{"@context":{"CIP100":"https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/blob/master/CIP-0100/README.md#","hashAlgorithm":"CIP100:hashAlgorithm","body":{"@id":"CIP100:body","@context":{"comment":"CIP100:comment"}}},"hashAlgorithm":"blake2b-256","body":{"comment":"I am voting YES on “Bifrost Unlocking Bitcoin DeFi on Cardano — Road to Mainnet (Phase 1 of 2).” Bitcoin is the largest pool of capital in crypto, yet only a small share of BTC currently participates in DeFi because most existing routes off the Bitcoin base layer involve custody and bridge risks that many holders are not willing to accept. Cardano is structurally well suited to be a destination for that liquidity — with an eUTxO ledger, native assets, predictable fees, and a security-oriented design — but it still lacks a secure, production-grade BTC access rail. Bifrost is a credible attempt to fill that gap, and this proposal focuses specifically on taking the already-funded testnet implementation to audited mainnet readiness under controlled access.\n\nThe design aligns well with the kind of infrastructure I am prepared to support. Custody of locked BTC is distributed across Cardano’s existing SPO ecosystem through a threshold-signing implementation over Taproot scripts, rather than being held by a company or small multisig, with a federated mode as an operational fallback. fBTC is issued as a native Cardano token (CNT) rather than a wrapped contract asset, which makes it a first-class citizen at the ledger level and allows wallet and dApp integrations to treat it like any other native token. The bridge is open-source under Apache 2.0, there is no separate bridge token or founder allocation, and value flows through BTC and ADA rather than through a rent-seeking intermediary token. Bifrost is also intended as shared infrastructure: wallets, DEXs, and lending markets can integrate it via SDKs and white-label portals so BTC onboarding happens inside applications users already trust, rather than through a single proprietary frontend.\n\nThe proposal is also structured prudently from a funding and governance perspective. Phase 1 asks the Treasury to fund a bounded 9‑month program of hardening, audits, formal verification, watchtower and SDK work, SPO coordination, and stewardship design, culminating in an audited bridge running on Cardano mainnet under controlled access. Public launch and 24 months of operations are explicitly reserved for a separate Phase 2 proposal in 2027, after Bifrost has proven itself on-chain, which avoids locking in a multi‑year operational subsidy today. This phased approach fits well with a “evidence first, expansion later” governance posture.\n\nThe two delivery teams, FluidTokens and Lantr Engineering, also bring relevant and demonstrated track records. FluidTokens has shipped multiple Cardano and Bitcoin DeFi products that have been independently audited, while Lantr has led core infrastructure work such as Scalus and other UTxO-based tooling, and the two teams have already taken Bifrost from concept to a working public testnet under Catalyst Fund 14. Together they cover Bitcoin scripting, Cardano smart contracts, threshold cryptography, watchtower infrastructure, SDKs, and production operations, which are the domains a bridge of this complexity depends on.\n\nI remain cautious about bridge risk in general, and I do not believe Cardano should fund multiple competing large-scale BTC rails in parallel. However, Cardano cannot remain completely isolated from the rest of the blockchain world, and for UTxO–eUTxO interoperability, a carefully designed, CNT-based, SPO-secured Bitcoin bridge is a reasonable and strategically important piece of shared infrastructure to fund. This proposal is focused on audited mainnet readiness, avoids a separate bridge token and founder rent, and builds on demonstrable prior work rather than a speculative design. For those reasons, I am prepared to support this Phase 1 request and will be voting YES."}}