A Community Perspective — by MrsNuBooty, Naxsun and Eastban.
Keep Network and NuCypher both build decentralized threshold cryptographic infrastructure and privacy enhancing services for blockchains. Currently both are built on Ethereum, with interoperability for additional chains on the horizon.
The goal, mission and beliefs of the Keep and NuCypher teams and projects are very similar. Furthermore there is a strong respect for each other’s work. Due to the very niche mission each team is working on, they most likely would be competing in the near future for market share. Why split the market developing similar solutions when you could join forces and expedite anticipated primitives that were already being considered for future offerings?
The Merge
These ideas sparked community initiated talks of a collaboration. This notion has led us into the uncharted territory of the world’s first decentralized protocol merger, where the NuCypher and Keep communities continue to make history setting the precedent for future mergers.
The first proposals for Keep and NuCypher were presented at the beginning of March. With the community leading the way proposals were iterated, discussed and this matured into the hard merge as we know it today. The final proposal, rc0, was vetted by both communities through signalling polls (via snapshot voting) in May.
In essence the merge means that both development teams will remain independent, but will be building on top of a new combined network. For existing KEEP and NU holders this means they are able to stake on this new network — being a node operator, providing services to the network and earning fees and network incentives in return.
With the launch of KEaNU, codename for the new upgraded network, a new token called T will emerge.
Existing KEEP and NU holders are able to wrap their existing tokens for T tokens and vice versa, and stake these T tokens on the new network. Owners who can not wrap their KEEP or NU because these are locked, or will remain staked on the current Keep or NuCypher network, will be able to stake as if they owned T tokens through adapters (FAQ here).
Through staking your T, and providing services to the network through running a node, a staker earns fees and rewards.
First Services on KEaNU
The first application that will be launched on the new upgraded network will be tBTC v2, the first scalable trustless decentralized Bitcoin on Ethereum bridge.
Proxy Re-Encryption service will be next. PRE enables end-to-end decentralized encrypted data sharing workflows within dapps.
Random Beacon, Distributed Key Generation and more will be upcoming deployments, generating additional fees and rewards for stakers.
Why Do Decentralization and Privacy-Preserving Services Actually Matter ?
Decentralization is core to both Bitcoin and Ethereum. Decentralization among thousands of nodes is what guarantees fault tolerance and resistance to attacks and collusions. Decentralization is one fundamental layer for Bitcoin to be this huge self sovereign digital store of value and Ethereum to be this large public secure and composable smart contracts platform and ultra sound money.
No one can censor them, nor seize or freeze them. No one is in the middle to tell you what to do or not to do with your assets. They are trustless, censorship-resistant and decentralized.
Trust and privacy are inextricably linked.
Our access to privacy has always been controlled by powerful central entities like governments, religious organizations, and other dominant entities such as GAFA with the purposes of furthering their power and/or wealth.
Is there a way to move away from trust in central third parties and preserve personal privacy ? Bitcoin and Ethereum are proof that with money this is possible.
Is it with personal data and identity ?
The answer lies in decentralized privacy-preserving crypto networks.
Privacy can now be encoded mathematically with threshold cryptography into a crypto network’s base layer for all to access.
Keep Network and NuCypher have been independently developing privacy preserving networks for the last years and will now combine their collective efforts with the KEaNU merger. Each team has built large decentralized networks and protocols running successful services like TBTC and Proxy Re-Encryption.
Nodes in these decentralized networks are run by individuals all over the world, putting down their own capital at stake and inherently have become both protocol’s communities.
Community Engagement
Both teams have adopted a constant and progressive push towards decentralization of power away from the founding companies and into the hands of the community.
Community is what drives adoption, ensures protocol decentralization and security and essentially helps progress projects.
Before the launch of KEaNU its governance and DAO will be formed. And there are many ways for us as community members to get involved :
1) As Users
Adopting TBTC as it is the first and only true decentralized BTC peg on Ethereum.
It’s the only peg to foster Bitcoin’s true decentralized, censorship-resistant and trustless ethos. No trust in a middleman, no centralized party holding the keys like the other currently available pegs.
Bring your Bitcoin over to Ethereum and use it as collateral, investment, or to trade.
2) As Investors and Stakers
In KEaNU you could invest to gain rewards by :
- Staking and running a node
- Being an underwriter in the Coverage Pools
- Being a liquidity provider in the LP’s.
- or just hodl.
3) Most importantly, as Contributors
Contribute to KEaNU’s adoption, security and growth :
- Participate in governance: with proposals on the Forum, discussions, voting and execution.
- Develop: contribute to Keep Core / NuCypher in github, build dApps and participate in the Keep Community Grants and Fellowship Program.
- Marketing, documenting, participating and moderating in discord.
Join the discussion now in Discord !
