Summary:
- Keep Network was designed to enable public blockchains and their smart contracts to access and use private data without compromising the security and privacy of the information.
- The Keep Network relies on “keeps” which are private off-chain containers used to keep information; these keeps are decentralized and off-limits even to the Keep team.
- These keeps are currently used in Keep Network’s biggest application–tBTC, the world’s first-ever fully decentralized Bitcoin-Ethereum bridge.
By definition, blockchains are public and decentralized. This means that all the records stored on a public blockchain can be accessed by anyone. While this helps to democratize information instead of it being controlled under lock and key by a single private entity, it’s far from an ideal arrangement, especially for sensitive information that should remain private.
For example, a person’s medical records or a company’s financial records might be needed for a DApp that operates on the public Ethereum blockchain to function properly. How can such data be transferred and stored in a way that can be accessed by anybody, without violating the data owner’s privacy?
This is the gap Keep Network seeks to address.
What Is Keep Network?
The Keep Network is a proof-of-stake protocol that “allows public blockchain users and apps to privately transfer and store data in off-chain containers called “keeps” instead of storing it on the blockchain where anyone can access it, says CEO Matt Luongo. This provides a privacy layer for sensitive data to be accessed by decentralized applications (DApps) without sacrificing confidentiality.
One huge problem Keep’s technology solves is the issue of bitcoin custody.
Currently, in order to access DeFi services like lending, staking and borrowing, or play blockchain games, Bitcoin holders have to temporarily convert their bitcoins into tokens that can be used on the Ethereum blockchain. This is because Bitcoin and Ethereum are different systems (which is where most of the apps are built on) and one coin cannot be used on the other blockchain.
However, these Bitcoin holders expose themselves to great risk when they keep their bitcoins with a custodian, which is usually a centralized entity. The big vision of crypto is, after all, a system with no middlemen.
With Keep, users can deposit their BTC in exchange for tBTC at a 1:1 ratio, an ERC20 token that is fully compatible with DApps built on Ethereum–the keys to the bitcoin in tBTC are stored in keeps, where they can’t be exposed to the public blockchain.
These keeps, in turn, use a random method (the “Random Beacon”) to assign keeps to signers, that help store and manage these data containers. The randomness ensures that dishonest signers cannot identify who the other signers are in order to collude to steal funds or decode the information in the keeps.
This is the tBTC–the first-ever fully decentralized bridge between Bitcoin and Ethereum. It currently ranks as the 36th largest DeFi app in terms of total value locked ($21 million), according to DeFi Pulse.
The Keep Network’s native token is KEEP. KEEP is valued at $0.17 with a circulating supply of 793 million coins. It has a market capitalization of $141 million.
How Does Keep Network Work?
Keep Network’s innovation is a significant step forward in the world of blockchain–it achieves decentralization (meaning data is not controlled by a single entity and is accessible by anyone) yet maintains data privacy. This is how it works:
- The Keep Network stores private data called “secrets” off the blockchain systems in “keeps” which are something like secure data chambers floating independently in cyberspace.
- These secrets can be anything from medical or financial records to personal data, or private keys.
- The keeps, which are computers or nodes, each store a portion of the user’s private data using what is known as a random beacon protocol, a cryptographic tool that jumbles up a user’s private data and distributes it to various keep “nodes” for storage. This way, no single computer has the full set of user information.
- Any DApps who need to access these “secrets” have to use smart contracts, which automates access to the data. When a DApp meets a specific criteria stated out by a smart contract, they are given access to perform an agreed upon function–for example, the DApp can verify a customer’s identity without gaining access to the rest of the user’s personal information.
What Does Keep Crypto Do?
The KEEP cryptocurrency is used for core network operations by the following parties:
- Users like you and me who wish to store private information safely on keeps, can pay for the service using KEEP or ETH (since the Keep Network runs on Ethereum.)
- Users who wish to be a keep operator must acquire and stake KEEP tokens to ensure that they act honestly and provide services of sufficient quality. They will then stand a chance to be selected at random to run a keep, and compensated with more KEEP tokens for their services.
- DApp developers who build blockchain-based apps that require access to private user information have to buy KEEP tokens.
The KEEP coin is valued at $0.17 with a circulating supply of 793 million coins. It has a market capitalization of $141 million.
Who Is Behind The Keep Crypto Project?
The Keep crypto project was founded in 2017 by Matt Luongo and Corbin Pon (both responsible for the creation of the Bitcoin reward app, Fold.) Luongo, a serial entrepreneur, currently serves as CEO. Another prominent member on the Keep team is Head of Product Doug von Kohorn, who was previously CEO of the ConsenSys oracle company, Rhombus, that has been acquired.
Keep Network has received financial backing from several venture capital companies that acted as the first stakers of the network. These companies include Draper Associates, Fenbushi, Paradigm, Andreessen Horowitz, Collaborative fund, and ParaFii.
What Is KEEP Coin?
KEEP is the native token of the Keep Network. KEEP is used to secure the network along with tBTC. It is also used to run tBTC. All of this is done through staking. KEEP stakers are rewarded for the maintenance work done on the network. KEEP also serves as the governance token for the network. Governance tokens give holders voting rights on how the network should function. The more tokens a person has, the more voting rights they get.
How Many KEEP Tokens Are There?
There is a total supply of one billion KEEP tokens, all of which were launched in 2020. 25% of that supply was reserved for public distribution. Some of the coins have remained with the Keep Foundation for network maintenance.
Keep Network Price Analysis
KEEP token lifetime price history from April 2020 to July 2022 (Source: CoinMarketCap)
Keep Network’s price reached an all-time high of $6.10 a month after it was launched on 27 April 2020. This price rally was likely motivated by the announcement of the public stake drop of the Keep token.
Towards the end of November, however, a market-wide crash sent most cryptos tumbling, including Keep Network crypto which plunged to an all-time low of $0.40. The next major boost to the KEEP token price happened in October 2021 with the announcement of Keep Network’s partnership with NuCypher. The announcement took the Keep token’s price to $0.75.
However, May 2022 saw the collapse of Terra (Luna) which wiped off $500 billion from the entire crypto market. June saw another Bitcoin-led crash that sent the entire crypto market to below $1 trillion in market capitalization–the lowest since January 2021.
Against this backdrop, the price of a KEEP token is hovering around $0.17 as of July 2022. KEEP token has a circulating market supply of 700 million tokens for a market cap of $141 million. It is ranked #157 on CoinMarketCap’s list of top crypto tokens by market capitalization.
Is Keep Network A Good Investment? A Balanced View
The investment case for Keep Network is made up of several factors: a clear use case, prominent institutional investors, and the credibility of top audit certification. It has received audit certificates from some of the top blockchain security auditing firms including Consensys, Trail and Bits, and Sergi Delgado. As the world’s data increases exponentially, technology firms that enhance data privacy and security will likely appreciate in value.
