BitDAO passes key proposal, to merge with Ethereum layer-2 protocol, Mantle

A proposal to combine the world’s largest decentralized autonomous organization, BitDAO, with the Ethereum-based layer-2 scaling protocol, Mantle, has been approved.

The approval on May 19 sets the stage for BitDAO’s existing products, ecosystem, and native token, BIT, to change its branding to Mantle (MNT).

A majority of the BitDAO community approved the measure as part of its BitDAO improvement proposal (BIP)-21. It intends to combine the broader BitDAO ecosystem under the principle of “one brand, one token.”

Per the wording of a BIP-21 snapshot shared on Twitter by BitDAO, the modifications are purely “cosmetic rebranding” required to reduce confusion, unify branding, and improve the BitDAO ecosystem ahead of Mantle’s mainnet launch.

According to the final results of the BIP-21 vote, more than 235m BIT tokens were cast in support of the change, while 988 voted against it, thus securing the transition to Mantle.

While BitDAO’s governance and treasury management will remain unaffected, BIT holders must convert their tokens to the new MNT token.

Upgrades expected on Mantle

No specific date has been set for the transition. However, the Mantle network said in a blog post that it would happen before the launch of its layer-2 mainnet to save BIT holders from paying conversion fees.

A phase two testnet dubbed “Ringwood” is slated for the end of May 2023. The upgrade includes several critical enhancements, such as the effective integration of EigenDA, which will reduce gas fees.

Furthermore, Ringwood will provide additional security and decentralization advancements by integrating fraud proofs and including multi-party computation (MPC) validator nodes and data availability (DA) nodes.

BitDAO was founded in 2021 following a $230m fundraising round led by billionaire investor Peter Thiel. It is also partially funded by contributions from Bybit, a Dubai-based cryptocurrency exchange.

The new Mantle ecosystem will receive about $300m in USDC and USDT and approximately 270,000 ETH from BitDAO’s treasury, with the total BitDAO treasury valued at over $2.5b.

Token holders will oversee treasury use and allocation via Mantle governance, boosting the product line’s extension and acceptance.