Internet Computer plans to roll out BTC and ETH integrations by year-end

The Internet Computer has released a roadmap for 2022and beyond, indicating plans to roll out integrations with Bitcoin and Ethereumby the end of the year.

The Internet Computer is a public blockchain andprotocol that allows developers to install smart contracts and decentralizedapplications (DApps) directly on the blockchain. It was incubated and launchedin May 2021 after years of development by Dfinity — a nonprofit based inZurich.

The direct Bitcoin integration will be launched aspart of Dfinity’s “Chromium Satoshi Release,” which is planned for Q1 2022. Itwill add smart contracts to the Bitcoin blockchain using “Chain Keycryptography,” displacing the need to use a bridge that can open the network upto malicious actors.

Dfinity community member Berto Parga Pena explainsthat Chain Key cryptography is “one of the fundamental breakthroughs enablingthe Internet Computer to scale to millions of nodes.”

In December, Dfinity enabled smart contracts (called“Canisters” in its ecosystem) to hold their own balances of ICP tokens. The ICPcurrently supports 250,000 queries per second, executed with 1-2 secondtransaction finality.

“ICP on Canisters was the important feature that madeit viable, and it will probably go crazy once direct integration with BTC andETH are released,” Lead software engineer at Dfinity Kyle Peacock said.