Context: There are many terms we can use to explain, describe, refer to sBTC. I spoke with 6 people (3 from Stacks, 2 Bitcoiners, 1 Ethereum) to get a better sense of which terms resonate and which terms do not. Messaging Guidelines saved here.
Conversation Summaries (edited and anonymized)
Bitcoiner with experience consulting for high-reputation Bitcoin organizations like Chaincode and Peakshift. She has spoken at Lightning Summit in El Salvador.
- 1:1 makes the most sense personally, "trustless" sounds too wordy and subjective.
- mint/ redeem sounds good. Wrap and unwrap sounds a lot like ethereum and burn is scary.
- She doesn't have a negative association with bridge, "i love the term bridge in general, I don’t associate bridge with hacks."
- Suggests researching: Tropicus (RSK), FujiMoney (Liquid), Galoy Stable Sats
- “With Stable sats, I don’t feel like its wrapped, it makes me think of satoshis and spending bitcoin. I love the branding, but I still don't understand how it works under the hood. Galoy has done a great job selling this to be as a bitcoin product vs something that is wrapped, it makes me mentally feel more comfortable”
- Stable coins have a bad wrap, but I understand that people need it. Why would sbtc be any better than what currently exists? No one has explained it to me very well to be honest. It’s weird to me that tether is so used in Bitcoin circles. It’s scary, sketchy to me.
Software engineer with experience in Ethereum and Bitcoin, has completed the Chaincode residency program, now works full-time in Stacks ecosystem.
- “Trustless two-way peg” makes the most sense because he has heard of the term peg before in the context of a "peg between two currencies" - "peg" is a more common term in financial circles, trading markets, forex markets, also 1:1 BTC backed asset good.
- wrapped/ unwrapped - favorite term, it is very descriptive, you are putting something inside of another thing, doesn't think that that would cause confusion with wBTC (wrapped bitcoin)
- sbtc bridge - "I understand that's where you would be exchanging assets. Bridge in web3 terms is more like an ATM. It might be confusing to people not familiar with web3. The idea of a bridge makes me think of merges, two way flows, link, bridge, booth.
- Decentralized is a general and familiar term "there is not person or group that controls the thing."
Developer with building developer tools experience on Ethereum, now works full-time in Stacks ecosystem.
- “Terms in general don't mean anything to me, I would just want to look at the documentation and see what's actually going on under the hood. Anyone can say anything, it just makes me wonder what the proof point is.” Terms 1:1 BTC, bridge and decentralized resonated with him the most.
- Term “Bitcoin DeFi” is definitely interesting and intriguing.
DeFi Bitcoiner with a technical background, retail investor, now works full-time in Stacks ecosystem
- Likes the term “fully collateralized synthetic Bitcoin” but 1:1 bitcoin-backed asset resonates. When I think of tokenized assets, I think of tokenized real estate, bitcoin already is a token so it doesn’t make sense to me in that context. Felt "decentralized two-way peg" is a good term for the protocol, but not for the token itself.
- Wrap/ unwrapped resonates the most, second is mint/ redeem but “when I think of mint, I think of mint/burn.” He wasn’t a big fan of the term bridge but agreed that in some ways it's a really useful term. For example, bridge works really well to refer to a specific application - like the name of the widget or tool that users use to mint/redeem.
- level of trust - non-custodial and decentralized work the best, I would not call it trustless
Recent CompSci college graduate who has been passionate about Stacks for 2 years
- D2WP - sounds good, two-way peg that sort of in itself says what it is
- He felt that “1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset” is a good term for someone who isn't familiar with the Stacks ecosystem because it is easy to understand immediately, however it doesn't encapsulate perfectly what sBTC really is (it doesn’t indicate sBTC is a decentralized Bitcoin-backed asset)