The Importance of Self-Custody of Encryption Assets and New Solutions

In April 2025, a netizen sought help on social media, stating that over $100,000 worth of unibtc assets were trapped and could not be withdrawn during an arbitrage operation on a certain Bitcoin Layer2 chain.

According to the parties involved, he discovered that unibtc had a price anomaly on a certain Bitcoin L2 chain and was decoupled from BTC, believing there was an arbitrage opportunity. He then transferred some BTC onto that chain and exchanged it for unibtc. However, when unibtc returned to its peg, he found that he could not sell unibtc or transfer it across chains, and his assets were effectively frozen.

This event highlights the risks of centralized custody. A truly trustless asset custody solution should ensure that users have an unobstructed exit channel. However, achieving complete trustlessness is not an easy task. From payment channels, DLCs to BitVM and ZK Rollups, various solutions have different degrees of limitations.

To address this issue, a new solution combining TEE, ZK, and MPC, the CRVA( encryption random verification network ), has emerged. CRVA achieves a balance between decentralization, security, and user experience through mechanisms such as a large-scale node network, randomly selected validators, and identity concealment.

The core of CRVA lies in encapsulating key operations within TEE hardware, making them unobservable from the outside. Through a complex public-private key system and zero-knowledge proofs, CRVA achieves complete concealment of validator identities, preventing collusion and malicious acts. Meanwhile, the large-scale staking node network also significantly raises the threshold for attacks.

In practical applications, CRVA can be combined with smart contracts to provide trustless custody services for cross-chain assets. Taking Bitcoin cross-chain as an example, user assets are locked in a multi-signature address, requiring both the user and CRVA to co-sign in order to unlock. This mechanism not only ensures the security of user assets but also prevents unilateral wrongdoing.

Overall, CRVA provides a new approach to the custody of encryption assets that balances security, decentralization, and efficiency. With the promotion and application of similar solutions, it is expected to significantly reduce the risks of centralized custody and offer users more reliable asset management services.