The Interlay Parachain is Coming to Polkadot
A Tale of Two Networks
tl;dr
- The Interlay Network parachain will bid for a Polkadot parachain slot in batch 2 of the upcoming auctions (slot 6–11), starting 23 December 2021. If Interlay wins a parachain slot, it will go live on 11 March 2022 (see Polkadot roadmap here).
- Kintsugi and Interlay will co-exist, will be connected via the DOT<> KSM bridge, and will propose to have a linked governance mechanism.
- Kintsugi is the R&D hub focusing on innovation and experimentation. Moonshot projects, new products, and riskier system parameters. Higher risk, higher reward for the Kintsugi community of builders, innovators and testers.
- The Interlay Network will focus on high TVL & liquidity, security & stability and expanding to other networks (e.g. Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, …). First, trial of fire on Kintsugi, then launch on Interlay with liquidity bootstrapping and wide user exposure.
Can’t wait to get involved? Join our community on Discord or Telegram and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date!
Interlay Network is Coming to Polkadot
Interlay has been building for 2 years to bring trustless and decentralized Bitcoin to Polkadot, and from there to all other major DeFi networks. Our guiding principle is to always favor decentralization, security for users, and censorship-resistance over shilling and quick profits.
Kintsugi on Kusama: Experimentation and Innovation
One of our big learnings during this time is that experimentation, community involvement, and continuous improvement are the key factors to build a successful and truly decentralized DeFi product.
This is why we launched Kintsugi in Kusama. Kintsugi is Interlay’s canary network, a place of experimentation, innovation, and chaos. A place where things break, only to be fixed and improved by the brilliance of our community.
Kintsugi is live as the 12th parachain on Kusama and is making good progress in onboarding trustless BTC. Follow the live Kintsugi roadmap here.
Interlay on Polkadot: Stability, Liquidity, Security
To fulfill our grand vision of making any asset trustlessly available on any chain, starting with Bitcoin, we are determined to launch on Polkadot — a network of blockchains, built to be interoperable and secured by one of the largest, decentralized Proof-of-Stake networks in existence.
The Interlay Network will join the 2nd batch of Polkadot auctions aiming to win one of the #6 — #11 parachain slots.
After exactly two years of building, we are excited to finally launch on Polkadot to make using Bitcoin (& other assets) in DeFi both simple and secure. No more centralized custodians, “trusted” multisigs or hardware, no undelivered promises. Interlay Network finally brings decentralization and safety of user funds from day 1, without excuse.
Why don’t you join the 1st batch?
…you may ask. The answer is simple: there is no reason to rush!
- We have just won a Kusama slot for Kintsugi. Before we do anything on Polkadot, Kintsugi will go live with all features.
- Interlay’s interBTC lives from XCM. As long as other parachains and XCM is not 100% ready, interBTC cannot unfold it’s full potential.
- Kusama is still not 100% stable. Before Polkadot will enable all features, incl. XCM, this will happen on Kusama — where we will be testing with Kintsugi and kBTC.
If we go live in batch 1, we would end up waiting before interBTC can unfold it’s potential.
Instead, we prefer to dedicate 100% of our attention to Kintsugi and showcase that potential of kBTC on Kusama, integrating with all major parachains.
We don’t like dealing with promises. You, our community, believed in us and voted us onto Kusama. Now we must prove our worth to you and launch Kintsugi’s kBTC as the very first decentralized Bitcoin DeFi gateway.
When we go to Polkadot auctions on 23 December 2021 you will have already seen what Interlay’s technology can do. You will not have to trust our words — instead, you will be able to test and experience first hand, before you decide if you will support Interlay’s parachain bid.
This is how we envision decentralization and open source. Don’t trust, verify.
Important Dates:
- 15–23 December 2021: Crowdloans for the 2nd auction batch open
- 23 December 2021: 2nd batch of Polkadot parachain auctions start. 6 auctions every 2 weeks.
- 11 March 2022: six new winners on-board as parachains on Polkadot. With your support, this will include Interlay!
Interlay and Kintsugi: Differences and Synergies
When we look at more traditional organizational structures, typically a specific group / sub-organization is dedicated to R&D. While the overall mission is the same organization-wide, the R&D group has a lot of autonomy to experiment and innovate. The developed research and products are then applied to practice at a larger scale across the entire organization. A prominent example is the connection between Deepmind and Google.
This is how we envision the synergy between Kintsugi and Interlay: independent networks, tied together by a joint mission.
Kintsugi is Interlay’s innovation organization. Here, the community and the Interlay team will try out new features, including layBTC, but also an EVM, multiple collateral assets, and other bridged assets.
Connected via Polkadot <> Kusama Bridge
One of the most important aspects of the Kintsugi <> Interlay relation is that it is not only theoretical / off-chain. Kintsugi and Interlay will be connected, using the Kusama <> Polkadot bridge.
ALL products and assets on both Kintsugi and Interlay can be combined, e.g. kBTC and interBTC arbitrage pools, interBTC as kBTC collateral, etc.
Development & Code
Interlay and Kintsugi will share the same codebase. Following a similar model as Kusama and Polkadot, Kintusigi will always be 2–3 releases ahead of Interlay.
This means that all new features will first be tested on Kintsugi, and successful features will launch on Interlay within 2–4 months. Some features may remain on Kintsugi only.
kBTC vs interBTC
The flagship product of both Kintsugi and Interlay is “trustless Bitcoin for DeFi”.
kBTC on Kintsugi. interBTC on Interlay.
The main difference between the two will be the backing collaterals and security thresholds.
- interBTC. Only assets with large liquidity, which pass a rigorous security analysis, will be accepted as collateral for interBTC — similar to the MakerDAO process for DAI.
- kBTC, on the other hand, will be open to more experimental assets, including such that have lower liquidity — e.g. new forms of staking derivatives, LP tokens, young DeFi assets, perhaps even NFTs.
Roadmap & other products
All products will first start on Kintsugi. However, not all will remain on Kintsugi when they move to Interlay, and vice versa; not all will transition to Interlay.
On a high level, we envision Kintsugi to be more community-focused, quickly adding support for Dogecoin and OG Bitcoin NFTs via colored coins. Interlay’s focus will rather be on spreading trustless BTC to all major DeFi networks and deploying new, non-custodial BTC DeFi products.
Community: Innovators Club vs. Large User Community
We expect the community of Kintsugi to consist of DeFi natives, innovators, developers, researchers, hackers, testers, and anyone willing to take up a higher risk to help improve the network — in return for higher rewards.
The Interlay community will be much wider: liquidity providers, DeFi users, traders, miners, institutional capital, members of other networks (e.g., Cosmos, Ethereum,…) who use interBTC cross-chain. The Kintsugi community — we hope — will play an important role within the Interlay community — helping to determine the overall vision and values of the ecosystem and protect it from malicious actors.
Governance
Our grand vision is to formalize the connection between Kintsugi and Interlay. While the specifics are being finalized and tested (some ideas require additional features), on the high level, we hope to allow Kintsugi and Interlay communities to participate in each other’s governance.
A possible example scenario could be:
- Kintsugi, as a network, holds a seat in Interlay’s council, capable of making and voting on proposals without locking INTR tokens.
- The Interlay community uses their locked INTR to vote on Kintsugi governance proposals yet with a discounted voting power (e.g., 1/3) — such that the Kintsugi community can always out-vote the Interlay community on Kintsugi proposals. Innovators have the final say on Kintsugi — but the wider community should be able to participate.
About Interlay
We envision a future where blockchains seamlessly connect and interact: anyone can use any digital asset on any blockchain, trustless and without limitations. We work with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot, Cosmos, and others to expand interoperability, capital efficiency, and openness.
Our flagship product is interBTC — Bitcoin on any blockchain. A 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset, fully collateralized, interoperable, and censorship-resistant, realizing the true free nature of BTC and decentralized finance. Kintsugi is our canary network on Kusama — the innovation hub of the Interlay network.
Follow our Twitter, Telegram, and Discord to keep up to date with daily updates from the team, or visit our website.
