Proposal: List renBTC

Venus Governance Venus - Governance Proposals
1

Summary

renBTC is a tokenized representation of BTC on the Binance Smart Chain blockchain. It is implemented as a standard BEP-20 contract, and backed 1:1 by native BTC locked in RenVM. It is redeemable at any time for native BTC. Individuals can acquire renBTC by minting it with native BTC via the RenBridge, or through exchanges.

We propose to list renBTC on Venus.

For

List renBTC

Against

Do nothing

Motivation

  • Bitcoin is the most liquid and highest trading-volume crypto assets (aside from USDT). renBTC is the easiest form of wrapped Bitcoin you can get on Binance Smart Chain if you are holding BTC in a regular Bitcoin wallet. You only need to visit RenBridge and send BTC to a gateway to mint renBTC for yourself on your Binance Smart Chain wallet
  • It is likewise very easy to go from renBTC to regular BTC on your BTC wallet by visiting the same bridge as mentioned above
  • renBTC on BSC is the same token as renBTC on Ethereum, which already has over $950,000,000 worth of liquidity. With some good incentives it will be easy to bring some of that liquidity over to the BSC side
  • These factors can drive a lot of volume for Venus

Risks:

  • As with any new token there are smart contract risks, but given that the contract is the same as on the Ethereum side, it is deemed to be safe
  • Bitcoin is not a risky asset compared to other crypto assets, but there is an additional risk that comes from RenVM, which is the custody risk. Because RenVM holds the BTC that backs renBTC, a problem with RenVM can cause issues with renBTC. Our highest priority is working on making the RenVM network as safe and decentralized as possible, and we’ll be launching many features over the year to make it more safe and decentralized

Background

The Ren Project launched RenVM, a byzantine fault-tolerant network that is able to securely in a decentralized manner do ECDSA threshold key generation and signing via sMPC, which allows RenVM to manage (ECDSA) private keys of different assets like Bitcoin, Zcash, Filecoin, and mint representations of these assets on smart-contract chains like Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum. Since launch in May this year, RenVM has processed almost $3B in total volume of Bitcoin, Zcash, Bitcoin cash, Filecoin and Dogecoin going to and from Ethereum.

RenVM is a crypto interoperability network that:

  • enables universal interoperability between blockchains: anyone can use RenVM to send any supported asset to any application on any supported host chain in any quantity.
  • has robust security*: large bonds, large shard sizes, and continuous shuffling make RenVM extremely difficult to attack, even for irrational adversaries. In the unlikely event of a successful attack, RenVM can restore lost funds through seizing bonds.
  • is scalable: as more assets are locked into the custody of RenVM, the algorithmic adjustment of fees allows RenVM to automatically scale its capacity to meet demand.
  • provides an optimal user experience: users can interact with multiple assets, applications, and chains with only one transaction.

*when rolled out in the next mainnet phases, currently the network is centralized to allow time for bootstrapping network security as more nodes in RenVM are coming online and more features are deployed

Specification

3 Likes
2

We already have BTCB listed so no real point to this proposal

1 Like
3

More assets coming from Ethereum is better for Venus and BSC.

renBTC has big volume on Ethereum and adding renBTC will only bring in more attention, interest and volume to Venus.

renBTC is also an approved collateral asset at Maker. We should give more option to user to mint Vai and renBTC is one reliable asset as collateral.

We should go forward with this proposal.

2 Likes
4

How many wrapped variants of BTC are there? Why can’t they unwrap renBTC and bridge to BTCB to supply in Venus, or am I missing something?
If this happens I think rewards should be split between BTCB & renBTC.

5

If you want to move your bitcoin over from either the bitcoin or ethereum (Renbtc) chains you currently have one option. Open a Binance account. Transfer funds there. Swap for BtcB and then out to BSC.

Adding Renbtc will allow those same users to bypass Binance entirely and mint directly onto BSC through the Renbridge in a trustless manner.

That’s good news for those not wanting to use a centralised exchange, stay private, or avoid slippage on large transactions since minting renbtc results in zero slippage.

It’s all about offering up as many ways as possible to transfer over the most liquid crypto asset of them all. Ethereum has 3 major versions of btc (Wbtc, Renbtc, sbtc) all serving different users and BSC will need to do the same to compete

1 Like
6

I think the protocol is already overexposed to bitcoin’s volatility.

7

Do you have some numbers on the BTC exposure?

8

I think that goes for the whole crypto market. It constitutes over 60% of the entire market and along with stablecoins, is the best form of collateral for issuing and taking out loans. Why would you want to limit your exposure to the most important and liquid crypto asset??

1 Like
9

I’d certainly support this proposal. As SkyisLimit has said, the RenBridge gives users the opportunity to access BSC while being able to bypass Binance entirely. I think there’d be a lot of demand for this.

1 Like
10

As someone who cant use the main Binance site . Having a way to mint and unmint btc in a decentralised way would be perfect.

Long term for binance smart chain to thrive we need to no have single points of failure renbtc will add much need decentralisation into our systems,

As a venus holder I support this motion