Charles Hoskinson discusses Cardano integration with Bitcoin

In a surprise ‘ask me anything’ (AMA) stream on YouTube on November 2, the Cardano (ADA) and Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Charles Hoskinson discussed the potentially ‘revolutionary’ prospect of integrating ADA with Bitcoin (BTC).

After admitting that, for a long time, he was of the opinion that Bitcoin had stopped innovating following the Taproot upgrade in 2021, Hoskinson acknowledged that the team working on the world’s premier cryptocurrency had found a way to validate a zero-knowledge proof using BTC on the mainnet.

I was in the group of people believing that Bitcoin had technologically stopped innovating. They got Taproot in and it looks like through some clever application of zero knowledge Tech and Taproot they are able to validate a zero knowledge proof using Bitcoin on the Bitcoin mainnet.

The Cardano co-founder concluded that such developments make a trustless bridge connecting the chains possible and that this could lead to closer integration between the two ecosystems.

If that’s the case, you hypothetically may be able to construct a trustless bridge between Bitcoin and another chain like Cardano that’s the case then you could construct hybrid applications where you could have a wallet with a dApp store which we’re building and add Bitcoin support to that.

The vision for a Bitcoin-Cardano trustless bridge

Specifically, Hoskinson speculated that it could be possible to build Cardano decentralized applications (dApps) on the token and have them accessible from the BTC side. 

In effect, provided it proves possible to hide the resulting latency properly, it would enable users to engage with Cardano while having the experience of staying on Bitcoin.

Charles Hoskinson believes that, if possible, such a bridge would be technologically ‘revolutionary’ while simultaneously benefiting ADA due to the $1.3 trillion held with BTC.

The multi-millionaire described Bitcoin users who would use the integration to interact with Cardano as ‘tourists.’

Still, it is worth pointing out that while Hoskinson described such a development as high-priority, he simultaneously described various technical challenges that need to be overcome, thus planting the bridge firmly in the realm of ‘hypothetical.’

Why Cardano might benefit from Bitcoin integration

Looking at Cardano’s performance in 2024 and the potential benefits ‘tourists’ from the Bitcoin side could bring, it becomes evident why Hoskinson considers the integration a relatively high priority.

Despite experiencing a surge in the initial months of the year, ADA is down 43.73% year-to-date (YTD) to its press time price of $0.33. Within the same time frame, BTC is up 62.79% to Bitcoin price today of $69,112.

Part of the reason for Cardano’s downfall – and, again, a major reason why it could benefit from the BTC community getting involved – is a seemingly broad decline in user interest and engagement. 

For example, data retrieved from DeFiLlama reveals that the total value locked (TVL) on the network has dropped from $248.6 million in late September to $207.08 million on November 4.