tl;dr
- Persistence One has entered a new growth phase, as it goes back to the drawing board to implement Bitcoin Interoperability solution for Layer 2s in BTCfi.
- With Bitcoin Layer 2s emerging at an unprecedented rate, Bitcoin DeFi is set to overtake Ethereum DeFi.
- As many variants of BTC enter the market, including yield-bearing forms, it’s difficult to swap from one to another.
- Persistence One aims to provide a solution by leveraging its four years of DeFi, Interoperability, and Security experience from building in crypto.
- The new solution will facilitate Bitcoin Transfers Cross-chain, providing fast, zero-slippage cross-chain swaps for Bitcoin Layer-2 assets.
Dear Persisters,
As we embark on the next phase of Persistence One’s growth, we are excited to share something we’ve been passionately working on. Before revealing what we have been cooking, let’s take a moment to understand why this new direction is so important.
Persistence One began its journey in 2019 within the Cosmos ecosystem, launching the Persistence Chain in March 2021 with one of the largest and most successful stake drop campaigns of that time, attracting over $1B+ in participation from stakers. On a mission to become the Liquid Staking Hub, the Persistence Chain emerged as one of the leading IBC chains, offering high-performance, interconnected, CosmWasm-enabled decentralized infrastructure to build dApps around liquid staking. This has enabled the development of pSTAKE Finance and the Persistence DEX (formerly Dexter). The former achieved an ATH TVL of ~$60M on v1 and ~$20M on v2, while the latter had ~8M TVL at its peak, and has already generated over $22M in volume.
However, despite the advanced technology and substantial efforts, DeFi in Cosmos did not capture the expected user and liquidity inflow. We made a dedicated push repeatedly across engineering, business development, and marketing, which led to some demonstrated traction, however onboarding a large user base—both retail and institutional—in Cosmos remains a challenge yet to be solved.
Over the past few months, we realized that building an ecosystem around liquid staking and restaking of Cosmos-tokens wasn’t as promising as we’d hoped, despite the efforts. We believe it’s time to take another approach👇
₿ullish Belief in Bitcoin
Persistence contributors have been one of the biggest closet Bitcoiners since the early days. We have always believed that BTC serves as a hedge against the timing of the world we live in. For the first time in our lives, we may witness hyperinflation, making BTC more relevant than ever.
- We believe in the freedom that Bitcoin represents.
- We believe in the opportunities Bitcoin brings to modern-day finance.
- We believe in the future of BTCfi.
Bitcoin Layer 2s are emerging at an unprecedented rate, even faster than ETH L2s did. More teams than ever before are building for Bitcoin and the community is stronger and bigger than ever while Bitcoin’s market dominance remains steadily above 50%. DeFi on Bitcoin today is reminiscent of the early days of DeFi on Ethereum—full of potential and opportunity. There’s no doubt that it will eventually overtake Ethereum and other DeFi ecosystems in size.
To gauge the potential of Bitcoin L2, let’s look at Ethereum, the largest smart-contract L1, which focuses on L2 scalability. Ethereum’s market cap is ~$446B, with ~$45B in total value locked (TVL) in L2s, making up ~10% of its value. In comparison, Bitcoin, valued at ~$1.4 trillion, has L2 solutions with a TVL of ~$2B, or ~0.13% of its value. This suggests significant growth potential for Bitcoin L2s.
Source: Binance Research Report: The Future of Bitcoin #3: Scaling Bitcoin
It’s time to Move!
Starting strong with our core beliefs and these observations, the Persistence One team went back to the drawing board. Over the past few weeks, we’ve explored most of the dApps in the Bitcoin ecosystem, investigated nearly every L2 and Sidechain, delved into the user journey, and tried to understand the pain points.
We realized, there are already many BTC L2s and various forms of BTC, including yield-bearing forms, but it’s incredibly difficult to swap from one to another. The route typically involves a bridge to the Bitcoin network, which is slow, expensive, and often risky.
Being well-versed in DeFi (Persistence DEX), Interoperability (IBC), and Security (Persistence Core-1 Chain), solving the above listed problems seems right up our alley. The answer to the problem? As always, BTC: Bitcoin Transfers Cross-chain!
Wait, What’s Bitcoin Transfers Cross-chain? 🤔
Think of your Bitcoin L1 wallet as a savings account — where you stash your BTC like gold.
Bitcoin L2 wallets? That’s your checking account, ready for action in DeFi.
As BTC DeFi booms, more people will move their assets to and between L2s, just like shifting money between checking accounts. And they’ll need fast, seamless ways to do it.
That’s where Persistence One will provide a solution to enable Fast, Zero-Slippage Cross-Chain Swaps for Bitcoin Layer 2 Assets. Secured by Bitcoin.
Pushing Forward: The New Journey Ahead
The rapidly growing BTCfi industry offers a unique opportunity to shape Bitcoin’s future. The experienced Persistence One team, backed by a supportive community and our extensive network of partners, is well-positioned to innovate in this space. Building for Bitcoin is an opportunity akin to being in the right place at the right time, with the right people
Persistence One is embarking on the new journey to bring fast, zero-slippage cross-chain swaps for Bitcoin Layer-2 assets to life.
Let’s Build 🦾
Today, we commit to building a transparent and collaborative Bitcoin Transfers Cross-chain solution with the community. Our core values—Humility, Integrity, Patience, Persistence—are deeply aligned with those of Bitcoin itself.
Our Proof-of-Concept demo is already built, and over the next few months, we will continuously share our progress, experiment, test, collect feedback, and refine our solution based on your input. We will not stop or slow down until we achieve our goal.
To our incredible community of Persisters, we want to express our gratitude and say thank you for always standing by us. We look forward to your support more than ever. We are beyond excited to start this new journey with you. Thank you for being the heart and soul of Persistence One 🧡.
Onwards and upwards,
Persistence One Contributors
About Persistence One
Persistence One is building a Bitcoin interoperability solution to enable cross-chain BTC swaps across Bitcoin Layer 2s.
The rapid rollout of Bitcoin L2s and side chains has led to fragmentation, hurting BTCfi scalability. Using the power of intents, Persistence One will enable users to move assets across Bitcoin Layer 2s more efficiently than traditional bridging, offering fast, secure, zero-slippage cross-chain swaps.
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