A Guide to Haven’s xBTC

Introduction

2009 marked the start of one of the biggest shifts in the history of money itself. Bitcoin was launched, and by means of a distributed ledger, it gave power to anyone, anywhere in the world to store and transfer wealth without permission, regardless of jurisdiction or status.

Haven Protocol’s xAssets

Haven Protocol has taken the concept of Bitcoin one step further. By adding privacy and the ability to convert between a choice of algorithmically pegged assets, users can experience true financial freedom.

By including xUSD, along with Gold, Silver, and other major currencies, users within the Haven eco-system have a range of stable assets.
Today (04/05/2021) xBTC has been added to this list.

The world’s first, private synthetic Bitcoin.

So, why would I want to use Haven’s xBTC over the ‘real’ Bitcoin?

A good question – and one that will be covered in detail below. In short, Haven’s xBTC combines the asset utility of Bitcoin with the privacy enhancements of Monero. xBTC allows anyone to maintain privacy with zero friction, unlimited in-vault liquidity, and extremely low transfer costs.

To maintain a level of financial privacy and autonomy it is essential that your money cannot be censored or accounts arbitrarily frozen. With the digitization of money, this is becoming increasingly difficult. Bitcoin’s transparent transaction record could potentially, in the future, cause systemic instability due to the risk of bad actors (state, institutional, or individual) tracking your balance and even freezing access to certain addresses. This is already happening on Ethereum and account-based token networks.

A currency needs to maintain absolute fungibility to be censorship-resistant. This is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve using Bitcoin. Thanks to Haven’s default privacy set, every unit of every asset in the network is fully fungible giving them true, digital cash-like properties.

One way to look at the difference between BTC and xBTC is by comparing the utilities of assets and currencies:

• Assets often benefit from being traceable to a certain extent, proving reserves and ownership transfers, or building trust between business parties by some kind of transparency. They often stay in ownership for an extended period of time.
• Currencies, on the other hand, benefit from flowing privately, with low costs, and settling quickly.

Arguably one of the best types of currency, physical cash, is slowly receding from surveilled financial systems because it obviously fulfills this role too well for some stakeholders. BTC strives to be the better asset with its rock-solid monetary policy. Haven’s xBTC tracks this asset and strives to be the better currency, true digital cash based on BTC.

xBTC is the first cryptocurrency-pegged xAsset in the Haven network to go live on mainnet. xBTC tracks the real-time price of BTC through an oracle price feed (https://data.chain.link/btc-usd) and offers users several benefits over holding the underlying asset itself.

This table gives an overview of the benefits of xBTC with further information detailed below:

	Bitcoin	xBTC
Transfer Speed	Up to several hours	~20 mins
Privacy	Limited – depends on L2 services	Default privacy in all accounts, balances, and transactions
Fungibility	Limited fungibility due to traceability	Fully fungible
Liquidity	Can be limited depending on exchange trading volume	Unlimited conversions within the Haven Vault
Conversion slippage	Depends on amount traded	Zero slippage for unlimited conversions within the Haven Vault

What are the benefits of xBTC

• Trade against fiat currencies and commodities in the Haven Vault

Holding xBTC allows Haven users to trade against xUSD, as well as being able to access all other assets (xEUR, xCNY, xAU, xAG) within their own Haven Vault. This means that when volatility is observed in the cryptocurrency markets holdings can be secured by linking them to stable assets.

• Unlimited liquidity within vault

Thanks to Haven’s mint & burn protocol, you will always have an unlimited amount of liquidity with the Haven Vault to be able to exchange between xUSD and any other xAssets (including xBTC) whenever you choose.

• No exchange slippage

Because there is no counter party for converting between assets within your Haven Vault, there is no slippage to worry about. This is especially important if you wish to convert large amounts. Once you confirm the conversion rate, the price is fixed for 100% of the amount (less a 0.3% network fee).

• Trade without counterparty risk

There is no requirement for order matching as Haven serves as a purely peer-to-protocol service. All transactions are carried out in your Haven Vault – this means no third party is required to give permission or take additional fees. One of the most important features of the Haven Vault is that you retain control of your money (via private keys) at all times. Enter the amount you wish to convert, confirm the conversion rate, and within a few seconds it’s done. 

• Privacy

The entire Haven network, including xBTC, inherits the world-class privacy features provided by Monero. This effectively means by using Haven’s xBTC, you can have access to a truly fungible and ‘private’ Bitcoin. More details are discussed in Haven’s Knowledge Base (https://havenprotocol.org/knowledge/is-haven-private/) 

The privacy features of xBTC are by default giving you:

• Transactions only you control
• Accounts only you can access
• Balances only you can view

• Low cost conversions and transfers

Conversions are confirmed almost instantly and completed in ~20 minutes (10 blocks).

Summary

What is clear is that xBTC provides a unique opportunity for crypto investors.

In short, it provides a private and fungible asset that has no exchange slippage, unlimited liquidity and, low cost conversions and transfers.

xBTC is here!

The Knowledge Base is a great place to find out how to join Haven’s private ecosystem.