On the heels of last month's annual Liquid Federation board election, we are excited to announce the addition of six new members to the Liquid Federation: Bcademy, Boltz Exchange, Equitas Foundation, JAN3, Maven, and Mifiel.

The new additions expand the total number of Federation members to 67, which includes major exchanges, Bitcoin infrastructure companies, and wallet providers, among others. As the Liquid Federation matures, our members continue to become more diverse and dispersed globally, with members and their unique contributions also opening up exciting new opportunities for users.

Member and Integration Details

Let's delve into the details of each new member, the extent of their Liquid integrations, and what new use cases they bring to users seeking to transact on Bitcoin’s financial layer.

Bcademy

Founded in 2016 by industry veterans, Bcademy is a leader in Italy's Bitcoin community. Headquartered in Northern Italy with offices in London, Malta, Switzerland, Ireland, and Dubai, Bcademy serves a global clientele. The company is dedicated to offering Bitcoin-focused education and training courses for individuals, professionals, and businesses. Additionally, it provides consultation and custom development services through its sub-brand, Index B.

Bcademy is also involved in content creation and event organization through its subsidiary, Satoshi Design, and offers over-the-counter (OTC) desk services and Bitcoin-fiat gateway services via its Naocoin subsidiary.

Bcademy integrated Liquid into its operations as part of a sweeping initiative to provide expertise in all Bitcoin-related technologies for its customers. The company primarily uses Liquid to manage fungible and non-fungible tokens, incorporating a proprietary minting platform and a bridge to transfer Liquid-based tokens across Bitcoin's various layers and sidechains, as well as other standalone blockchains. Additionally, Bcademy supports Liquid by offering clients access to Liquid Bitcoin (L-BTC) in exchange for fiat currency through its OTC service desk.

The company also has plans to integrate Liquid into Wallby, an upcoming Bitcoin wallet and super app.

Boltz Exchange

Boltz launched in early 2019 and is a non-custodial Bitcoin exchange and Lightning Service Provider (LSP) focused on privacy and ease of use. Boltz features swaps between different layers of Bitcoin, including mainchain, Lightning, and Liquid. Boltz also offers advanced trust-minimized features like channel creation swaps where new channels are created automatically on the fly if, e.g., a user does not have enough inbound capacity to complete the swap. The service is available via API, numerous integrations, and a user-friendly web app. Boltz has also been integrated into several services, including Breez, RTL, Thunderhub, Core Lightning (via a plugin), and bolt.observer.

On May 24, Boltz officially launched its Liquid Swaps product, which enables reliably cheap Lightning channel rebalancing via Liquid. This helps Lightning node operators control operational costs in a sustained high-fee environment on Bitcoin’s mainchain. In short, Lightning node operators swap Lightning Bitcoin for Liquid Bitcoin in order to obtain inbound or outbound liquidity instead of using the mainchain. Future product iterations include automating the rebalance flow and Liquid to mainchain swaps based on Taproot.

Equitas Foundation

The Equitas Foundation is committed to modernizing and reforming the financial sector by offering decentralized solutions for payments, finances, and capital markets, all without the need for intermediaries.

The Equitas platform uses bitcoin and the EQUI token for payments and allows digital assets to be issued and transferred natively via Liquid. EQUI is a decentralized alternative to stablecoins that is interoperable with conventional currencies, helping to bridge Bitcoin and traditional finance.

Equitas is also a partner on XDEX Finance, the world’s first decentralized security token (STO) exchange and peer-to-peer marketplace built on the open-source TDEX protocol and Liquid.

JAN3

JAN3 is a technology company focused on expanding access to Bitcoin and financial freedom around the world. JAN3 CEO, Samson Mow, is best known for his work with El Salvador’s Bitcoin initiatives and efforts in nation-state Bitcoin adoption.

Its mission is to accelerate hyperbitcoinization by building Bitcoin infrastructure and making layer-2 technologies like Lightning and Liquid more accessible to people. JAN3 provides tools for individuals, enterprises, and nation-states to benefit and be part of a free and open financial system based on Bitcoin.

JAN3’s AQUA wallet is the go-to Bitcoin and Liquid wallet for Latin America and developing markets, designed to bank the unbanked by providing an easy-to-use, non-custodial, interoperable wallet for USDt, Bitcoin, and Liquid-based digital assets. It allows users to protect their purchasing power from inflation and incentivize a circular economy by being designed to be used daily, making it easy to onboard friends and family, and giving users complete control and custody of their keys and assets.

Maven

Maven is a hard asset (real world, tangible) NFT marketplace allowing purchases with BTC and L-BTC. It records ownership of assets and provides a purchase receipt via a non-fungible token on Liquid.

Unlike other NFT marketplaces, Maven deals only in real-world assets, not digital images, with a particular focus on real estate. Maven was the first to sell real estate (condominium units, homes, and agroforestry land) as an NFT with the ownership of the real property stored on the Liquid blockchain. Maven exclusively supports NFTs on Liquid and only accepts BTC and L-BTC for purchases.

Mifiel

Mifiel is an electronic signature platform trusted by leading financial companies, banks, and Fortune 500 companies to secure their legal documents.

Through a solution that leverages the Liquid blockchain, Mifiel has made it possible for financial institutions to digitize sensitive legal processes that could not otherwise be digitized. Mifiel’s secure digital promissory note, the first solution of its kind, has underpinned over $400M in loan transactions as of 2023.

In addition to offering this solution for securely managing promissory notes, Mifiel provides e-signature and contract management services through its SaaS platform. By using a certificate-based digital ID issued by the government and biometric verification technology, Mifiel allows companies of all sizes to sign sensitive documents in a way that is more legally robust than those offered by typical e-signature services.

Leverage Liquid Into Your Business

For parties interested in leveraging Liquid's benefits into their business, such as transacting with faster, more confidential bitcoin, integrating Lightning with Liquid, or issuing digital assets and securities, we recommend contacting us on Telegram or the Build On L2 platform.

If you are interested in learning how to become a member of the Liquid Federation, read more about membership here, and leave a comment or reach out through the email listed.

For the latest updates and announcements from our members and team of engineers, follow the Liquid Network on Twitter.