The Keep Network is revamping its Bitcoin tokenization platform with a series of new upgrades to the current system. This is going to be their second attempt at making a trust-minimized, fully automated tokenization platform. The primary function of the platform was to allow users to tokenize their Bitcoin for use in the Ethereum ecosystem without the need of liquidating them.
While the Keep Network got off to a great start with some serious funding from by investment group A16z, it hit several snags in the initial launch. Designed to rival bigger Decentralized Finance (DeFi) groups like Maker DAO, Dai and others, the tBTC project launched with just 1293 tokens and allowed users to lend crypto to each other. To keep the interest of lenders, there is significant collateral involved in the form of ETH and everything was supposed to work remotely with no direct dealing in between.
However, the launch of the platform didn’t go as planned. The protocol shut down soon after its May 2020 launch. The protocol’s redemption coding had a bug and therefore, the network had to be closed down for a planned upgrade. The coin price and the appeal of the project suffered greatly because of the problematic launch.
Now with the upgraded codebase, users can now put forward collateral in just native Keep tokens. Previously, collaterals had to be put in place in both Keep and Ethereum for the collateral purposes to engage in tokenization. In addition to this, several upgrades were made to make the process as easy and streamlined as possible.
According to Evandro Saturnino, the developer of the Keep Network:
[The upgrade]will provide a way of greatly decrease[ing] the collateral ratio of the staking assets,
He also stated that tBTC was the first tokenized Bitcoin asset on the Ethereum network and had big potential despite its early setbacks. But, when it comes to tokenized Bitcoin-pegged assets, many other companies have launched theirs with quite a bit of success. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) has become one of the success stories of the sector with as much as $9 billion being held there at one point in recent history. So, with these big players in place, it will definitely be challenging for the Keep platform to keep up with the rest of the sector.
Image source: Gotcredit.com under CC
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