Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Why it's just another total disappointment.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

When the introduction of WBTC, an ERC20 token backed 1:1 with Bitcoin had just been announced, I personally was excited that finally, the decentralised trading gap between Ether/ERC20 tokens and BTC had finally been bridged.
To my disappointment as I discovered later, the dream is far from reality and this project seems like a fail to me.



As you can see from the simple illustration,

1. One can easily carry out atomic swaps of ETH/WETH/ERC20 tokens using Kyber network and other partner merchants back and forth with much ease so long as the tokens are supported by the merchants
This is all done through a smart contract without much need to be registered on an exchange (decentralised trade is pretty easy) and the whole process is quite quick.

2. However, complications start on the BTCTC/WBTC side.

- The only way you can acquire WBTC is through swapping it with ETH/WETH/ERC20 or buying it with fiat on kybernetwork... Decentralised atomic swap then loses meaning because apparently, one has to first pass KYC before being able to get WBTC.
-  One can not swap BTC directly to WBTC and vice-versa. This means the bridge between BTC and ETH/ERC20 swaps is just a delusion.

In other words, WBTC is a useless token because you can't swap it to back to BTC directly and also can't acquire it directly from BTC, thus I don't really see the point of this project if someone is trying to avoid the centralised exchanges.

What do you think about this WBTC network thing folks?

[tonyja2017]

This is really a big inconvenience. Traders like us always want to get quick from trading sessions to be able to implement the strategy in the best way. The bad thing is to get BTC, we have to go through many transactions from WBTC. This confuses me and this will be a failed project? The technology of crypto is increasingly improving and the WBTC is working to show the opposite.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

This is really a big inconvenience. Traders like us always want to get quick from trading sessions to be able to implement the strategy in the best way. The bad thing is to get BTC, we have to go through many transactions from WBTC. This confuses me and this will be a failed project? The technology of crypto is increasingly improving and the WBTC is working to show the opposite.

Surely, it would have made much sense if one was able to swap  ETH>>WETH>>WBTC>>BTC or BTC>>WBTC>>WETH>>ETH with much ease.
With lack of a practical direct solution from the BTC>>WBTC side.. I don't think this project will pick up any interest from people. Why would one buy WBTC through fiat so as to get WETH or ETH yet they can just buy ETH directly?

[fullhdpixel]

I don't invest in any coin or token that carries the name bitcoin attached to its name.
Because, I believe they are trying to carry out an exit scam and they believe we would have a lot of people making purchase of the coin/token because they see bitcoin attached to its name, they can even deceive people telling them that their coin is the real btc.

[mk4]

*snip*

Look it up. WBTC is just meant to be BTC on the Ethereum network, supposedly backed 1:1. WBTC isn't meant to be a fork or a competitor to bitcoin, but as a way for bitcoin's value to be used for ethereum dapps(DEXs, and such). If you think it's some fork/copy like BCH, BSV, etc, it's not. Do some research.

[carlfebz2]

*snip*

Look it up. WBTC is just meant to be BTC on the Ethereum network, supposedly backed 1:1. WBTC isn't meant to be a fork or a competitor to bitcoin, but as a way for bitcoin's value to be used for ethereum dapps(DEXs, and such). If you think it's some fork/copy like BCH, BSV, etc, it's not. Do some research.

Adding up some links that he might read up further more 

https://www.coindesk.com/a-bitcoin-backed-stablecoin-has-launched-on-the-ethereum-blockchain
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ethereum-based-wrapped-token-backed-by-bitcoin-launches

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I don't invest in any coin or token that carries the name bitcoin attached to its name.
Because, I believe they are trying to carry out an exit scam and they believe we would have a lot of people making purchase of the coin/token because they see bitcoin attached to its name, they can even deceive people telling them that their coin is the real btc.

LOL.
it's not a copy of BTC. You might wanna read more about it before making a conclusive comment 
And what's with people and the word "Invest"?
Not every token that is available is for "investment"

[vintages]

'One can't swap it to back to BTC directly and also can't acquire it directly from BTC'  I personally feel skeptical about this.
I guess the developers want to be outstanding by creating something unique from the Ethereum network, who knows it might be the evolution of crypto 2.0.
We just have to sit back and see how many crypto enthusiast will respond to it been that it was just developed recently on the month January and coupled with it been a stable coin. Many loves to experiment, getting a few to see how it will respond in a long run won't be bad though.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

~snip~

We will wait and see, but as long as that direct decentralised swap between BTC and WBTC is not possible. Then intention of the project is as good as nothing and most people won't really pick interest in it.

[mk4]

And what's with people and the word "Invest"?
Not every token that is available is for "investment"

The cryptocurrency community in a nutshell. Whereas majority are only here mainly to make money, and something that wouldn't be potentially profitable for them to "invest" in would instantly make them uninterested towards it. 🤷‍♀️

[pawanjain]

~snip~

We will wait and see, but as long as that direct decentralised swap between BTC and WBTC is not possible. Then intention of the project is as good as nothing and most people won't really pick interest in it.

This is exactly why I did not give much time on researching on this project. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) as the title said when I started reading the article on cointelegraph made me really excited as I though it would be something new and might be something worth investing in. I read the article and idea of making an ERC20 tokeb\n bacjed by BTC ob 1:1 ratio sounded like a good approach to me at that time.
Little did I know that the Atomic Swap between BTC and WBTC won't be a possible thing as of now. This made me disappointed and since then I didn't make any effort in reading more about the project.

[Bitcoin_Arena]

I don't see the point of this token as direct atomic swap between BTC and ETH will be possible in coming years, there are few attempt such as https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/developer-creates-atomic-on-chain-eth-to-off-chain-btc-swaps-system/.
This is short-lived token and i doubt people want use complicated atomic-swap process anyway.

Sure, the whole process is so complicated and this definitely makes it less appealing to people. Recently, I actually discovered a new way once can directly swap their BTC to ETH or vice versa even without having to log in to a website(though it involved Centralised exchanges)
Its a website called coinswitch, offering this swap service with exchanges including Binance, Huobi etc without even actually login so long as one need BTC within a given limit.

Now, this may not be totally decentralised is it by miles far better than the WBTC token swap process which even involves KYC.

I did throw in a few steps for someone who needed to swap directly:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5115860.msg50083602#msg50083602

It's just a matter of time before someone comes up with a match better atomic swap process and WBTC will have no place in cryptomarket.

[bitcoinsvrocks]

I find WBTC to be a great token because is backed 100% by real Bitcoin and it can be used to purchase goods and services online and the time for the transaction is much faster than Bitcoin and another great thing is that it can be used to earn money on DEFI's liquidity pools like Uniswap, Sushiswap, Compound, etc.
WBTC is easy to use with Metamask or any of the other available lightweight wallets.

https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/wrapped-bitcoin/
Currently WBTC ranks 28 on Coinmarketcap
24h Marketcap is 763,157,536 USD
Volume is 216,117,916 USD

Great what this token has done in just one year, lets see what it will do in the next years to come, i think as technology evolves BTC will become obsolete and most of the volume and marketcap will be transfered to WBTC or other new similar tokens, and BTC will just became obsolete and it will cease to exist because it is too expensive to maintain.
http://prntscr.com/ujdogv

I need to add that there are about 70000 BTC locked on WBTC
so this means that BTC coin supply is less:
21000000 - 70000 = 20930000

BTC coin supply is now 20930000

[Lordhermes]

In this case, I don't think traders would regard the swapping of WBTC><ETH><WETH to get BTC easily, there are some intrinsic odd trading feeling that would be obtained at that point in the sense that traders don't gets BTC as fast as possible in time.

Great what this token has done in just one year, lets see what it will do in the next years to come, i think as technology evolves BTC will become obsolete and most of the volume and marketcap will be transfered to WBTC or other new similar tokens, and BTC will just became obsolete and it will cease to exist because it is too expensive to maintain.

moreover, with the ways getting BTC when there is an absent of BTC/WBTC trading pair, a trading charges would be in excessive thereby causes low volumes on WBTC trades as they claim to might have create either now or in future.

[bitcoinsvrocks]

once you got WBTC why would you want to go back to BTC?