Over 200 experienced developer teams are taking part in the first ever Bitcoin BUIDL hackathon organized by the Swiss non-profit the DFINITY Foundation and Web3 education community Encode Club. At the same time, the bitcoin ‘twin’ (ckBTC) usage soars on the Internet Computer.

Zurich, Switzerland, 31st May 2023 – Over 200 experienced developer teams are taking part in the first ever Bitcoin BUIDL hackathon organized by the Swiss non-profit the DFINITY Foundation and Web3 education community Encode Club.

Submissions are due on June 18th, the hackathon is empowering participants to explore and build DeFi, SocialFi and other Bitcoin-related dapps on the Internet Computer. These are available thanks to the direct integration of the Internet Computer blockchain and the Bitcoin blockchain.

The direct integration means that the Internet Computer can now act similar to a Layer 2 for Bitcoin where smart contracts on the Internet Computer can hold, send and receive bitcoin natively, without having to trust wrapped bitcoin from centralized bridging services.

Chain key bitcoin (ckBTC) will play a major role in the BUIDL Hackathon. ckBTC is a multi-chain bitcoin ‘twin’ that is cryptographically secured 1:1 with real bitcoin. It is created by a pair of open source, verifiable smart contracts, which allows for cross-chain transactions.

In the four-week online hack, developers are also participating in technical workshops, benefiting from 1:1 support from the hackathon manager and have all other technical assistance that is required. The winners of different challenges and tracks will be eligible for various prizes and developer grants ranging up to $25,000. Participants can still enter the Internet Computer BUIDL Bitcoin Hackathon by registering here.

ckBTC, the Bitcoin ‘Twin’, Usage Soars on the Internet Computer

Since its launch last April, 116 ckBTC (approximately $3.2 million) have already been minted by the users of the Internet Computer, which is now used within the ecosystem’s various DeFi and socialFi projects.

Out of these, more than 30 BTC were converted into ckBTC recently, transaction volumes have soared up to 1,700 a day (or around 4% of total ckBTC transactions to date). Overall ckBTC transaction volumes have been growing on a 13% month on month basis.

Direct Integration to Unleash Full Bitcoin’s Potential

The direct integration of the Internet Computer and Bitcoin blockchains is one of the first direct blockchain integrations. ckBTC enables fast, low-fee, but cryptographically secure, fully on-chain Bitcoin transactions on the Internet Computer, bringing true decentralization to DeFi and the blockchain space.

Bitcoin Community Warming Up to the Idea

Leveraging Internet Computer tech to improve BTC payment capabilities resonated well among the participants at the Bitcoin Miami conference – the largest Bitcoin conference in the world held May 18-20th.

$75,000 worth of ckBTC was airdropped to attendees at the Miami conference via OpenChat. OpenChat is a fully decentralized chat application running end-to-end on the Internet Computer blockchain. OpenChat is the only service of its kind to offer peer-to-peer BTC payments via instant messages.

Media Contact

Organization: DFINITY Foundation

Contact Person: Mindaugas Snicorius

Website: https://dfinity.org/

Email: mindaugas.snicorius@dfinity.org

Address: DFINITY Foundation, Zurich

City: Zurich

State: Zurich

Country: Switzerland

Release Id: 3105233856

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