Bitcoin miners back hash rate derivative DeFi project on BSC

A group of Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies have put their weight behind Standard Hashrate and its recently launched TAU Protocol, a synthetic asset platform using hashrate derivatives for its peg mechanism.

Announced on Friday, the TAU project aims to create algorithmic versions of Bitcoin and other Proof-of-Work assets through a revisited rebase mechanism. The basic concept is similar to simple rebase coins, including the synthetic Bitcoin offered by Badger. The TAU protocol, however, adds a backstop to the value of its synthetic assets through Bitcoin derived from mining hash rate.

The TAU mechanism relies on BTCST, Standard Hashrate’s mining power token that is designed to represent 0.1 terahashes of mining power. Normally, BTCST can be staked to receive an amount of Bitcoin equivalent to the mining hash rate it represents. The TAU protocol takes in BTCST tokens, rewarding stakers with synthetic Bitcoin while pocketing the Bitcoin reward associated with the hash rate token.

The Bitcoin collected from BTCST is then used in a collateral pool that is activated whenever the synthetic asset is trading below its peg. The mechanism reduces the number of synthetic tokens in every wallet, while at the same time using its pool of BTC to purchase tokens on the open market and burn them.

When the TAU algorithmic token trades above its intended peg, the protocol adjusts the synthetic difficulty parameter to create more tokens from BTCST staking, a somewhat similar mechanism to Empty Set Dollar and other coupon-based coins, which only distribute new supply to special classes of tokeholders.

Standard Hashrate is backed by a group of major Bitcoin miners, including Atlas Mining, Btc.Top, Easy2Mine, Genesis Mining and Hengjia Group. The group claims to control 12% of Bitcoin hash rate. The TAU protocol and BTCST tokens only exist on Binance Smart Chain, making it one of few BSC-native original projects.

The Standard Hashrate project is an attempt to bridge the world of Bitcoin mining to DeFi, securitizing Proof-of-Work rewards. According to its white paper, the project sees itself as a more transparent and more composable spin on cloud mining, with the goal of creating a two-sided market for hash rate derivatives. Tony Ma, CEO of Atlas Mining, commented on the news:

“We believe BTCST has connected Bitcoin mining to the DeFi world. With BTCST, we can first earn real BTC via DeFi-native staking. Now, we can stake BTCST to earn synthetic proof-of-work assets. This is a logical step for BTCST as the bridge for Bitcoin to enter DeFi.”