Omnity Network's Fully Onchain Hub Announces Bitcoin Staking and Shared Security

Omnity Network, the first fully on-chain Bitcoin asset hub, plans to provide Bitcoin liquidity and security to any connected chain. The Bitcoin interoperability hub, launched after the Bitcoin halving, was the first protocol to support Runes interoperability with its Red Envelope HOPE YOU GET RICH Runes token ($RICH.)

Omnity's omnichain hub is built on the Internet Computer (ICP). ICP's Chain Fusion Technology allows Omnity to read and write directly to the Bitcoin network, sidestepping the congestion and high user fees.

Ordinal NFT and Runes asset standards have increased Bitcoin's potential as a general-purpose settlement layer, but these assets can bottleneck the Bitcoin network. Omnity says it has solved this problem without compromising security or decentralization. It is now expanding its scope to include Bitcoin staking and shared security to become the "Liquidity and Security Hub of the Bitcoin Ecosystem."

Omnity's novelty lies in its ability to achieve a user experience comparable to trust-based bridges without relying on off-chain witnesses or relayers due to its 100% end-to-end on-chain tech stack. As the liquidity and security hub of the Bitcoin ecosystem, Omnity's goal is to support Bitcoin Shared Security Services for execution chains or Layer-2s (L2s) by providing L2s multibillion-dollar-level security at a modest cost.

Any end-user-facing, highly usable blockchain that deals with Bitcoin assets and needs to peg security to the Bitcoin Network could then be connected through Omnity. Armed with ICP's Chain Fusion, Omnity acts as the "bond" between the Bitcoin settlement layer and unlimited execution layers, ready to handle massive transactions because ICP is infinitely scalable.

Omnity's roadmap includes the launch of Bitcoin Staking in Q3 2024, followed by Bitcoin Shared Security in Q4 2024. Omnity's Service Nervous System (SNS) governance token, $OT, will also be released in Q4, granting voting rights via $OT SNS staking. The SNS framework is the Internet Computer's built-in solution for creating and maintaining decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) to govern Dapps. Omnity’s SNS DAO shall implement voting rights for determining protocol upgrades, blockchain connections to the Omnity Interoperability Network, and Bitcoin L2 connections to use Omnity's shared security.

"We hope that Bitcoin will be the settlement layer for the world economy because it is a common good. No one can control Bitcoin. It's an impartial and non-abusable settlement layer," said Louis Liu, Founder of Omnity. "Similarly, Omnity is an ‘unopinionated infrastructure.’ We don't care what type of blockchain it is. We care about what our users are willing to use. If it can bring some utility, entertainment, or profit to Bitcoin asset holders, Omnity will direct Bitcoin assets to that blockchain."

From a technical perspective, Omnity relies on ICP's Bitcoin integration to bring Bitcoin assets, BTC, or Runes to ICP. A dedicated subnet has made ICP an impartible part of the Bitcoin network. Dfinity Foundation has a world-class cryptography research team that supported the development of Chain Key Cryptography, the cornerstone of ICP and the Bitcoin integration, safeguarding assets worth billions in USD.

However, connections to all other blockchains rely fully on the Omnity team's extensive experience with IBC Protocol implementations and on-chain light clients. "As the only team to implement IBC-ICS 28 on Rust/Wasm chains, Omnity has transplanted many kinds of on-chain light clients, such as Tendermint, Substrate, and NEAR light clients, to enable trustless interoperability,” says Liu.

Omnity can immediately support Tendermint-based, Substrate-based, and Polygon CDK-based blockchains, with plans to include OP stack-based L2s and others.