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I think the most interesting development is the increasing amount of Bitcoin being wrapped in Ethereum, somewhat validating the store of value idea, I could see

by ENGNR 6y ago

I think the most interesting development is the increasing amount of Bitcoin being wrapped in Ethereum, somewhat validating the store of value idea, I could see it giving Bitcoin some legs But... is it like sports memorabilia at that point, the value is all perception rather than utility and could one day just.. collapse

konschubert 6y ago
Interesting! How are they wrapped? Do ppl trade bitcoin on ethereum without actually using the bitcoin blockchain?
- theocs 6y ago
  They trade a token, sometimes called a stablecoin, that represent BTC as its underlying value. Primarily two extremes for how this is done: Centralized, like WBTC (https://coinlist.co/help/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc https://coinlist.co/help/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc), and decentralized, like tBTC (https://defirate.com/tbtc/ https://defirate.com/tbtc/)
  - codehalo 6y ago
    Besides the extremes, there's the pragmatic in the middle - interoperability in general. RenVM supports Bitcoin and many other coins on multiple hosts, not just Ethereum (eg. Polkadot): https://renproject.io https://renproject.io https://mainnet.renproject.io https://mainnet.renproject.io
    - xur17 6y ago
      I'm not convinced RenVM is really in the middle in its current state. Currently the core team holds all of the keys for the over $300M in Bitcoin stored by their project [0]. I'd take wbtc, which is held by a consortium of well known custodians in the space over that any day. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/76787/ren-bitcoin-wallet-decentralization https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/76787/ren-bitcoin-walle...
theocs 6y ago
I think the wrapped BTCs, especially the decentralized approaches to it, are clever links that allow for the transfer of BTC value over to the Ethereum ecosystem. It's a way of selling BTC for other tokens, extracting and removing its value over time, and instead investing it into DeFi and similar.

by ENGNR 6y ago

konschubert 6y ago

Interesting! How are they wrapped? Do ppl trade bitcoin on ethereum without actually using the bitcoin blockchain?

theocs 6y ago
They trade a token, sometimes called a stablecoin, that represent BTC as its underlying value. Primarily two extremes for how this is done: Centralized, like WBTC (https://coinlist.co/help/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc https://coinlist.co/help/what-is-wrapped-bitcoin-wbtc), and decentralized, like tBTC (https://defirate.com/tbtc/ https://defirate.com/tbtc/)
- codehalo 6y ago
  Besides the extremes, there's the pragmatic in the middle - interoperability in general. RenVM supports Bitcoin and many other coins on multiple hosts, not just Ethereum (eg. Polkadot): https://renproject.io https://renproject.io https://mainnet.renproject.io https://mainnet.renproject.io
  - xur17 6y ago
    I'm not convinced RenVM is really in the middle in its current state. Currently the core team holds all of the keys for the over $300M in Bitcoin stored by their project [0]. I'd take wbtc, which is held by a consortium of well known custodians in the space over that any day. [0] https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/76787/ren-bitcoin-wallet-decentralization https://www.theblockcrypto.com/daily/76787/ren-bitcoin-walle...

theocs 6y ago

I think the wrapped BTCs, especially the decentralized approaches to it, are clever links that allow for the transfer of BTC value over to the Ethereum ecosystem. It's a way of selling BTC for other tokens, extracting and removing its value over time, and instead investing it into DeFi and similar.