Singapore – March 3, 2022 – Moonriver, the fully Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform on Kusama, has announced the availability of KINT, the native token of Kintsugi, on the Moonriver network. Kintsugi tokens can now be used as xcKINT live within Moonriver’s fully Ethereum-compatible environment. With the introduction of XC-20s in the broader “Dotsama” ecosystem, the door is open for more cross-chain integrations of this kind, allowing Kusama-native assets like KINT to be listed and swapped on Moonriver-based DEXs and DeFi protocols.
KINT tokens become xcKINT by transferring them from the Kintsugi parachain to Moonriver, where they can be used with MetaMask wallets and Ethereum-style addresses. This vastly simplifies the experience for users who want to interact with KINT using their existing wallets and addresses.
Kintsugi is the canary version of Interlay – a decentralized network dedicated to connecting crypto-currencies like Bitcoin with DeFi platforms like Polkadot and Ethereum. Interlay’s flagship product, is interBTC: a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset for all blockchains. interBTC is secured by a decentralized network of Vaults, a MakerDAO-like multi-collateral system and cross-chain cryptography. The Kintsugi equivalent kBTC aims to bootstrap the Kusama DeFi ecosystem by bridging BTC liquidity – and will soon be available on Moonriver alongside KINT.
Having the XC-20 capability enables users to “deposit” tokens from elsewhere in the Kusama ecosystem, like Kintsugi, to be used in Moonriver-based applications. Both Kintsugi and Moonriver developers can build native multi-chain applications to create EVM-style fungible assets capable of moving from one Kusama parachain to another. Remote parachain tokens can now move to Moonriver as XC-20s.
The underlying technology that enabled the XC-20 standard is called XCM (Cross-Consensus Messaging) which is uniquely made possible by the Polkadot architecture. Other chains have to use third-party bridges to move tokens between chains, whereas XCM allows parachains in the Polkadot ecosystem to exchange messages with the same security as the underlying network. In this way, any parachain built on Polkadot or Kusama is able to communicate with other parachains connected to the Relay Chain. Learn more about XCM.
The introduction of xcKINT follows the launch of two previous XC-20s on Moonriver: xcRMRK and xcKSM. Since xcKSM was introduced in January, over 16,000 KSM have been deposited on Moonriver to use with applications like Lido, Moonwell, and some of the dozens of other DeFi applications currently deployed.
XC-20s conform to the ERC-20 technical fungible token standard, established as the technical standard for all smart contracts on Ethereum and Ethereum-compatible blockchains. Support for ERC-20 is one of the many ways Moonriver makes it easier for developers to re-deploy existing projects to Kusama and generally makes token creation much simpler. XC-20s are ERC-20 compatible but also Substrate-native assets building upon XCM functionality from Polkadot.
About the Moonbeam Network
Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform on the Polkadot network that makes it easy to build natively interoperable applications. This Ethereum compatibility allows developers to deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp frontends to Moonbeam with minimal changes. Like Moonriver, its sister parachain on Kusama, Moonbeam is expected to accumulate developer and user activity from the 80+ projects building DApps and protocols on the network. As a parachain on the Polkadot network, Moonbeam benefits from the shared security of the Polkadot Relay Chain and integrations with other chains that are connected to Polkadot. Learn more: https://moonbeam.network/.
