In a demo transaction, developers from smart contract operating system BitcoinOS (BOS) claim to have sent 1 BTC from a Bitcoin wallet to a Cardano wallet and back without relying on traditional bridge infrastructure, touting it as the first "bridgeless cross-chain transfer."

"Crypto users don't use BTC beyond the existing functionality," not because they value simplicity, but because "they don't have any other options," Edan Yago, co-founder and core contributor at BOS, told Decrypt.

Compared to Ethereum and Solana, the use of Bitcoin as a programmable layer, despite it being "the most valuable crypto asset," is much lower because "users can't do as much with it," Yago explains.

With BitcoinOS, those complexities are eased, opening "a myriad of possibilities," Yago claimed. "This is internet money, but now with more magic."

From Bitcoin to Cardano and back

Onchain transactions from Sunday shared by BitcoinOS and reviewed by Decrypt show the round-trip flight from Bitcoin to Cardano and back involved a number of steps.

First, 1 BTC was locked, wrapped, and minted "directly on the Bitcoin blockchain" and converted into xBTC, a new, fully programmable token developed by BOS. This token contained cryptographic proof of the original Bitcoin's existence and value.

Once wrapped, the xBTC token then made its way to the Cardano network, arriving first in hybrid Bitcoin and Cardano L2 Sundial Protocol's wallet.

From there, it moved to another wallet for Handle, an on-chain identity solution for Cardano, after which the token then returned to the Bitcoin network, where it was burned and unwrapped back into regular Bitcoin, completing the journey.

While wrapped Bitcoin isn't new and has been around since 2019, BitcoinOS claims its approach keeps the asset secure using zero-knowledge proofs, instead of custodial arrangements.

Interoperability challenges

Despite these achievements, criticisms against expanding Bitcoin's programmable layer have seen its community split over what to do next, with some suggesting it could turn Bitcoin "into a worthless altcoin."

But for BitcoinOS, its latest demo addresses a persistent challenge in crypto interoperability. Traditional cross-chain bridges have proven vulnerable to hacks, with reports since 2022 quoting over $2 billion lost in cross-chain bridge exploits alone.

BitcoinOS's approach leverages zero-knowledge proof technology, specifically their BitSNARK verification protocol demonstrated on Bitcoin's mainnet last year.

Open-sourced in March, BitSNARK enabled the new demo, showing how Bitcoin can operate with “more functionality, without any compromise to its security,” Yago said.

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