ZetaChain Introduces First-Ever Omnichain Smart Contracts and Native Bitcoin Interoperability Support To Over 500,000 Users

Building off of its hyper-growth trajectory, California-based public L1 blockchain and omnichain smart contract platform ZetaChain (ZETA) announces the launch of an upgraded testnet. This powerful network upgrade supports cross-chain messaging and introduces Omnichain Smart Contracts support. ZetaChain is the only public blockchain where smart contracts can access and manage assets, data, and liquidity on any chain.

Omnichain Smart Contracts

ZetaChain lets developers write and deploy EVM-compatible smart contracts on ZetaChain that have access to ZetaChain’s universal connectivity. This means developers can leverage the existing robust Ethereum smart contract ecosystem and build truly interoperable applications on top of ZetaChain — as if everything were on a single chain. Omnichain smart contracts enable a new paradigm of application building as ZetaChain easily manages and orchestrates native assets on all connected chains in a single place.

ZetaEVM (zEVM) and the ZRC-20 Standard

ZetaEVM (zEVM) is a module on top of the ZetaChain network that allows users to create and deploy EVM-compatible Omnichain Smart Contracts, which can read, write, or manage data and liquidity on any connected chain from a single place. A new standard called ZRC-20 allows Omnichain Smart Contracts to manage native assets on connected chains. With ZRC-20, developers can build applications that use and transact native fungible tokens such as Bitcoin, ERC-20s, and Gas Assets, all on a single chain.

Bitcoin Support

With Omnichain Smart Contracts and ZRC-20, developers can now deploy contracts on ZetaChain that control Bitcoin natively. In other words, ZetaChain supports Bitcoin smart contracts. On top of this, ZetaChain supports smart contracts that orchestrate not only Bitcoin, but also Bitcoin together with assets and data from other chains. Now, you can trade and use Bitcoin with any assets in the DeFi world without wrapping.

What does this mean for developers and users?

• One Contract For All Chains:

Omnichain Smart Contracts significantly lower development overhead and simpler security profile. Instead of recreating the wheel of messaging architectures, you can experience the simplicity of building on Ethereum with access to assets on any chain. You also only have one contract to manage as opposed to deploying and maintaining contracts across every chain you want to support.

• Less Fees:

Users experience reduced gas fees because the single contract you control and use to transact manages multiple native tokens. Complex logic in contracts on ZetaChain can orchestrate assets across all connected external chains through simple transfers, which minimizes total gas expenditure and slippage.

• Better, Safer User Experience:

Instead of waiting for different messages to pass and sync between separate chains, transaction logic occurs atomically on ZetaChain. The result is lower slippage, better guarantees for users, lower attack surface, and less susceptibility to race conditions or time constraints. This also means truly single-step transactions UX (and fees) in the user experience, even when operating across many chains.

Start Testing and Building

Users can test how Bitcoin Support, ZRC-20, and Omnichain Smart Contracts work together in ZetaLabs here. For developers, start building on ZetaChain using the developer documentation.

Media Contact

Teigi Lee

press@zetachain.com