Reserves

Bitcoin

Gold has long been valued as reliable money due to its lasting value and scarcity. However, Bitcoin was specifically engineered to serve as money, making it even better than gold in key ways: it is more durable, more scarce, more divisible, more portable, and more fungible.

Additionally, Bitcoin is counterfeit-proof, censorship-resistant, and resistant to manipulation. These qualities make Bitcoin the ideal form of sound money that ShiftCTRL uses as its reserve.

Wrapped/Bridged Bitcoin

Since the ShiftCTRL protocol operates on the Arbitrum network, it uses wrapped or bridged ERC-20 versions of Bitcoin (BTC) as reserves. Initially, WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin) will be used. The community can vote on which versions of wrapped or bridged BTC to accept or remove from the protocol.

While WBTC is widely trusted and used, its centralized nature, where custodians manage its integrity, has some drawbacks. ShiftCTRL plans to address this by supporting native BTC reserves directly on the Bitcoin network in the second phase of its development.