{"id":68889,"title":"tBTC 💸 The truly decentralized bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum","tagline":"Meet tBTC, a decentralized, permissionless, scalable BTC bridge to DeFi","body":"Hey everyone! We’re [NuCypher](https://www.nucypher.com/) (YC S16), contributors to [Threshold Network](https://threshold.network/).\n\n### **Tl;dr**\n\ntBTC is a trust-minimized bitcoin bridge that lets users wrap their BTC in exchange for tBTC tokens that can be deployed permissionlessly in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. Bitcoin is the most pristine digital asset and it deserves a decentralized financial system that's equally pristine. Mint tBTC and use your BTC as collateral to borrow, lend, LP, and more on Ethereum.\n\n### **👪 Who is it for**\n\nAre you a **BTC hodler, hedge fund, token fund, crypto VC, family office, DeFi OG, or high net worth individual who holds Bitcoin** but are concerned about the risk of permissioned and centralized bridges like wBTC? Do you worry about centralization risks like censorship or the bankruptcy/liquidation of a centralized custodian like what happened with FTX/Alameda and renBTC?\n\nThen tBTC is for you.\n\n# **💡** How does it work?\n\n**Decentralized Custody**\n\nIt's simple! Rather than sending your BTC to a centralized custodian, you permissionlessly interact with the Threshold Network smart contract on Ethereum and your BTC is custodied by the decentralized network of Threshold stakers (under the hood some fancy cryptography is happening using distributed key generation and threshold signatures). You deposit your BTC in an address generated by Threshold stakers and receive tBTC in your Ethereum wallet. **All this can be done via the** [**Threshold dashboard**](https://dashboard.threshold.network/tBTC).\n\n**Your Passport to DeFi**\n\nOnce minted, you can use your tBTC like any other token on Ethereum and across the DeFi ecosystem: to lend, borrow, yield farm, safeguard in smart contract multisigs like Gnosis Safe, and more…\n\n# **💪 Why we built tBTC!**\n\nWe built it for ourselves. We’ve been through multiple crypto cycles and have seen first-hand the risks of centralization and the ensuing loss of funds, all the way from Mt Gox to FTX/Alameda, more recently. We know not to send our BTC to an opaque centralized custodian just to put it to work. Bitcoin is the most pristine digital asset and it deserves a financial system that’s just as pristine.\n\n### **🙏🏻 Our Ask**\n\nIf you want to put your BTC to work, mint tBTC and get your passport to DeFi (but make sure you understand the risks, first): [**https://dashboard.threshold.network/tBTC**](https://dashboard.threshold.network/tBTC)\n\nOur community is here to help, come join the fun in [**Discord**](https://discord.com/invite/threshold), learn more about tBTC, and maybe even contribute to the DAO!","slug":"Hv7-tbtc-the-truly-decentralized-bridge-between-bitcoin-and-ethereum","created_at":"2023-01-31T18:42:53.249Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T01:08:54.949Z","total_vote_count":17,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/Hv7-tbtc-the-truly-decentralized-bridge-between-bitcoin-and-ethereum","share_image_url":"//bookface-static.ycombinator.com/assets/ycdc/yc-og-image-c440a0ad1dacfb86eeeb343717479cc54d256614449b4ef719977a0a451f8bc8.png","company":{"id":1183,"name":"NuCypher (aka Threshold Network)","slug":"nucypher-aka-threshold-network","url":"https://threshold.network/","logo":null,"batch":"Summer 2016","industry":"B2B","tags":["Cryptography","Privacy"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/1183"}}