During the “Cosmoverse” event in Istanbul, it was announced what are the future plans for the non-custodial Nomic bridge, which will soon make Bitcoin a simply accessible resource within the Cosmos crypto ecosystem.
The announcement is part of the most interesting talks of the entire event dedicated to the development of the Cosmos crypto network, as to date there are still no decentralized and secure solutions that can allow BTC to land in the chain.
Nomic’s interchain update will take place on October 30, 2023.
Full details below.
Nomic brings Bitcoin inside the Cosmos crypto ecosystem
Today at the well-known Istanbul “Cosmoverse” conference, Matt Bell, founder of the noncustodial bridge Nomic, announced that his project will soon be able to universally bring Bitcoin inside the Cosmos crypto ecosystem.
This is a real innovation within the context of Cosmos interoperability, considering that to date there are no decentralized, continuous solutions that allow Bitcoin to proliferate in the chain.
Cosmoverse Livestream Link:https://t.co/9GQXKla6Wk
— Cosmoverse | İstanbul Oct 2-4
(@CosmoverseHQ) October 2, 2023
In detail, Nomic’s foundation’s intent is to bring nBTC, i.e., an IBC-compatible token backed 1:1 with native BTC, inside the Cosmos network allowing deposits and withdrawals from any platform or chain in the ecosystem.
This cryptographic resource solves a well-defined problem, which is that users until now have to convert their Bitcoins to another digital currency to access the Cosmos universe.
During the Cosmoverse Matt Bell announced that the Interchain update that will inaugurate nBTC is scheduled for October 27, 2023, with the actual activation of the cryptocurrency on 30 October 2023.
In addition, in parallel nBTC will also be launched on Osmosis, the main DEX of Cosmos, giving users the ability to deposit and withdraw BTC directly from the Osmosis Zone app.
The same operations will also be possible on the popular Kujira and Levana apps.
An audit will be conducted shortly to test the security of the protocol, and upon its release an update will be made that will transfer bridge capacity and fee control to Nomic’s DAO
At last, alternative solutions are beginning to emerge that allow Bitcoin in its native form to land within the contexts of DeFi, solving one of the major challenges of recent years: interoperability.
Cosmos is proposed as Bitcoin’s “application layer,” offering unprecedented interoperability, all while also maintaining high standards of security and scalability.
In this regard Sunny Aggarwal, co-founder of Osmosis commented on this revolution in Cosmos as follows:
“Bitcoin is in deep need of an application DeFi ecosystem, and Cosmos is in need of a base money asset that can serve as its primary store of value. Nomic will help make this long-awaited union for a Bitcoin-centric Cosmos a reality.”
Matt Bell, however, used the following words to emblematically describe what his project is bringing to market:
“The Cosmos ecosystem is too important for it to lack a seamless and secure way to receive BTC. With these forthcoming upgrades, Nomic is poised to be the most secure bitcoin bridge on the market today. […] We are thrilled that Nomic will now unlock the exciting DeFi capabilities of the Cosmos ecosystem for any user holding BTC.”
Bitcoin and cross-blockchain interoperability
As mentioned, the announcement of the Nomic bridge, which will introduce Bitcoin directly into the Cosmos ecosystem, represents a real milestone for the development of interoperability solutions regarding the crypto market’s premier cryptocurrency.
By now, everyone knows that Bitcoin, unlike most other existing cryptocurrencies, is not EVM compatible and does not have a native framework available to use the cryptographic resource in DeFi.
At most since May this year, thanks to the innovation of Inscriptions, it has been made possible to introduce fungible tokens (BRC-20) and NFTs (Ordinals) through an alternative solution that sees metadata subscription on individual satoshi.
Beyond this “experiment,” however ( which does not see BTC going outside of its chain), there are not many options available that could allow users to interact with the latest generation chains by leveraging Bitcoin natively on their own network.
The only solution currently available is that of provider Spaceshift, which as of Sept. 12 inaugurated a “multichain snap” feature allowing BTC and other non-EVM currencies to be exchanged within its Metamask wallet, thereby increasing the possibilities for integration between multiple seemingly disparate chains.
Going further, however, there are no additional applications outside of the one just mentioned that allow one to leverage Bitcoin natively outside of one’s chain.
After Spaceshift and Nomic ( not yet live) there is still no other reality that can enable such interoperability for Bitcoin
which is why the introduction of nBTC in case Cosmos is a real boon for the growth of the entire industry, whose future increasingly depends on the ability of developers to make all cryptocurrencies interoperable with each other at the highest level and easy to exchange between ecosystems.
The future to mass adoption of cryptocurrencies depends largely on this: it is unlikely that in the future yet every network and platform will be isolated and distant, capable of performing only one specific task.
It is critical that all decentralized chains and applications, while preserving the inherent characteristics for which they were designed, all belong to a single, easily accessible and user-friendly conglomerate.
Let us hope that Nomic’s announcement is just the first of many more updates on Cosmos and other blockchains, such that Bitcoin is elevated to as yet unexplored horizons.