Trustless Babylon Bitcoin Staking Protocol Mainnet Launches

Babylon, a self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol designed to build a decentralized world secured by Bitcoin, will launch its first phase mainnet on August 22, 2024. Following a $70 million funding round led by Paradigm, the launch of the Babylon Bitcoin staking mainnet represents a major milestone in integrating Bitcoin security into the Proof of Stake (PoS) ecosystem. The Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol allows systems such as PoS chains, L2s, Data Availability Layers (DAs), Oracles, and more to receive collateral from the largest decentralized crypto asset - Bitcoin.

The Babylon Bitcoin staking mainnet will be launched in phases. The upcoming first phase will address the supply side of the two-sided market, allowing Bitcoin holders to lock up their Bitcoin using a self-custodial Bitcoin staking script on the Bitcoin chain. Future phases of the Bitcoin staking protocol will allow PoS networks to leverage staked Bitcoin to provide cryptoeconomic security.

To maximize the security of the Bitcoin staking system, the system initially set a total of 1,000 Bitcoins as the system's staking threshold. The Babylon Bitcoin Staking Mainnet is supported by more than 200 finality providers, which are similar to PoS validators in that they receive voting delegations from BTC stakers and can earn commissions from staking rewards. The mainnet integrates finality providers including industry leaders Allnodes, Figment, Galaxy Digital, Luganodes, P2P, Stakefish, and more.

Major wallets including Binance Web3 Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Imtoken, Keystone, OKX Web3 Wallet, OneKey Wallet, and TomoWallet have been integrated with the Babylon Bitcoin staking ecosystem, improving accessibility and user experience. In addition, the mainnet also integrates Liquid Staking Token Protocols (LST) such as Acorn, Babypie, Bedrock, Chakra, Kinza, Lombard, Lorenzo, Nomic, pSTAKE, PumpBTC, Solv, etc., demonstrating its commitment to fostering a diverse and resilient Bitcoin staking ecosystem.

David Tse, co-founder of the Babylon project, said:"We are pleased to announce the launch of the mainnet, which is an important step in our mission to make the largest crypto asset the secure cornerstone of the PoS system. Our team is committed to advancing the utility of Bitcoin beyond its role as a traditional currency."

Babylon project co-founder Fisher Yu said: "This mainnet launch brings the third native use case for Bitcoin assets in addition to value storage and simple payments: staking to protect the network and earn returns. We expect this will enhance the cryptoeconomic security of PoS chains and other decentralized applications, providing them with a more secure and reliable infrastructure, while unlocking the value of the idle, unrestricted $1 trillion Bitcoin ecosystem."

Binance Web3 Wallet representative said: "Binance Web3 Wallet is very excited to be one of the first wallets to support the Babylon mainnet launch. Our goal has always been to provide users with seamless on-chain access while supporting top projects in their early stages of development."

OKX Chief Innovation Officer Jason Lau said: "For more than 10 years, we have been at the forefront of supporting Bitcoin innovation and growth, focusing on expanding Bitcoin's accessibility and usage. With the launch of the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, OKX Wallet Web users of Babylon will now be able to easily explore new use cases for their self-custodied Bitcoin. We are eager to see how the community will use this new platform."

P2P CEO Alex Esin said:"We are very excited to have the opportunity to support and actively participate in Babylon's development. From the first testnet to the mainnet. It brings opportunities to BTC holders and brings major changes to the BTC-based DeFi track."

Lombard co-founder Jacob Phillips said:"By bringing the supply side to Babylon, Lombard will allow Bitcoin holders and institutions to earn returns by staking BTC through the Babylon protocol, while providing a DeFi-compatible liquid asset for them to use in the protocol. This dual advantage opens up new horizons for Bitcoin's role in the decentralized economy and is expected to bring billions of Bitcoins into the Web3 ecosystem."

Babylon has achieved several important milestones, including the global launch ofThe first trustless Bitcoin staking testnet. The testnet attracted over 100,000 stakers in 48 hours, demonstrating the platform’s potential to grow Bitcoin as the security backbone of PoS systems. This achievement not only demonstrates the technical strength of the Babylon protocol, but also its commitment to creating a secure, decentralized economy.

For more information about Babylon, please visit Babylon's X account and official website.

For media inquiries, please contact Dayana Aleksandrova at (310) 260-7901 or email [email protected]

About Babylon

Babylon is a project designing a Bitcoin secure sharing protocol to build a decentralized world secured by Bitcoin. Its latest development is the world's first trustless and self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol, which allows Bitcoin holders to stake their Bitcoin on Proof of Stake (PoS) systems such as PoS chains, L2, Data Availability (DA) layers, enabling them to earn yield without the need for third-party custody, cross-chain bridges, or packaging services. Babylon's approach combines the high security and widespread adoption of Bitcoin with the efficiency and scalability of PoS systems, increasing Bitcoin's utility. Babylon was founded in 2022 by Stanford University professors David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu. Professor Tse is a member of the U.S. Academy of Engineering and is known for inventing the legendary proportional fairness scheduling algorithm. Babylon is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers and experienced L1 blockchain engineers from around the world.

This article comes from a contribution and does not represent the views of BlockBeats