A new bitcoin non-fungible token (nft) marketplace aims to reduce network fees associated with the arrival of bitcoin Ordinals signups by leveraging the Internet Computing Protocol (ICP).
Developed from the creation of bitcoin Ordinals in early 2023, Bioniq operates on the ICP and leverages its native bitcoin integration to power trading of bitcoin-based Ordinals signups.
Speaking to Cointelegraph on the eve of the platform’s launch, Bioniq CEO and co-founder Bob Bodily said the project has been in development since February 2023. The team has created a marketplace that features auctions of Ordinals smart contracts in the ICP, a complete cross chain. wallet between bitcoin and the ICP, as well as an enrollment tool.
“It was only two weeks after Casey Rodarmor released Ord 0.4.0, and I knew Ordinals was going to be absolutely huge.”
The Bioniq team highlighted the growth in market capitalization of BRC-20 tokens since its creation in January 2023. The market capitalization now exceeds $3 billion, with more than 42.6 million Ordinal minted to date . This has directly affected bitcoin network congestion, leading to an increase in bitcoin (btc) transaction fees last seen since 2021.
Bioniq’s platform features a smart wallet for users to manage private keys using Web3Auth. This allows users to log into the platform using conventional Google Web2 accounts while maintaining non-custodial control of their wallets and assets.
The platform also uses Partially Signed bitcoin (PSBT) transactions through the integration of the ICP bitcoin network. This unlocks smart contract capabilities for bitcoin, eliminating the need for users to use centralized cross-chain bridges.
ICP is a “fantastic bitcoin sidechain”
Leveraging ICP also allows Bioniq to claim transaction completion times of less than two seconds, as well as zero gas or network fees. Its architecture provides optimized storage costs, averaging around $5 per gigabyte of data stored annually.
Bodily added that Toniq, the studio behind Bioniq, has been developing ICP since May 2021 and has extensive experience building smart contract wallets, marketplaces, nft launchpads, and collateralized nft lending protocols:
“ICP is a fantastic bitcoin sidechain right now because it has wonderful bitcoin primitives at the protocol layer.”
Bodily explains that ICP operates a lightweight bitcoin node that runs entirely on-chain, making it easy to read the bitcoin blockchain through native smart contract calls. The ICP also has a threshold digital signature algorithm, acquaintance as an elliptic curve digital signature algorithm. The implementation allows ICP smart contracts to sign layer 1 bitcoin transactions and transmit them to the mempool.
“These protocol primitives also allowed us to build an Ordinals container entirely at the application layer; We didn’t have to touch the consensus layer of the protocol at all. Therefore, it is very fast to build bitcoin technology on ICP right now,” Bodily added.
bitcoin users and trust assumptions
Cointelegraph also asked if Bioniq’s wrapping process could be a potential barrier to entry for users. Bodily admits that while the process is largely automated by the Bioniq wallet and only requires btc, there are two considerations that are relevant for more demanding users.
“Wrapping requires a bitcoin transaction. This means you have to pay to be able to wrap. This is a major barrier. One way to address the problem is by integrating Nostr PSBT open listings into Bioniq,” Bodily explained.
This integration means that PSBT listings stored on Nostr via the Ordinals decentralized marketplaces OpenOrdex or Deezy Place will be accessible on Bioniq. He added that it eliminates the need to package bitcoin transactions as users can list directly on Bioniq using open PSBTs.
Perhaps most importantly, Bodily explained that the wrapping process requires “trusted assumptions” in both protocols:
“Moving to ICP means that in addition to trusting bitcoin, you now trust the Internet Computing Protocol. “Some bitcoin users will not want to take the counterparty risk of linking assets to another chain.”
Bodily adds that Bioniq is focusing on developing the user experience before inheriting the security of bitcoin, which is guaranteed by the finality of Layer 1 transactions. However, he envisions a “good decentralization path” for applications like Bioniq.
This would involve the evolution from being built on a sidechain with additional trust assumptions to “becoming a sovereign bitcoin packet on ICP in which trust is minimized.” The final step would see Bioniq become a bitcoin zero-knowledge rollup (ZK-rollup) on the ICP without additional trust assumptions, inheriting the full security and decentralization of bitcoin.
“ICP also fits perfectly into this plan because ICP can provide a replicated execution environment (decentralized sequencer) or validium (additional storage outside of bitcoin for rollups).”
Betting on bitcoin‘s value proposition
Several nft marketplaces already offer bitcoin Ordinals auctions and transactions, raising the question of what an Ordinals-only platform will bring to the ecosystem.
Bodily believes existing offerings that featured “softer pivots” toward Ordinals on their platforms were hamstrung by confusing user experiences. The development of a “dedicated bitcoin Ordinals marketplace, built for bitcoin users natively” depends on the development of a native cross-chain btc-ICP wallet.
Furthermore, bitcoin‘s undisputed position as the largest and preeminent cryptocurrency by market capitalization remains another draw for continued interest in bitcoin NFTs in the future.
“If you look at the numbers, 89% of people in the world have heard of bitcoin, bitcoin represents around 50% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization and Ordinals has generated over $500 million in volume this year, so there is massive demand. .”
Bioniq joins the likes of Ordinals Market as a bitcoin-only Ordinals market. Gamma is another Ordinals market that directly mint bitcoin‘s layer 1 chain. Ordswap was one of the first Ordinals exchanges which has since closed after losing control of its website to hackers. Meanwhile, multi-chain platforms like Magic Eden prominently list bitcoin Ordinals NFTs.
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