Hello to the community!
In December, we launched our first bridge for Secret Network – the Secret Ethereum Bridge. This launch allowed holders of ETH and certain ERC-20 assets to create “secret,” privacy-preserving versions of their assets as Secret Tokens. Since then, we’ve had over $60M in Ethereum assets locked in the bridge as we’ve launched a number of new DeFi-focused products, including SecretSwap and Secret Auctions.
Secret Tokens are a powerful concept – they’re programmable like ERC-20s and usable in applications, but they remain private by default like Monero and similar coins. They can represent any asset, or they can be fully native to Secret Network.
Today we are excited to announce yet another bridge that is already in development: the Secret BSC Bridge, bridging Binance Smart Chain with Secret Network.
What could this mean for users?
- Programmable privacy for BSC-based assets
- Support for BSC-based assets as secret tokens within front-running resistant Secret DeFi
- wSCRT and other Secret Tokens supported on BSC and PancakeSwap (in exploration).
- Turning Secret Network into a Secret Hub for privacy-preserving cross-chain swaps: tokens (e.g., ERC-20s from Ethereum) could be moved across chains with privacy by using Secret
Read on to learn about our next steps and how this contributes to the growth of Secret DeFi!
Secret DeFi and BSC
Our vision for Secret Network is to create a data privacy hub for all public blockchains. Data privacy is a critical pillar of the decentralized web, essential to many fields. Decentralized finance in particular requires privacy protections to help secure users and ensure the usability of applications.
Secret DeFi is a native decentralized financial ecosystem built on and secured by Secret Network. It provides privacy protections, front-running resistance, and cross-chain liquidity for users. The introduction of a bridge to Binance Smart Chain allows users of the BSC ecosystem to benefit from all the protections and possibilities of Secret DeFi.
With the Secret BSC Bridge, Binance Smart Chain users would be able to take their BSC-based assets (BNB and BEP-20 tokens) and mint equivalent privacy tokens on Secret Network.
These privacy tokens can be:
- Sent to other network participants in a privacy preserving manner to achieve transactional privacy
- Used in privacy preserving smart contracts in the Secret Network (computational privacy for BSC assets) such as auctions or Over-The-Counter trading
- Used in front-running resistant DeFi applications like SecretSwap to acquire other BSC, Secret Network or Ethereum assets
- Eventually redeemed on BSC, creating privacy for the assets on BSC ledger
Ethereum and BSC bridges built on Secret Network also empower users to move assets across different chains with full privacy. Currently when users bridge Ethereum assets to BSC, they either have to:
- withdraw assets from Binance (the exchange) or
- use the bridge built by Binance.
Both of these methods jeopardize user privacy and security. Using Secret Network as a liquidity hub will allow users to migrate their assets cross-chain with full privacy.
Next Steps
With the introduction of the Secret BSC Bridge, we will continue to grow the Secret DeFi ecosystem by expanding existing products, launching new products, and creating even more bridges to other ecosystems. These growth initiatives will be based on community demand, helping drive more usage for Secret DeFi and providing even more protections for its users.
We’ve previously announced that there will be a native governance token to help govern the growth of Secret DeFi and our decentralized financial ecosystem. This token will be native to Secret Network as well as bridged to other ecosystems. In the coming days we will provide more information on the initial distribution of this token, which will impact SCRT stakers, wSCRT liquidity providers, users of SecretSwap, users of Secret Bridges, and others as well.
Please read this blog post for some initial background and stay tuned for this communication:
Secret Network
We look forward to sharing additional updates from the Secret DeFi ecosystem, including further progress on the Secret BSC Bridge. If you’d like to learn more about Secret DeFi and interact with developers and other members of our community, please join our channels, including the Secret Chat!
Want to get an idea of what is to come? Start using the Secret Ethereum Bridge right now! It currently allows users to turn their ETH and supported ERC-20s into privacy-preserving secret tokens, usable in all Secret DeFi applications.
We’ve also announced the extension of Secret Bridge Mining, an opportunity for early users of the Secret Ethereum Bridge to earn 20-40% APY on their ETH-based assets without risk of impermanent loss. This program will run for up to 6 more weeks or until the successful launch of the Secret DeFi governance token. Start mining now!
Revolutionizing and expanding decentralized finance and providing unique new features and user protections is a long process. Builders and users together will help Secret DeFi expand to secure more assets and build liquidity and accessibility. We look forward to creating more bridges and more opportunities for users of every blockchain!
Onwards and upwards!
To discuss Secret Network and Secret Apps, visit our community channels:
