tBTC: What Happens When the Most Liquid Crypto Asset Hits DeFi? - Ep.169

Episode • Apr 28, 2020 • 1h 14m

Matt Luongo, CEO of Thesis, the parent company of Fold and Keep, describes the just-launched tBTC, his plan for a censorship-resistant Bitcoin-Ethereum bridge. He explains his personal reasons for wanting such a platform, why tBTC is different from other versions of Bitcoin on Ethereum, and how it works -- including the process of becoming a signer in minting tBTC, how the system will handle crises, the reason for high collateralization levels, why staking assets are limited, and the necessity of a work token, Keep. He also discusses the economics behind tBTC-backed tBTC, his vision for DeFi, how tBTC could buffer an ETH crash, and the reasoning behind minimal governance mechanisms -- playing into why institutions trust BTC more than ETH. Plus, he contrasts the Bitcoin and Ethereum communities and talks about the possibility of tBTC2.0.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Crypto.com: https://crypto.com/

Kraken: https://www.kraken.com

Episode links:

Matt Luongo: https://twitter.com/mhluongo

Thesis: https://thesis.co/

Keep: https://keep.network/

Fold App: https://foldapp.com/

tBTC white paper: https://docs.keep.network/tbtc/index.pdf

Initial reveal: https://twitter.com/mhluongo/status/1162481737525583873?s=20

Announcement on Keep blog: https://blog.keep.network/bridging-bitcoin-and-ethereum-b2f9923630a7?gi=5c9040ed3a72

Some criticism of tBTC: https://twitter.com/peterktodd/status/1162728205607985152?s=20