Omnichain protocol Omnity has launched an integration that promises the trading of Runes tokens without gas or transaction fees or clogging the Bitcoin network.
According to the protocol, the integration is based on the Internet Computer Protocol’s chain fusion technology, which enables the network to read and write to the Bitcoin network and other blockchains.
“It differs from other Bitcoin interoperability protocols in many ways,” Louis Liu, founder of Omnity and the Octpus Network, told Cointelegraph, adding that support for Bitcoin Ordinals and Ethereum nonfungible tokens (NFTs) is expected in the coming months.
“Omnity does not rely on wrapped tokens with trust assumptions or off-chain relayers that can be exploited. [...] To give an example, Wormhole relies on wrapped tokens and off-chain relayers, while LayerZero requires two off-chain entities, an Oracle and a Relayer.”
The integration targets the demand for solutions to scale the Bitcoin blockchain. The network has seen a surge in activity, fueled by the debut of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and novel technologies like Runes — a new protocol for issuing fungible tokens on the Bitcoin network.
On April 20, the Bitcoin network recorded a new all-time high of 926,842 transactions, with Runes tokens making up 68% of the blockchain’s traffic. According to data from Dune, 3.6 million Runes transactions were executed on the day.
“With all of this buzzy development on Bitcoin, [...] developers are hustling for solutions to trade Bitcoin assets without bottlenecking the network, increasing users’ risks of outrageous network fees,” said Liu.
Bitcoin is expected to drive innovation in the crypto space in 2024. Among the trends surrounding the first blockchain are layer-2, rollups and its integration with decentralized finance (DeFi). “Most of the world is not able to access U.S.listed products, but will still need and want to borrow against their Bitcoin and earn interest with it,” Ledn CEO Mauricio Di Bartolomeo previously told Cointelegraph.
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