BTCz

Zest is currently focused on sBTC and the Borrow markets.

The BTCz product will be phased out and deprecated soon.

It may return in a new form if/when BTC staking becomes possible on Stacks

BTCz is a yield bearing BTC on Stacks. BTCz brings the best of Stacks and Babylon together to create the most secure BTC staking pool.

How it works

By staking BTC on Zest Protocol, users receive BTCz - a tokenised representation of their staked BTC on Babylon that can be used in DeFi.

BTCz will automatically accrue BTC yield (once Babylon integrates with Proof-of-Stake networks), thereby increasing its value over time versus BTC.

BTCz is more secure than other BTC LSTs

As the leading Bitcoin L2, Stacks provides unique security features to BTCz. Stacks smart contracts have the unique ability to read Bitcoin state, allowing the contracts to independently verify changes to Bitcoin balances.

This allows Zest Protocol’s BTC staking contract on the Stacks L2 to independently verify BTC stake on Bitcoin L1 through the Babylon staking protocol, without relying on a third party oracle or messaging system. This combined with Babylon’s trustless design lays the foundation for BTCz to be the most secure staked BTC derivative.

BTCz benefits Stacks

BTCz is an attractive product for Stacks-aligned BTC holders who want to stake their BTC in Babylon. Using BTCz, BTC holders benefit from Babylon's future yield while contributing to Stacks TVL.

What users earn by holding BTCz

Users who held BTCz until the Babylon TGE were rewarded with sBTC, swapped from their BABY airdrop.

How BTCz works before sBTC is live on Stacks

During BTCz bootstrapping, the BTC backing BTCz is held in a programmable MPC custody wallet powered by Cobo MPC (read more). After sBTC launches on Stacks, BTCz is decentralised using sBTC's permissionless design.

Get Started:

BTCz User Guide