Bitcoin is the oldest and the most valuable cryptocurrency, boasting a market cap of over $1.2 trillion as of July 2024. Not only does Bitcoin have the highest mind share among cryptocurrencies, but it has also made significant strides in mainstream adoption, including its integration into ETFs and its recognition as a legal tender in El Salvador. Recently, it has been in the spotlight with former U.S. President Donald Trump pledging to hold Bitcoin as a strategic reserve if re-elected. While Bitcoin is renowned for its store-of-value proposition, many Bitcoin maximalists are content with simply holding it for the long term. However, a pertinent question arises—what more can be done with Bitcoin? Enter Babylon, a project aimed at harnessing Bitcoin's potential beyond being a mere store of value.
Approximately 2.5 years ago, David Tse and Fisher launched Babylon with a vision to leverage Bitcoin's proof-of-work (PoW) security to bolster the security of proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains. Observing the trend of new chains opting for PoS due to its cost-effectiveness, efficiency, and lower energy consumption, they identified a gap: a trillion-dollar asset (BTC) remained largely idle. Bitcoin lacks native smart contract capabilities, limiting its utility in decentralized applications. Bridging BTC to other protocols or using wrapped versions like wBTC introduces trust issues with counterparties. Babylon aims to use BTC to secure PoS chains without bridging while providing full slashable security guarantees in a trust-minimized fashion.
PoS chains secure their networks through staked assets, often incentivizing validators with high inflationary rewards. This bootstrapping process is complex and lengthy, leading to the emergence of 'security-as-a-service' protocols like EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and ICS (Interchain Security). Babylon seeks to apply a similar model using Bitcoin, the most decentralized and secure crypto asset. While some argue that Bitcoin should remain a store of value, others believe in enhancing its utility. Babylon offers a solution by unlocking Bitcoin’s capital prowess, currently under-utilized, and integrating it into the PoS ecosystem to generate yields and drive new use cases.
With over $1.2 trillion in market cap, most BTC lies idle and does not generate any yield for its holders. This contrasts with PoS tokens, where capital efficiency is maximized to provide higher yields and support the ecosystem. Bringing additional utility to Bitcoin through secure and trustless mechanisms like Babylon can significantly enhance its economic impact and foster new applications within the crypto industry.
Moreover, the tension between high inflationary rewards and ecosystem incentives can be alleviated by leveraging Bitcoin’s economic security. Projects can tap into Bitcoin's decentralization and security, reducing the need for high inflationary incentives to bootstrap validator sets. Ultimately, market dynamics will determine the true need for sourcing a protocol's economic security from Bitcoin, but the potential is immense if executed in a trustless and slashable manner.
Babylon allows Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC for PoS blockchains without relying on third-party custody, bridges, or wrapping. It provides slashable economic security guarantees to PoS chains while ensuring efficient stake unbonding to enhance liquidity for Bitcoin holders. The protocol operates as a modular plug-in compatible with various PoS consensus protocols, serving as a foundational component for building restaking protocols. The core component, the 'control plane' (Babylon Chain), manages several critical functions:
Babylon is a Bitcoin Staking Protocol that provides shared security for PoS systems and allows Bitcoin holders to delegate their BTC to Finality Providers, who can then provide Bitcoin security to a consumer PoS chain or DA layer.
Babylon chain, on the other hand, is built on Cosmos SDK, which receives security from the Babylon Bitcoin Staking Protocol and acts as the first chain that Finality Providers can support. However, Babylon plans to support different PoS systems from various blockchain ecosystems and provide them access to shared security collateral with BTC.
Timestamping
Timestamping involves embedding data at a specific point in time. Babylon records PoS chain data onto Bitcoin to leverage Bitcoin’s robust PoW security. Due to Bitcoin’s expensive and limited blockspace, direct timestamping of every PoS chain onto Bitcoin is impractical. Instead, the 'control plane,' implemented as a Cosmos-SDK chain (aka Babylon Chain), aggregates timestamps from all PoS chains via IBC. This ensures a secure and immutable record of PoS data on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Staking Process
To stake, a Bitcoin staker (e.g., Alice) sends a special transaction to the Bitcoin blockchain, locking her BTC in a self-custodial vault. This vault, defined by Bitcoin's scripting language, has three transaction types:
Alice delegates her staking duties to a finality provider on the Babylon chain, who uses their private keys to validate the PoS chain on her behalf. This delegation maintains Alice's control over her Bitcoin while enabling participation in PoS validation.
Security Guarantees
Babylon ensures validators are accountable for their actions through cryptographic mechanisms like Extractable One-Time Signatures (EOTS). EOTS allows the network to detect and prove double-signing, exposing the validator's private key. This key, which is already pre-signed by the staker and the finality provider, is used to create a slashing transaction, burning the staked Bitcoin as a penalty. Babylon's protocol guarantees that a block is truly final only when it has received EOTS from at least 2/3 of the staked BTC.
A simplified transaction flow on Babylon would roughly look like this:
BBN token
Though no official details have been released yet, we expect there to be a BBN token that the BTC delegators can then stake with a validator of their choice just like any other Cosmos chain.
While Babylon introduces a novel approach to shared security using Bitcoin's hash power, other protocols like EigenLayer, Symbiotic, and ICS offer alternative models:
Protocols must weigh several factors—security robustness, trustlessness, economic incentives, integration complexity, ecosystem compatibility, and regulatory considerations—when choosing a shared security solution.
We've covered this topic in more detail in our previous article here.
Chorus One has been an early supporter of Babylon and we're already on its testnet as a finality provider.
Our FP address is 3e7af699845fae4817923f8c3484bc4759dc306d17255d859dcd0e08d9cc426c.
When Babylon goes live on mainnet, you will be able to stake BTC to Chorus One as a finality provider and earn the highest possible staking yields. If you want to learn more and be one of our early customers, click here. Also, don't forget to watch our podcast episode with David Tse, co-founder of Babylon!
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 60+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.
We are thrilled to introduce our latest product, Chorus One SDK. This advanced toolkit is set to transform how our customers integrate staking functionalities into their applications. As the leading staking provider with the most extensive network support in the industry, robust security features, and comprehensive transaction management, our SDK (Software Development Kit) is poised to become an essential tool for institutions and developers, enabling them to leverage enterprise-grade staking solutions across all major networks including Ethereum, Solana, TON, Avalanche, Cosmos, NEAR, and Polkadot with unparalleled ease and efficiency.
The Chorus One SDK is an all-in-one toolkit for building staking dApps or implementing programmatic native staking into your product. It supports non-custodial staking on various networks validated by Chorus One. With this SDK, our customers can build, sign, and broadcast transactions, as well as retrieve staking information and rewards for user accounts.
Chorus One has the most extensive network support for staking in the industry. Currently, the Chorus One SDK provides support for the following networks, with plans to expand to even more in the future:
The Chorus One SDK is designed for a diverse audience, including:
By using the Chorus One SDK, our customers can easily integrate programmatic native staking, access detailed staking position data, and minting of osETH LST to offer flexible staking options to their end users.
At Chorus One, we prioritize security, transparency, and user control. Our decision to develop an SDK over a traditional API was driven by the following considerations:
Enhanced Security
Verifiable Trust and Transparency
Open-Source and Auditable
💡 Why does it matter?
Choosing the Chorus One SDK means prioritizing security, transparency, and user empowerment. With local transaction building and signing, and open-source transparency, users can confidently participate in staking activities across supported networks.
Our SDK offers a robust suite of tools for managing staking operations on various networks. Here’s a high-level overview of its functionality:
Comprehensive Transaction Management
Detailed Information Retrieval
Integrated Validator Support
Command Line Interface (CLI)
For more detailed information on how our SDK works and technical guides, explore the following resources:
The launch of Chorus One SDK marks our commitment to simplifying staking. By equipping our customers with all the necessary tools, we enable them to effortlessly integrate and deliver an exceptional staking experience to their end users.
If you’re an institution, wallet provider, asset manager, or developer looking to integrate staking into your product or would like to learn more, reach out to us at staking@chorus.one.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 60+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.
The floor is Lava, and the ceiling is infinite! 🌋
We're thrilled to announce that Lava Network is officially live on public mainnet. As an early investor and dedicated supporter, Chorus One has been closely working with the Lava team from testnet stages to this monumental mainnet launch. Our commitment to Lava is steadfast, and we are excited to continue supporting its development and future growth.
Lava Network is at the cutting edge of blockchain accessibility, providing a user-friendly and scalable solution to tackle the crucial requirement for an access layer in the blockchain infrastructure. Unlike conventional methods relying on centralized or public RPC endpoints, Lava Network leverages a decentralized array of premier service providers. This approach ensures trustworthy, secure, and swift RPC services.
Lava comprises a Cosmos appchain and an off-chain protocol. RPC providers register on the Lava chain to serve RPC across many different ecosystems. Lava can support any chain and by aggregating providers and routing requests, boasts lightning-fast speed, hyper-scalability, and nearly 100% uptime.
Lava Network is structured with several key architectural elements:
Specifications (Specs)
Lava can support any chain but to add these chains, specifications must be written and pass through governance. Specifications are simple JSON files which describe the RPC calls and the compute cost to serve each call. Once a spec is added to Lava, RPC providers can join and serve the RPC calls for the new chain.
Peer-to-Peer Lava SDK
The Lava SDK is a decentralized, peer-to-peer blockchain RPC for developers exploring cross-chain functionality. This JavaScript/TypeScript library provides decentralized access to all chains supported by the Lava ecosystem. It simplifies the process of building decentralized applications and interacting with multiple blockchains, offering tools for both server and online environments.
The LAVA token is central to the Lava Network, serving multiple functions within the ecosystem:
The team has published detailed tokenomics, emphasizing the role of LAVA in rewarding infrastructure providers and supporting network security. Please refer to the official tokenomics documentation.
Staking Lava not only secures the network but also provides opportunities to boost network performance by giving more weight to top RPC providers. By staking with Chorus One, you can participate in securing the Lava Network while earning rewards from multiple blockchains. Here are the key benefits:
Staking Lava with Chorus One is easy. Follow these three simple steps:
To learn more or to if you’re an institution looking to stake LAVA with Chorus One, please reach out to us at: https://shorturl.at/znows
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 60+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.
The Avalanche Foundation has unveiled ACP-77, a transformative proposal set to redefine Subnet creation and operation within the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem. This ambitious initiative aims to lower entry barriers, enhance flexibility, and foster a more decentralized and dynamic network environment. Here, we delve into the intricacies of ACP-77, exploring its current context, proposed changes, benefits, and potential challenges.
-> Please note, ACP-77 proposes renaming 'Subnets' to 'Avalanche L1s (Layer 1s)'. If the proposal passes, they will henceforth be known as Avalanche L1s.
Subnets and their role: In the Avalanche ecosystem, subnets function as independent blockchains that leverage the mainnet for interoperability. However, the existing requirements for Subnet validation have created significant hurdles for developers.
The cost barrier: Currently, validators of Subnets must also validate the Avalanche mainnet, necessitating a minimum stake of 2,000 AVAX. At today's rates, this amounts to a substantial financial commitment, approximately $70,000. This high cost deters many developers that aim to jumpstart their Subnet by running their own validators, stifling innovation and limiting the expansion of the subnet ecosystem.
ACP-77 introduces a series of pivotal changes designed to overhaul the Subnet creation process, making it more accessible and efficient.
1. Decoupling Subnet and Mainnet validation:
2. Enhanced validator set management:
3. P-Chain fee mechanism:
4. Streamlined synchronization:
The proposed changes in ACP-77 bring several significant benefits to the Avalanche network and its developers.
1. Lower costs and increased accessibility:
2. Greater flexibility and autonomy:
3. Incentives for decentralization:
4. Enhanced security and interoperability:
While ACP-77 promises numerous benefits, it also introduces certain challenges that need to be addressed.
1. Economic implications:
2. Implementation complexity:
ACP-77 represents a bold and forward-thinking step in the evolution of the Avalanche network. By lowering financial barriers, enhancing flexibility, and promoting decentralization, this proposal has the potential to unlock unprecedented growth and innovation within the Subnet ecosystem. While challenges remain, the careful implementation of ACP-77 could pave the way for a more accessible, dynamic, and resilient Avalanche network, fostering a new era of blockchain development and collaboration.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for 60+ Proof-of-Stake networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, and Near, amongst others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures. We are a team of over 50 passionate individuals spread throughout the globe who believe in the transformative power of blockchain technology.
