Skip to main content

Chain-Key Bitcoin

Chain-key Bitcoin (ckBTC) is an ICRC-1-compliant token that is backed 1:1 by bitcoin held 100% on chain.

The ckBTC functionality is provided through an interplay of two canisters, the ckBTC minter and the ckBTC ledger.

The ckBTC minter is responsible for the minting and burning of ckBTC tokens. A certain amount of tokens is minted if a user transfers the same amount of bitcoin to a specific Bitcoin address under the ckBTC minter's control. The Bitcoin address uniquely identifies the owner of the sent bitcoins, making it possible for the ckBTC minter to associate the minted ckBTC funds with the correct owner. Conversely, an owner of ckBTC can request a retrieval of bitcoin to a Bitcoin address of his or her choosing. The ckBTC tokens are burned and the corresponding BTC amount is transferred using a regular Bitcoin transaction. A detailed description of the ckBTC minter can be found in its GitHub repository.

The ckBTC ledger accepts minting and burning requests from the ckBTC minter and records the ckBTC balances of every account with a positive balance. Additionally, the ckBTC ledger handles ckBTC transactions. As mentioned above, the ckBTC ledger adheres to the ICRC-1 token standard. Technical details can be found on the GitHub repository of the used ICRC-1 ledger implementation.

A simplified overview of the process to mint and transfer ckBTC is depicted in the following figure.

ckBTC overview

The flow to retrieve bitcoin follows a similar pattern and is explained in detail in the ckBTC minter repository.

Learn more​

If you want to learn more about the inner workings of the ckBTC canister, see the ckBTC wiki page.