Broadly speaking, Bitcoin is two things: A decentralized blockchain and a censorship-resistant, digital currency. For Bitcoin to work, both are needed but it is possible to not only use Bitcoin (the currency) on the Bitcoin blockchain but also to use it with the Lightning network or the Liquid and RSK sidechains.
Today, the Bitcoin Association Switzerland (BAS), together with the involved companies, announces yet another way to use Bitcoin: tzBTC, a token on the Tezos blockchain backed 1-1 by Bitcoin. With Bitcoin being the de facto reserve-currency of cryptocurrencies, tzBTC is one of the first examples of tokenization on Tezos. It enables the use of the Tezos blockchain features with Bitcoin.
The Tezos community’s values are to a certain degree similar to most Bitcoiner’s values. Nic Carter’s (a respected researcher and investor in the Bitcoin community) assessment of the Tezos community is that it has strong shared values, arguably as strong as Bitcoin’s.. The fact that the Tezos Foundation continues to be one of the largest holders of Bitcoin reinforces this. All this makes Tezos a natural choice as the first public blockchain for a Bitcoin-backed token from BAS.
The multi-signature (“multi-sig”) key management system of tzBTC enables a strongly trust-reduced setup with no central issuer as a single point of failure, while being fully transparent. The Bitcoin Association Switzerland acts as an overseer and coordinates with the keyholders. Protected by Swiss law and cryptography, we've found a practical balance between decentralization and usability. You can learn more about the tzBTC project at bitcoinassociation.ch/tzbtc and tzbtc.io.
tzBTC gives people more choice of how they can use Bitcoin, and by that increase the utility and strengthen the position of Bitcoin as the world's leading digital currency. This belief in choice is why we are exploring to bring Bitcoin to more open networks.