Build on Bitcoin (BOB) launches mainnet: BTC promotes DeFi summer, ends long-standing feud with ETH

The Build on Bitcoin (BOB) project announced its first-phase launch on Wednesday, allowing decentralized application (Dapps) to interact with the world's leading blockchain.

The BOB mainnet has gone live with a total locked value (TVL) of USD 300 million and more than 40 Dapps launched, the team said on X, claiming "a DeFi summer driven by Bitcoin" and more to come in the next three weeks.

Source: X

BOB aims to be a hybrid layer-2 network, a "rollup Ethereum" that combines Bitcoin bridge adoption, liquidity, and PoW security with Ethereum's DeFi features: smart contracts, wallet, and access to stablecoins.

In March, developer Bitcoin DeFi Sovryn used Build on Bitcoin to extend its offerings to the Ethereum ecosystem. Meanwhile, BOB is collaborating with tBTC and Threshold's Wrapped BTC (WBTC).

"We are currently collaborating with two leading BTC bridge providers while working in parallel on our bridge infrastructure," said BOB co-founder Alexei Zamyatin. "We have built a simple and convenient Bitcoin to BOB onramp that eliminates the complexity of bridge connection, while making it easier to transition liquidity from BTC to BOB similar to ETH to ETH L2 – which will launch next week."

Zamyatin said Build on Bitcoin is also looking to provide a one-stop shop for Ordinals and Runes, working with teams that provide bridge for Ordinals, Runes and BRC-20 tokens.

The BOB team admits that the implementation on the Bitcoin blockchain is not yet ready, so "bootstrapping" on Ethereum is necessary.

"Connecting with Ethereum follows a hands-on deployment approach. The Bitcoin implementation isn't live yet, but the bridge is high: Users Bitcoin need access to stablecoins and DeFi, users Ethereum want to use their BTC and have access to Ordinals, Runes and BRC-20."

"It's time to end the storied feuds and merge the two largest Web3 ecosystems to come together leading mass adoption."

According to Zamyatin, the next phase of BOB's development will achieve Bitcoin proof of work through "Merged mining," which enhances security without disrupting Bitcoin mining.

"Previous merge exploit cases had slow block times (30 seconds-1 minute) due to Proof-of-Work limitations."

Finally, the third planned phase will introduce the BitVM, which will enable secure BTC connections to fraud proof similar to Ethereum's bridge, the BOB explained, ensuring secure BTC deposits are enforced by Bitcoin nodes.

To attract more users to its platform, Zamyatin pointed to a BOB aggregation program the company is using to drive adoption through dapps in order to increase TVL and number of users.

Merged mining is a method that allows miners to simultaneously mine multiple cryptocurrencies at the same time without adding additional computing power*