Bitcoin's Next Chapter: Thesis COO Carolyn Reckhow on Building BTC's Economic Layer

For years, Bitcoin has been heralded as "digital gold," a store of value immune to the whims of traditional finance. But for Carolyn Reckhow, COO of Thesis, that narrative is just the beginning. With a background that dates back to 2014, Thesis has been actively exploring and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the Bitcoin ecosystem. And now, they’re set on evolving it from a static asset into a full-fledged economic layer.

"Our belief is that while Bitcoin as an asset is king, there's still so much more that needs to be built out to allow a proper economy to actually function onchain," she said.

This ambitious vision includes making Bitcoin more usable in everyday scenarios, like taking out a loan to finance a house or participating in the broader decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, all while leveraging the asset’s unmatched security.

Reckhow reflected on Thesis’ early days and how their project, Fold, has transformed into a well-known on-ramp into the Bitcoin ecosystem. “We started out in 2014 with Fold…a credit card that gives you Bitcoin rewards. And that project has spun out and has its own management,” she explains. But the biggest move came in 2020 when they launched tBTC, a decentralized Bitcoin bridge, which she describes as “the decentralized version of wBTC” — allowing Bitcoin to be used across multiple chains like Arbitrum and Solana.

tBTC, though, is just one piece of a larger puzzle that Thesis is trying to solve. With the upcoming launch of Mezo, an L2 solution designed to bring DeFi capabilities to Bitcoin, Thesis is aiming to unlock new use cases that have so far been exclusive to other chains like Ethereum and Solana. “We’re working on an L2 called Mezo…we are inching towards testnet next year,” Reckhow says. “We have a points program live right now,” and the eventual goal is to roll out a series of new features that would allow users to do more with their Bitcoin than just hold it.

One of the most exciting aspects of Thesis’ work, Reckhow says, is the opportunity to enable staking and yield generation on Bitcoin through another project called Acre. “Acre is…a liquid staking protocol [that] allows you to earn on Bitcoin…actually put your Bitcoin to use.”

As the conversation shifted to the evolving role of Bitcoin in the broader crypto ecosystem, Reckhow highlighted how important it is to build out infrastructure that makes Bitcoin fun and engaging — something the Ethereum and Solana communities have done well. “They’ve made their blockchain fun and people have come and played around. Once you get those early adopters in the ecosystem…that allows for more builders to come in and start to build an ecosystem that…brings in the next wave of users.”

Reckhow also touched on the integration of tBTC with leading DeFi platforms like Aave, noting the significance of bridging Bitcoin with the Ethereum-based DeFi world. “Having a significant project like Aave in the DeFi space say, ‘Alright, you know, we want to do things more decentralized. We’re going to use tBTC instead of wBTC,’” she said, emphasizing how this integration represents a major milestone in making Bitcoin usable in new ways. As for whether more of these partnerships could be on the horizon, she hints that the door is open: “There are potentially other partners that we could have in the DeFi space…we’re going to see new entrants as well.”

Of course, Bitcoin Layer-2 projects are still in their infancy, and Thesis is far from the only player trying to make Bitcoin more dynamic. Reckhow acknowledges the competition from projects like Stacks and Babylon, but she views it as a healthy dynamic, given how early the space is.

With the recent approval of Bitcoin ETFs and a wave of institutional interest, the opportunity for Bitcoin is now larger than ever, but there’s still a lot of ground to cover.

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