NuCypher and Keep Network propose to merge into "Keanu," achieving the world's first decentralized protocol merger.

The core development teams of Keep Protocol and NuCypher have proposed a "hard merge" to jointly create a new protocol called Keanu. The idea is currently in the proposal stage. Matt Luongo, the project lead of Keep Network, stated that if the proposal is approved, it would be the world's first decentralized protocol merger case.

NuCypher + Keep Network = Keanu

According to governance proposals released by Matt Luongo, lead of the Keep Network project, and MacLane Wilkison, lead of NuCypher, the core teams of Keep Network and NuCypher intend to hard merge two protocols into a new interoperable network named Keanu. The 200 nodes of Keep and 2,000 nodes of NuCypher will collectively maintain the operation of the new protocol. According to Matt Luongo, this is the first decentralized on-chain protocol hard merge in the blockchain space.

Keep Network is a privacy cross-chain protocol on Ethereum, known for its ERC20-based Bitcoin, tBTC. Similarly based on Ethereum, NuCypher provides privacy infrastructure supporting applications like private data storage and cross-chain assets. Why merge the two protocols? Matt Luongo stated that there are many commonalities between the two protocols, with shared ideals in threshold encryption, privacy-preserving technologies, and decentralized Bitcoin. The merger aims to realize a vision of maintaining a free world through cryptographic technologies.

"We believe that teaming up is the best way forward, as we often see in the Ethereum ecosystem every day, collaboration and composability often trump competition. Keep and NuCypher networks have built similar technologies with similar goals. We believe that through cooperation, we can achieve greater accomplishments together, rather than continuing to fragment the market."

Merger Excludes Teams and Tokens

According to the current proposal, the new protocol Keanu will gradually unify both parties' staking contracts, decentralized governance merge, launch tBTC v2, and integrate with clients. It is important to note that while the development teams of Keep and NuCypher will collaborate to develop the Keanu protocol together, the two teams will remain separate and will not merge completely, nor will they abandon the operation of the original protocols. Additionally, Keanu will not introduce new tokens; the current NU and KEEP tokens will continue to exist, holding equal weight in governance to collectively maintain the operation of the new protocol. As Matt Luongo said:

"Both tokens are work tokens that can be used to earn profits. As both networks gain more users willing to pay for services, both networks will grow. When you merge them, you share half the pie, but we expect the network after the merge to be far greater than either is now."

Currently, "Keanu" is just a temporary name, and the integration of both parties is still in the proposal stage within their respective communities. The ultimate decision on whether the merger can proceed will rely on the community's attitude towards the proposal.