Keep Network (KEEP)
What Is the Keep Network (KEEP)?
Keep is an incentivized network for storing and encrypting private data on the public blockchain. The network is made of off-chain containers for private data known as keeps, while the KEEP work token enables it to be completely permissionless. Keep solves the main problem holding back blockchain adoption: that data on public blockchains are public. With Keep, developers can finally build fully decentralized apps. Visit Keep to learn more and stake, and tBTC to see its power in action.
tBTC, a Bitcoin bridge on Ethereum, is the first application built on top of the Keep network. It is an open-source project supported by groups including Keep, Summa and the Cross-Chain Group. tBTC is a fully Bitcoin-backed ERC-20 token pegged to the price of Bitcoin. It facilitates Bitcoin holders acting on the Ethereum blockchain, accessing the DeFi ecosystem, and earning with their Bitcoin.
KEEP is the network’s native work token with dividends and a slashing model. It provides the sybil resistance that allows the Keep network to be censorship resistant and permissionless.
KEEP can be used to:
Secure the Keep Network and tBTC via staking
Run the random beacon and ECDSA nodes on the network
Run tBTC, similar to running a full node. KEEP stakers can play an even larger role as tBTC signers by bonding ETH.
Earn fees for providing work on the network
KEEP applications and tools include:
- Keep Random Beacon : tBTC - a decentralized Bitcoin bridge on Ethereum
- Keep Token Dashboard : an interface to manage and stake your KEEP
- Keep Stats : high level summary of Keep and tBTC network stats
- All the Keeps : a tool to monitor all tBTC deposits on the Keep network
Who Created Keep Network?
Keep Network was founded by Matt Luongo and Corbin Pon in 2017. They previously co-founded Fold, a bitcoin shopping app, in 2014.
Keep Network sold $20 million worth of KEEP tokens in two rounds in private sales to investors, which include noted venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and noted cryptocurrency investors Polychain Capital, Fenbushi Capital and Paradigm.
What Makes Keep Unique?
When it comes to dApps and DeFi projects...the team shouldn’t have the keys. The Keep Network features off-chain containers for private data called keeps that give smart contracts deep interactivity with private data without compromising transparency or auditability.
tBTC, the first application built on the Keep Network, is censorship-resistant because it uses keeps to store data. Each TBTC token is fully backed and matched by at least 1 BTC held in reserve. tBTC is trustless, using Keep’s random beacon to select “signers” who are bonded in ETH and have responsibility for the deposited BTC. This means you can convert TBTC to BTC, and vice-versa, whenever you want, with no intermediary needed to sign off.
How Does the Keep Network Work?
Keep Network’s key feature is its ability to store private data, called secrets, outside the blockchain systems in keeps.
Keeps allow blockchain-based applications to interact with secrets without fully exposing their contents through the use of smart contracts, who, when a specific criteria is met, can provide data, encrypted files or verification of a user’s identity to the application.
Computers, or nodes, who maintain keeps are known as keep providers and are assigned fractions of a secret using the random beacon protocol, an advanced cryptography technique for trustless randomization.
When a user wishes to purchase a keep, they publish a request to the Keep Network, who, in turn, divides and mixes their secrets, sends shares of them to different keep providers, and returns keys to the users to access the content of their keeps when needed.
Keep providers must stake a certain amount of KEEP that can be retrieved by the protocol should they be unreliable or negligent with the keeps. However, providers incentivized through KEEP rewards for their services, including providing encryption, computation and storage services.
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Cryptocurrency