Blockade Games announced on July 31 that it has successfully bridged the two networks by sending a bitcoin lightning transaction in such a way that it can cause an ethereum smart contract to run.
While bitcoin and ethereum enthusiasts might not always get along, one enterprising gaming startup is attempting to bring the two cryptocurrencies closer together.
The company has run its code on the Rinkeby testnet and plans to deploy it on mainnet (using real ether) in the next couple of weeks, Blockade Games CTO Ben Heidorn told CoinDesk.
All of these tests feed into plans to add lightning network support to Neon District, its upcoming role-playing game built on top of ethereum.
Heidorn explained in a new blog post released Wednesday that it moved forward with the test is because it believes both bitcoin and ethereum will play an important role in the future. (The company believes ethereum, in particular, is the future of “non-fungible assets”, or digital assets that are provably unique from all the others).
The blog post goes on:
“We also believe that bitcoin is the future of money, and many of our players will prefer to hold most, if not all, of their funds in bitcoin. We want to make it possible to serve our biggest supporters and players on the bitcoin network while utilizing all of the infrastructure present on ethereum and other blockchain networks.”
As such, they want users to be able to send lightning bitcoin payments to trigger ethereum events.
“By integrating bitcoin lightning network payments, we are able to accept instant payments in bitcoin directly, and instantaneously kick off a series of events on any other chain, such as minting a brand new Neon District asset to a buyer’s ethereum or Loom Network wallet”, the blog continues.
The code for this unique type of lightning transaction is not yet public, but “we will open it once we’re sure it’s ready and secure for people to pull down and use”, Heidorn told CoinDesk.
Regarding the frequent tension between bitcoin and ethereum enthusiasts, Heidorn argued that the two cryptocurrencies are “two sides of the same coin”, adding:
“When it comes down to individuals maintaining sovereignty, privacy and autonomy, especially as crypto grows in popularity and faces greater social and political attacks, the infighting will be a thing of the past.”
CMBI Partners With Sequoia-Backed Startup to Develop DeFi Services
China Merchants Bank International (CMBI) is partnering with Nervos Network — a Chinese blockchain startup founded by a former researcher and developer of the Ethereum Foundation.
A press release published on Oct. 3 revealed that the new partnership will focus on jointly developing decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and helping Nervos to grow its network in the financial services industry.
A shift toward decentralization in finance
Nervos Network develops a suite of protocols and public blockchain ecosystem aimed at achieving the security, immutability and permissionless possibilities exemplified by the Bitcoin network alongside smart contract functionality, Layer-2 scaling support and token economics.
Nervos’ Common knowledge base (CKB) is its Layer-1, proof-of-work public and permissionless protocol that will be used as the native architecture for the DeFi applications to be developed with CMBI.
Commenting on the new cooperation, Nervos Network co-founder Kevin Wang claimed:
«The recent wave of high-profile blockchain projects such as Libra and JPM Coin foreshadows a shift in the financial services industry … our partnership with CMBI will play an important role in modelling the future of decentralized finance and accelerating mainstream blockchain adoption.»
DeFi-focused partnerships
The press release reveals that CMBI’s fund made a strategic investment in Nervos as part of the $28 million it raised in July 2018 to help develop its enterprise blockchain solutions.
The funds were raised from a number of high-profile blockchain investors, including crypto hedge fund Polychain Capital and venture capital firm Sequoia China.
CMBI will also reportedly participate in Nervos’ public token sale for the CKB protocol’s native token CKByte on Oct. 16 via CoinList.
In July 2019, Nervos partnered with major cryptocurrency exchange operator Huobi Group to jointly develop a new public blockchain for DeFi services — Huobi Finance Chain.
