Trustless Wrapped Bitcoin Coming to Polkadot in Early 2021

Polkadot is one of the biggest cryptocurrency projects, currently ranked eight in terms of total market capitalization.

Now, the team has revealed that trustless wrapped Bitcoin will come to its ecosystem in early 2021 through Interlay – a framework designated to allow permissioned and permissionless blockchains to connect and interact.

Polkadot’s BTC-Relay Effort

Known as Interlay, the framework that has been under development since 2018 aims at allowing various permissioned and permissionless blockchains to interact and connect seamlessly.

According to a new release, it’s set out to introduce Polkadot’s first trustless wrapped Bitcoin in early 2021. Called PolkaBTC, it’s aimed at marking a critical step towards an entirely interoperable ecosystem.

Previously, Interlay had released a technical specification and a working PoC implementation. Following a successful pilot project, the team is now expediting efforts to complete the BTC Parachain in the first quarter of next year. It’s also funded by a follow-up grant provided by the Web3 Foundation.

Once it is deployed, users will be able to mint 1-to-1 Bitcoin-backed assets on Polkadot, known as PolkaBTC.

A few things stand out when it comes to the nature of PolkaBTC. Right off the bat, it’s trustless, and much like Ren’s BTC solution, the bridge has no central authority as it’s run by a decentralized network of individuals, companies, and community members.

On another note, it’s entirely open as anyone can participate in the bridge’s operation.

Increasing Amount of BTC on Ethereum

As CryptoPotato reported earlier in September, the amount of Bitcoin transferred over to Ethereum’s network is increasing substantially.

At the time of this writing, data from DeFi Pulse shows that there’s currently over 105,000 bitcoins worth more than $1.2 billion circulating on Ethereum’s blockchain.

This is largely because of the DeFi boom as the total value locked in various protocols exceeds $11.2 billion.

In any case, with Polkadot joining the scene, this is likely to increase going forward.