This pertains to the integration of BTC into the Cosmos ecosystem. nBTC eliminates this obstacle by allowing users to transfer their holdings across the Cosmos-based blockchain. With this development, Nomic is now the first non-Cosmos SDK blockchain to implement IBC.
Moving forward, Nomic has committed to work for an increase in the efficiency and security of the bridge. One change that the community can expect is a change in the Nomic Reserve script.
The bridge will run with a limited capacity in its earlier stages. The limit has been set to 21 BTC for slower growth of reserves. Users cannot deposit more funds once the bridge reaches its full capacity. Also, applications cannot generate more deposit addresses following the full-capacity mark.
The first to adopt the milestone is Kujira. It has integrated Interchain Deposits, allowing its vibrant community to access nBTC in the upcoming upgrade. Users will be able to deposit BTC through the BLUE Web application. Other functions that users can perform are minting USK by keeping nBTC as collateral, lending nBTC, borrowing nBTC, and placing a bid on nBTC that has been liquidated. Needless to say, there are more functions that users can explore.
Osmosis will follow the trend, empowering users to provide liquidity for nBTC while also buying and selling the token. They can deposit BTC through the Osmosis Zone UI. Levana will mirror these steps for its users.
The announcement comes days after Nomic shared that mainnet Bitcoin was live on Nomic. This dates back to June 30, 2023, when it evaluated how the Nomic Bitcoin Bridge was helping the ecosystem bring Bitcoin into it.
Bitcoin goes live in Cosmos with nBTC on October 27, 2023; however, the mechanism will only be activated on October 30, 2023.