DFINITY unlocks the potential of DeFi and makes Bitcoin interoperable with Optimism, Arbitrum, and other EVM crypto networks

Crypto news and DeFi: yesterday, the DFINITY Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization that focuses on the development of the Internet Computer Blockchain, announced a solution that allows strong interoperability between Bitcoin and networks like Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base.

It is the introduction of EVM RPC, an API key that allows ICP smart contracts to read and write data on different blockchains.

Questo è il primo passo per sfruttare la nuova programmabilità di Bitcoin all’interno delle applicazioni DeFi attraverso l’intero spettro delle reti EVM.

Let’s see everything in detail below.

Crypto and DeFi: DFINITY introduces EVM RPC and allows Bitcoin to communicate freely with Arbitrum, Optimism, and Base

Yesterday the DFINITY Foundation dropped a bombshell by announcing the integration of an API on-chain that opens up maximum interoperability between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other EVM networks like Optimism, Arbitrum, and Base, without having to rely on dangerous crypto bridges or DeFi protocols anymore.

The new tool launched by the Internet Computer team is EVM RPC: an API key that allows on-chain communication between smart contracts and different blockchains.

In parallel, the stablecoin ckUSDC has been introduced, perfectly interoperable with ICP and backed 1:1 to USDC.

In practice, the EVM RPC  greatly simplifies the development of multi-chain dApps, making it as simple and native as if it were built in a single environment.

This integration represents a milestone both for the DFINITY Foundation, which after several years of work and development of the framework Chain Fusion is approaching to bring Bitcoin programmability within DeFi, and for the entire crypto world that will be able to solve the problems of liquidity fragmentation in the liquidity.

The developers of the group, on the day of the 3rd anniversary of ICP, have announced that they will soon introduce integration for Solana as well, eliminating any type of intermediary.

The road to the progress of DeFi has just been marked: since the EVM RPC is a generic protocol, developers from other ecosystems can simply add their own network API keys to increase interoperability, and leverage resources from other ecosystems outside of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other EVM chains like Optimism and Arbitrum.

Questa nuova funzionalità può abilitare una miriade di altri casi d’uso innovativi, come portafogli multi-catena basati sul web, lavori cron e chiamate smart contract su Ethereum, capacità multi-catena illimitate tramite edge routing, “token gemelli” basati sulla crittografia a chiave di catena, elaborazione di ordinali e token BRC20 e molti altri.

The new stablecoin ckUSDC for example, as well as other inter-ecosystem assets of ICP, such as ckBTC and ckETH, ckUSDC represents a “twin token” multi-chain USDC that leverages chain key cryptography and ICP smart contracts that directly hold the original assets. It allows sending and receiving tokens with 1-2 second finality and negligible fees, all without the need for bridges or off-chain solutions.

All this opens the doors to multiple connections and much more freedom for crypto developers, who will be able to integrate other ERC20 tokens into their projects using the advanced interoperability features of ICP.

Regarding the new integration, Lomesh Dutta, Vice President of Growth at DFINITY, stated the following:

“We are excited to offer blockchain developers even greater flexibility to seamlessly integrate support for new assets into their projects. With the addition of ckUSDC and read/write APIs, dozens of different chains can now leverage ICP smart contracts to freely interact with other networks, making the Web3 ecosystem extremely more interoperable and unified as a whole.”

Everyone crazy about interoperability between Bitcoin and other blockchains

The theme of multi-chain interoperability, with the possibility of bringing Bitcoin into other EVM and non-EVM networks, is becoming increasingly central within the crypto world, with more and more projects grappling with the simplification of this process.
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Until a few years ago, it seemed unthinkable to open up to the DeFi of Ethereum and others like Optimism and Arbitrum on Bitcoin, as there were no fast and reliable communication channels.
Today, however, it seems that the challenge is being embraced by more and more decentralized ecosystems, which are trying to attract the liquidity that orbits around Bitcoin, with obvious advantages for all the native dapps of that circle.

In September of last year Shapeshift introduced the innovative concept of “multichain snap”, bringing BTC, ATOM, DOGE to be natively held and traded directly on the non-custodial MetaMask wallet, leveraging some third-party services.

Also Wormhole is working to better integrate communication between Bitcoin and alternative networks like Optimism and Arbitrum, leveraging its own cross-chain interoperability framework. Similarly, other projects are leveraging a proprietary stack, such as Chainlink’s CCIP or the omnichain version of LayerZero.

A few days ago, precisely on the topic of interoperability, strong rumors emerged regarding an alleged upcoming integration of the Wallet Metamask, which could add support for Bitcoin directly into the wallet, addressing the issue of discontinuity with the DeFi and EVM world.

According to the rumors in question, the integration could take place within the next month, and follows developments that MetaMask is also pursuing with the CeFi sector, such as the support of Coinbase Onramp to allow cex users to operate directly on the wallet through Coinbase Pay.

Also the Sui ecosystem, a high-efficiency horizontal L1 network, is improving its interoperability component with Ethereum and L2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism, aiming for future connections with Bitcoin as well.

After the partnership announced two days ago with the on-chain solutions platform Mesh, Sui is facilitating the on-ramp of new users from different cryptographic communities, opening up to an easy and efficient management of their cryptographic finances.

The DeFi world is evolving at the speed of light.