Corn: Binance Labs invests in the first Ethereum L2 to use Bitcoin as Gas
The Bitcoin ecosystem has received much attention recently, and Corn has created new value capture opportunities for Bitcoin.
Original title: "Interpreting Corn: Binance Labs participates in the first Ethereum L2 that uses Bitcoin as Gas"
Original source: TechFlow
The Bitcoin ecosystem has attracted much attention recently.
Whether it is the turmoil about wBTC or the activeness of various L2 and DeFi in the Bitcoin ecosystem, the market remains enthusiastic about Bitcoin-related concepts.
However, this enthusiasm focuses more on Bitcoin itself. Various projects are busy looking for more profit value for Bitcoin, and they are also trying to roll in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
But now that Ethereum L2 has rolled enough, it has also set its sights on Bitcoin.
On August 20, a new Ethereum L2 called Corn announced the completion of a $6.7 million seed round of financing, led by Polychain Capital, with participation from VCs such as Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, ABCDE, Symbolic Capital, HTX Ventures and Relayer Capital.
Developers from well-known projects such as Polygon and Berachain also participated in the investment as individuals.
And this L2 has a significant feature --- using BTC as the Gas of the L2 main network through a certain mapping method, while looking for more benefits for BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Before, whether it was wBTC or other DeFi, they all used assets and applications to make articles about BTC income; it was the first time that infrastructure-type L2 used BTC-mapped assets as Gas.
At the same time, the name of the project Corn has also pointed to the crypto stalk of farmers harvesting corn to gain income. An L2 centered around BTC and related income maximization is about to emerge.
What exactly will Corn do, and what opportunities are there for everyone to participate and plan in advance?
BTC as Gas
It should be noted that Corn is currently in its early stages, and the functions that can be experienced on the official website are still under development, and the white paper and instructions have not yet been fully launched. We will make a preview of the project based on the current public information.
First, let's take a look at what it means to use BTC as Gas.
The Corn network introduces a new tokenized Bitcoin called BTCN. This is the native Gas token of the Corn network, used to pay for network transaction fees.
So you can understand that BTCN is a Bitcoin mapping in ERC-20 format, which is speculated to be similar to wBTC, but there are some technical differences.
Why use the mapped BTCN as Gas? Some reasons that can be seen may be:
1. Improve the efficiency of Bitcoin use: By converting BTC into Gas that can be used on the Ethereum L2 network, Bitcoin holders can more easily participate in the Ethereum ecosystem without completely converting their assets.
2. Reduce transaction costs:Since BTCN is used directly on the L2 network, expensive gas fee transactions on the Ethereum mainnet can be avoided.
3. Increase Bitcoin's value capture:By introducing Bitcoin into the Ethereum ecosystem, Corn creates new value capture opportunities for Bitcoin, making it not only an asset that stores value, but also an active medium of exchange.
Although Corn has not yet fully disclosed its technical details, based on the existing information, we can reasonably speculate on its implementation process:
1. Multi-party custody:BTCN's minting rights are not limited to a single centralized custodian, but extend to multiple custodians, smart contracts and/or bridge protocols, improving security and decentralization.
2. Bridging mechanism:Users may need to deposit their BTC into the Corn network through a special bridge protocol. This bridge protocol will lock the native BTC and mint an equal amount of BTCN on the Corn network.
3. Smart Contracts:On the Corn network, there may be a series of smart contracts to manage the minting, destruction, and transfer of BTCN. These contracts will ensure that the supply of BTCN always maintains a 1:1 ratio with the locked BTC.
4. Liquidity pool: Ensure liquidity between BTCN and other assets such as ETH or stablecoins.
5. Verification mechanism: A strong verification mechanism is needed to ensure the security and accuracy of the minting and destruction process of BTCN. This may involve multi-signature wallets, time locks, and other security measures.
Finding more benefits for BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem
How can this L2 made by Corn find more benefits for BTC?
Corn proposed an ecosystem concept called "Crop Circle". The core idea of this system is to recycle the value of BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem in a variety of ways to generate additional benefits.
In the absence of more public information, we can analyze and understand this official picture.
First, users can stake their BTCN tokens to earn network revenue. This is similar to the staking mechanism of other PoS networks, but the unique thing is that the assets staked are pegged to BTC.
In addition, Corn may launch a liquidity mining project to encourage users to provide liquidity for trading pairs of BTCN and other tokens to earn additional income; at the same time, through integration with other public chains and DeFi protocols, Corn can provide users with cross-chain income opportunities, such as participating in DeFi projects on other chains.
From the official push and blog information, Corn plans to deeply integrate with the existing Ethereum DeFi protocol to provide BTCN holders with diversified financial services:
· Lending: Users can use BTCN as collateral to borrow other assets on the DeFi platform, or lend BTCN to earn interest.
· Derivatives: Develop BTCN-based derivatives markets, such as options, perpetual contracts, etc., to provide users with more investment and hedging tools.
· Yield aggregator: Help users optimize their BTCN earnings across different DeFi protocols.
At the same time, Corn also introduced two tokens: $CORN and $popCORN, similar to Curve's vote-escrowed (ve) model.
CORN, as the base token, is similar to CRV in Curve. Users can obtain CORN in a variety of ways, including staking BTCN, participating in liquidity provision or other ecosystem activities. $popCORN, similar to veCRV, is a governance token obtained by locking $CORN.
Locking mechanism: Users can choose to lock their $CORN for a period of time to obtain $popCORN. The longer the lock period, the more $popCORN you get. This mechanism encourages users to hold and participate for the long term, because a longer lock period means greater governance weight and potential benefits.
Dynamic weight: The voting weight of popCORN may decrease over time, which is similar to the decay mechanism of veCRV in Curve. This means that users need to "re-lock" their CORN regularly to maintain maximum governance weight, further promoting active ecosystem participation.
Governance and Reward Distribution: Users holding $popCORN can not only participate in the governance decisions of the ecosystem, but may also receive additional rewards. This may include a share of transaction fees, an allocation of newly minted $CORN, or priority to participate in specific projects.
Liquidity Incentives: Borrowing from Curve's model, Corn may use $popCORN to determine the weights of different liquidity pools. Users holding more $popCORN can "vote" to increase the weight of a pool, thereby attracting more liquidity rewards to the pool.
Bribe Marketplace: Corn's innovative extension of the ve model. In the Curve ecosystem, an informal "bribe" market has emerged, and Corn seems to have formalized and integrated this concept into its platform. Users may be able to participate in this market through $popCORN to influence votes or receive additional rewards.
The application of this ve model appears to enhance the utility of $CORN and $popCORN, with long-term holders being rewarded with more governance rights and potential returns, which in turn increases the demand and value of the tokens.
At the same time, this model also finds a unique position and value creation path for BTC in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Current Participation Space
Currently, Corn's testnet and tokens have not been officially launched, but the official has also announced some warm-up information.
At 11 pm on the 21st, the project will open a Space on X to tell the details of the mainnet token airdrop, but in the initial airdrop stage, only qualified users will be added to the qualification list.
The screening criteria for this list are thousands of super DeFi users who have used DeFi protocols that have cooperated with Corn in the past 12 months. The specific screening list is unknown. It is recommended to pay attention to its official Twitter and Space for more details.
At the same time, Galxe also launched a social media communication activity about Corn, which will last from the 20th to the 23rd. Players need to simply follow its Twitter account, like and forward related posts to get points, and join its DC to obtain Farmer status.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
You may also like
Tether stops issuing EURT due to European regulatory environment
Sophon announced that it will launch the mainnet on December 18
Publicly traded company SOS Ltd. to buy $50 million worth of Bitcoin
The three major U.S. stock indices opened with mixed gains and losses