Bitcoin is doing well with a huge market cap and market dominance over 50 percent. It is the biggest and arguably the most important asset in crypto. We're seeing its growth in every single market.

But it's almost unused in DeFi. The most popular way to use Bitcoin in DeFi, wrapped BTC, is tiny compared to ETH.

So we have this huge market overall, and less than one percent is being used in DeFi.

Why's that?

(Insights from the keynote of Denis Fadeev, Head of Dev Experience ZetaChain)

🎁Problem with Wrapped Bitcoin
One reason why WBTC is not as popular as Bitcoin should be is because of user experience.

We have a lot of Bitcoin users and most of them are very conservative. They might not know about other blockchains. They don't really trust other blockchains. They hold Bitcoin and they want to keep using it.

However, there are not many opportunities for them to utilize their BTC in a meaningful, decentralized way that they prefer.

⛓Zetachain's way to solve this problem

Zetachain is considering how to connect all these blockchains, not just EVM-compatible ones or those that are easy to connect, but all of them.

This concept is referred to as omni-chain contracts, where "omni" encompasses all blockchains, not just the ones favored or easily supported.

Instead of deploying smart contracts on every chain, creating a complex network for sending and receiving messages while synchronizing state, omni-chain contracts offer a more scalable solution. Deploying individual contracts on each of the numerous chains, especially as their number grows, is impractical and unsustainable.

A more scalable approach is to have a single contract capable of connecting to any blockchain, including Bitcoin. So with omni-chain contracts, only one contract needs to be deployed on Zetachain, by default compatible with all the connected chains.

📈Future
The end user sees their asset from one chain transformed into another asset on another chain without having to deal with wrapped assets. This is very powerful because the problem with WBTC and most other solutions is that users, especially Bitcoin users, already have a wallet. They can send a Bitcoin transaction, but they often don't know much beyond that and don't have tokens for gas or know how to use an EVM wallet.

With ZetaChain, they don't need to worry about these details. They just issue a Bitcoin transaction that triggers a deposit into your contract.