invezz.com
Smart contracts have been a huge part of the crypto industry for over 6 years now, and they are what runs most of the blockchain-based products.
Lately, however, with the rise of DeFi and NFTs, they have become more important than ever before — so much so that people have started looking into different ways of including Bitcoin into the smart contracts pace, rather than just use wrapped versions of the coin on other networks.
Are you looking for fast-news, hot-tips and market analysis? Sign-up for the Invezz newsletter, today.
Finally, Dfinity Foundation’s Internet Computer blockchain figured out a way to do it and is now about to bring smart contract capabilities to Bitcoin’s very own network.
This will be a massive move for the project, and it will open the door to a whole new world of capabilities and use cases for the world’s first and oldest cryptocurrency.
How does it all work?
According to what is known, Internet Computer will use its chain key cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin. That is pretty much all there is to it in order to bring smart contracts with native BTC addresses hosted on Internet Computer.
But, while it seems simple, it was certainly a solution that no one ever thought of before. Meanwhile, Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to Bitcoin liquidity, while BTC will get smart contract functionality.
As a result, smart contracts on Internet Computer will feature Bitcoin addresses, allowing users to establish direct access to Bitcoin-based transactions. One issue that was a problem for a long time is the fact that transaction finality on BTC lasts for 40 minutes.
Internet Computer, on the other hand, does it in 2 seconds. To bypass the problem, the project will use so-called Bitcoin Banks, which will be on Internet Computer, allowing it to use its own speeds to finalize transactions.
With this move, Bitcoin (BTC/USD) will start developing in a way that was rather unforeseen, as even Satoshi Nakamoto never meant for something like this to come to his coin, which has already revolutionized the world to a large extent.
With that said, nobody knows what to expect. But, chances are that Bitcoin will once again start drawing in the masses and that new use cases will result in an even greater demand for its coins.