Introducing Bitcoin Staking on Mainnet

Bitcoin’s staking landscape has long been constrained by technical complexity. And now, Solv’s mainnet staking solution addresses these limitations by implementing a native, protocol-level mechanism that connects Bitcoin mainnnet and other EVM chains. By creating a secure, scalable infrastructure that leverages Bitcoin’s native architecture, Solv enables holders to generate yield without overloading this primordial blockchain.

Follow your Bitcoin

When you stake 1 BTC via Solv on Mainnet, your asset will flow through a series of meticulously designed protocols:

First, you must connect your BTC wallet and EVM-compatible wallet to Solv and initiate one transaction that sends BTC via mainnet to Solv’s Vault with the hash of your EVM chain ID, token address, and wallet address in OP_RETURN;

With your signature, your BTC goes into Solv’s reserve. Now, it’s Solv’s turn to hash it out.

Your transaction will now enter a queue for Solv’s review. We will first inspect this transaction’s confirmations, amount, structure, blacklist status, and more. If everything checks out under our auto review, Solv will sign your transaction with our auto sign key and save it into our database.

If one or more risk control rules are triggered, however, Solv will initiate a manual audit. Our auditors will review your transaction to determine whether it’s a false alarm or a genuine risk. If the transaction turns out all right, it will receive a signature and be logged into our database.

Upon entering the database, your transaction will trigger a smart contract call from our wallet. A certain amount of SolvBTC (depending on the price at the time of staking) will be minted, verified, and sent to your connected EVM-compatible address.

If someday you decide to unstake your 1 BTC with a transaction, Solv will first initiate a query from our records for your BTC mainnet transaction ID, protocol, EVM chain, amount, status, and more. When everything is good to go, we will give this transaction a signature and let your EVM-compatible wallet invoke our smart contract. If all metadata is valid and signatures are good (and this is not the second time you claim the same BTC), we will burn your LST and send your BTC back to your connected wallet.

Key mechanisms

Bitcoin staking on the mainnet has been a systematical bottleneck in the entire staking landscape. With BTC’s primitive infrastructure, it’s difficult to do anything more complicated than sending and receiving assets. Solv takes an innovative approach and makes this process decentralized, private, scalable, and secure:

One hash to bind them all

The connection between your BTC wallet and EVM-compatible wallet is one of the most crucial elements in the entire BTC staking process on Solv. This information and the validity of your transactions are not dependent on a centralized database but on one hash value stored in OP_RETURN. Any validator/auditor can verify your transaction by hashing your EVM-compatible wallet address, token address, and chain ID.

Less storage, more privacy

Although this hash is publicly available, it is still just a digital fingerprint and will not reveal any sensitive information about your wallet or your transaction. Only entities with permission to access this information can verify your transaction.

Plus, OP_RETURN can only store up to 80 bytes of data. Keeping just the hash cuts the computational overhead by a large margin, making Solv’s staking process highly scalable and less taxing for on-chain storage.

No transaction unvalidated

Solv implements a comprehensive multi-layer validation protocol centered on strict signature authorization. On every step of the way, our protocol requires explicit Solv-authorized signatures, with a mandatory verification process that systematically blocks unauthorized access attempts.

Our risk management system further enhances security by filtering transactions through our back end. Low-risk transactions receive automatic signatures to maintain operational efficiency, while high-value or high-risk transactions are routed through a mandatory multi-signature authorization mechanism, where they are validated against our security protocols.

Conclusion

Mainnet BTC staking marks significant progress Solv has made towards making BTC accessible and available to everyone. As the lynchpin of the entire BTC staking landscape, mainnet BTC staking unlocks over $1 trillion worth of BTC and infinite possibilities. With this update, Solv will continue to build a comprehensive ecosystem with Staking Abstraction Layer (SAL), bridging the gap between OG/institutional BTC hodlers and the expansive possibilities of decentralized finance.