Cardano Unlocks Trustless BTC Rails through BitcoinOS Integration with EMURGO

Over $1.3 trillion in Bitcoin capital will  be accessible to Cardano DeFi projects.

Dubai, UAE – Thursday, 24 October 2024: Today, EMURGO, a blockchain company that supports Web3 adoption via the Cardano blockchain, announces working with BitcoinOS (BOS), the smart contract operating system for Bitcoin, to extend the benefits of Bitcoin’s $1.3 trillion in capital to Cardano DeFi users without intermediaries. 

The first technical collaboration will see the integration of the BOS Grail bridge with Cardano’s open-source blockchain ecosystem. This enables trustless bridging of BTC and Bitcoin assets using BOS’s ZK-based BitSNARK verification protocol, bringing Bitcoin’s unparalleled liquidity into Cardano. 

This major adoption milestone facilitated by EMURGO enables the Cardano network to be the first Layer-1 to leverage the exceptional work of BOS that brings scalability and programmability to Bitcoin. Cardano DeFi dApps like Fluid Tokens and more will integrate trustless BTC for their users to benefit from the original cryptocurrency securely through ZK-verified trustless bridging. 

Ken Kodama, founder and CEO of EMURGO said, “This collaboration with BitcoinOS has the potential to unlock new cross-chain capabilities and further strengthen Cardano by granting Cardano users, projects, and developers secure, trustless access to the Bitcoin ecosystem. Supporting a more open and interconnected Web3 environment across different blockchains helps drive innovation and the adoption of DeFi and other decentralized solutions.”

Edan Yago, CEO and Co-founder of BitcoinOS said, “We are thrilled to reach this milestone with near-trustless BTC in one of the most distributed blockchains in the industry. BOS has consistently accelerated Bitcoin scaling through a full-fledged solution for dApps and L2s using the guarantees of zero-knowledge cryptography.

We have changed what is fundamentally possible with Bitcoin and now we are also driving exponential growth to other ecosystems. Working with EMURGO to unlock the full potential of the Cardano ecosystem is a major testament to what BOS can do for the industry, beyond just Bitcoin.”

Cardano is an open-source, decentralized blockchain platform, and the first to be founded on peer-reviewed research and development through scientific, evidence-based methods. The Cardano blockchain has processed nearly 100 million transactions using an environmentally friendly and secure proof-of-stake protocol. It has more than 1,370 Web3 projects including ones for DeFi currently building applications on its platform as of October 2024.

The breakthrough from BOS in the use of ZK proofs allows developers to embed data from other blockchains directly into Bitcoin transactions. In May this year, BitcoinOS verified the first ZK proof on Bitcoin at block 853626, demonstrating that it is now possible to build rollups on Bitcoin.