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A few weeks ago, ZetaChain launched the 1st ever Omnichain Smart Contracts, which can access and manage assets, data, and liquidity on any chain. This new reference point for dApp building makes a profound impact on important non-smart chains like the Bitcoin network, effectively bringing them a smart contract layer never before possible. After one week, more than 30,000 users on testnet installed the XDEFI wallet and executed the first instant swaps of native BTC (with no wrapping) for other DeFi assets. In this post, we walk through the significance of this tech upgrade for developers and users and how you can start interacting with Bitcoin on ZetaChain’s testnet.

Legacy Chain Limitations

A powerful feature of smart contracts is that they can hold any assets like a normal account and receive and spend those assets according to programmed logic. The problem with some important blockchains such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Monero, and others is that they do not have a level of general smart contract capability to support common, useful dApps such as AMM exchanges, collateralized borrowing/lending markets with pools, and more. Currently, you cannot involve BTC or DOGE (without wrapping) in arbitrary logic in a decentralized and permissionless manner. Accordingly, developers and users are unable to take advantage of liquidity on these chains. The ecosystems are largely untapped and disconnected from the rest of DeFi.

Enabling Bitcoin Smart Contracts

One trailblazing advancement made possible by Omnichain Smart Contracts and the new ZRC-20 standard is the ability for developers to deploy contracts on ZetaChain that control Bitcoin natively. In other words, ZetaChain gives Bitcoin smart contract capabilities. These smart contracts orchestrate not only Bitcoin, but also Bitcoin together with assets and data from other chains. So users can now trade and use Bitcoin with any assets in the DeFi world without wrapping, thereby avoiding the risk of bridge/vault hacks. We expect this feature to rapidly accelerate growth in DeFi. Learn more about the technicalities of how this works in ZetaChain here.

Why Should We Care?

Developers Can Build One Contract for All Chains

ZetaChain enables you to build DeFi apps leveraging native coins of non-smart chains. In addition to support for smart contract-managed external assets such as BTC, DOGE, and others, you only need one contract to access users on all chains. This means less code (and attack surface), stronger transaction atomicity, and one place to manage the state of your omnichain applications.

Users Have One Wallet to Experience All of Crypto

Users don’t have to worry about having the right gas assets, managing multiple wallets across networks, and dealing with clunky UIs with questionable trust models. They can use one wallet and interface to hold and move around real assets like BTC and DOGE where the assets immediately settle as if everything were on a single chain. Fees, gas costs, and slippage is reduced because users engage with one contract that manages multiple tokens. All real logic occurs on ZetaChain where fees are bundled in a single step.

Experience Native Bitcoin Interoperability Now

Right now, users can experience native cross-chain value transfer (with no wrapping) on ZetaChain’s testnet. We partnered with XDEFI Wallet to support a seamless experience for BTC swaps with other DeFi assets. Follow these steps to try it now, and start earning ZETA Points today. See the full guide with pictures here and video tutorial.

1. Download and install XDEFI Wallet from the Google Chrome Store. XDEFI Wallet is a multi-chain and cross-chain wallet extension (currently available on Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Côc Côc Browser, and soon Firefox).

2. Restore or create a new wallet from the Onboarding Process webpage. Don’t forget to save your seed phrase.

3. Find a trusted Bitcoin faucet and enable Testnet from the XDEFI Wallet Menu.

4. Copy your Testnet Bitcoin Address, provide it, and receive BTCt. Wait for 3+ confirmations on the blockchain to spend (Swap) your BTCt.

5. Enter the ZetaChain testnet app and select the Bitcoin testnet network

6. Click on “Install XDEFI Wallet to Swap Bitcoin” or “Install XDEFI Wallet”

7. Select an account and establish the connection from the XDEFI Wallet pop-up

8. Enter the amount you need to swap and select a network and an asset in the “Receive” section

9. Provide a 0x (EVM) address

10. Review order, Swap, Confirm the transaction from the XDEFI Wallet pop-up, and wait for completion

Start Building

We’re excited to provide tools that give important legacy chains like Bitcoin the same level of functionality as other networks. Come test how Bitcoin Support, ZRC-20, and Omnichain Smart Contracts work together on our testnet here, and visit our developer documentation for more information.

About ZetaChain

ZetaChain is the foundational layer to a multichain future. The novel blockchain enables multichain functionality without using bridges or wrapped tokens and the easy deployment of omnichain-dApps, or odApps. These applications can manage and connect data and value across all smart contract platforms as well as non-smart contract platforms like Bitcoin and Dogecoin.

About XDEFI Wallet

XDEFI Wallet is a non-custodial wallet that allows you to securely store, swap and send NFTs. It supports more than 10,000 crypto assets and 9,000 dApps across 15 blockchains. More than 150,000 people trust XDEFI Wallet, which boasts a 5-star rating on the Google Chrome store after 200+ reviews.

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