The upcoming launch of Babylon’s Bitcoin Staking Mainnet marks a significant milestone in the cryptocurrency landscape and in the evolution of Bitcoin. Babylon is redefining the utility of Bitcoin by integrating it with Proof-of-Stake (PoS) systems, offering new opportunities for Bitcoin holders. Here’s what you need to know about this launch:
1. What is Babylon Bitcoin Staking?
Babylon’s Bitcoin Staking allows Bitcoin holders to participate in the security of PoS blockchains without transferring their assets to a third party. Traditionally, Bitcoin has been seen as a store of value, but Babylon expands its utility by enabling Bitcoin to play an active role in securing various PoS ecosystems. This is achieved through a trust-minimized protocol that connects Bitcoin holders with the demand for network security across multiple blockchain systems, including PoS chains. Read our comprehensive overview of Babylon here.
2. What is Babylon’s Mainnet Launch?
The mainnet launch of Babylon represents the transition from a developmental stage to a fully operational network. This is when the protocol becomes available for public use, allowing Bitcoin holders to start staking their assets on a live blockchain. The launch is designed to be phased, ensuring that each component of the network is thoroughly tested and integrated before moving to the next stage. This approach provides a structured rollout, allowing users to gradually engage with the staking process.
3. What Are the Three Phases of the Launch?
Babylon’s mainnet launch is divided into three distinct phases, each with specific goals and functionalities:
4. What Can You Do in the Babylon Mainnet Launch?
During the Babylon mainnet launch, Bitcoin holders can actively participate in securing PoS blockchains by locking and staking their Bitcoin. In Phase 1, you can initiate staking by locking your Bitcoin in a secure, self-custodial vault on the Bitcoin blockchain. As the launch progresses into Phase 2, your locked Bitcoin will begin to contribute to the consensus process of the Babylon PoS chain. By Phase 3, you’ll have the ability to stake your Bitcoin across multiple PoS chains, maximizing your potential rewards and playing a crucial role in the security of these networks.
5. How Can You Stake Your Bitcoin?
Staking your Bitcoin with Babylon is a multi-step process that begins in Phase 1:
6. What Rewards Can You Get?
In Phase 1, there are no direct staking rewards because the PoS chain is not yet active. Instead, Babylon introduces a point system to track staking activity. These points, though they do not have direct monetary value, could potentially be used for future benefits within the Babylon ecosystem. As the network progresses into Phase 2 and beyond, your Bitcoin will earn rewards based on its contribution to the security of the PoS systems, allowing you to gain value from your staked assets.
7. Which Wallets Can You Use?
To stake your Bitcoin with Babylon, you’ll need a compatible Bitcoin wallet. The official Babylon staking web application (btcstaking.babylonlabs.io) provides a list of verified finality providers and supports most Bitcoin wallets. You can also use third-party services such as staking websites, custody solutions, or command-line interface (CLI) tools if you are more technically inclined. It’s important to choose a wallet that meets your security needs and is compatible with the staking process. Here’s a list of supported wallets:
8. What Are the Transaction Details in Phase 1?
During Phase 1, all transactions are conducted on the Bitcoin blockchain. These include:
Notably, there is no PoS slashing in Phase 1, meaning your staked Bitcoin is not at risk of being slashed for any consensus violations.
9. What Are the Limits and Caps in Phase 1?
To ensure security and broad participation, Phase 1 introduces several limits:
These caps and limits are designed to foster a secure and inclusive staking environment.
10. Eligibility and Security Considerations
Before participating in the Babylon mainnet launch, it’s crucial to ensure you meet the eligibility criteria. Staking is prohibited for residents of certain countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and Mainland China, due to regulatory restrictions. Additionally, Babylon has implemented robust security features, such as the covenant committee, a multi-signature verification scheme that ensures the safety and correctness of unbonding transactions.
The Babylon Bitcoin Staking Mainnet launch represents a significant evolution in how Bitcoin can be used within the broader blockchain ecosystem. By participating in this launch, you can contribute to the security of PoS systems, earn rewards, and engage with one of the most innovative protocols in the cryptocurrency space. As the launch progresses, staying informed and involved will be key to maximizing your experience with Babylon.
And that's everything you need to know to be prepared for the mainnet launch. Stay tuned and follow us on Twitter/X to stay ahead of the curve.
Ready to start? Stake your first BTC with Babylon and Chorus One today!
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.
Consensus mechanisms are the linchpins of securing blockchain networks and enabling their functionalities. While Proof of Stake (PoS) has been a stalwart method, ensuring robust security and operational efficiency, it is not without its limitations. Berachain, an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible Layer 1 blockchain, introduces a unique alternative: Proof of Liquidity (PoL).
This article delves into the innovative mechanisms of Berachain, exploring its genesis, unique tri-token model, and the technical prowess that Chorus One brings to optimizing this approach, with ‘BeraBoost’.
Berachain's Proof-of-Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism addresses several limitations inherent in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) systems. In PoS, validators and users lock up a substantial amount of native tokens to secure the network. This staked capital, while ensuring network security, remains idle and does not contribute to the liquidity of the ecosystem. Consequently, these tokens cannot be used for DeFi applications, trading, or other on-chain activities. Although PoS is a resilient method for achieving consensus and securing blockchain networks, aiming for a high percentage of staked tokens can counteract liquidity needs within the ecosystem.
Liquid staking was developed to mitigate these concerns by creating liquidity for staked tokens, and it has proven successful in many ecosystems. However, Berachain's PoL model aims to surpass liquid staking. PoL can be simplistically described as "security by liquidity," meaning the only way to secure the chain is by providing liquidity. Given Berachain's primary focus on DeFi, this model is particularly relevant. But how does PoL actually function on Berachain?
Berachain's innovative journey began with the "Bong Bears" NFT project—a whimsical collection that captivated the DeFi community. Through this creative endeavor, the founders recognized a crucial gap: the need to harmonize liquidity provision with network security. This insight led to the birth of Berachain, designed to leverage liquidity as the cornerstone of its security model. With substantial backing from prominent investors such as Framework Ventures, Brevan Howard, Polychain Capital, and Samsung Next, Berachain is well-positioned to redefine blockchain consensus.
At the heart of Berachain's ecosystem lies its tri-token model, consisting of BERA, BGT, and HONEY. Each token serves distinct purposes, ensuring that the network can achieve its objectives of security, governance, and efficient transaction processing while maintaining a stable economic environment for decentralized finance (DeFi) activities:
$BERA (Liquid Token)
$BGT (Governance and Staking Token)
$HONEY (Stablecoin)
Let’s take a deeper look at their individual roles:
Under the hood, PoL requires validators to direct incentives to on-chain pools of capital called "reward vaults”. We are committed to approaching this process scientifically, through an algorithm we’ve named “BeraBoost” - it will be open source software, and run on a public dashboard. Beraboost will distribute incentives such that delegators to Chorus One earn maximum rewards, by tracking their LP positions and directing incentives to the relevant pools.
Berachain is currently on testnet and staking is not enabled. We are closely involved with the Berachain team and will support all institutional and individual use-cases for supporting BGT. If you're interested in knowing more, fill out this form.
OR
Email us - 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.
We’re excited to announce the launch of our latest product, the Obol DV Vault, through which stakers can participate in the Obol Collective’s new Contributions Program. By staking on distributed validators using the Chorus One DV vault, stakers meaningfully take part in the Obol Collective’s mission—to scale Ethereum by securing and decentralizing the consensus layer. With Obol DVs contributing 1% of daily staking rewards to the Obol retroactive funding program focused on scaling Ethereum infrastructure, stakers’ contributions will be tracked and serve as a basis for future governance and ownership of the Obol Collective.
The Obol DV Vault joins our MEV Max Vault as Chorus One's suite of ETH validation options. Both vaults are built on the Stakewise V3 and support staking without any minimum ETH requirements and the optional minting of osETH.
🌟 Our customers have have the flexibility to choose between our MEV-Max Vault and the new Obol Vault. You can stake to this vault directly via Stakewise or effortlessly through our ETH staking dApp, OPUS Pool, which also enables restaking with EigenLayer or Symbiotic.
The Collective is fueled by Obol’s economic model, which directs 1% of staking rewards from DVs to ecosystem projects via retroactive funding - a positive flywheel to accelerate adoption of DVs and scale the consensus layer.
To accelerate the adoption of DVs and grow participation in the Obol Collective, those staking on distributed validators and thus making contributions to the Obol RAF will be tracked and recognized.
The aim is to encourage continuous participation and sustained support in the health and growth of Ethereum consensus. The Obol Contributions program is thus built to be fair and transparent, without arbitrary gimmicks that promote short-term interest at the cost of long-term participation.
Contributions are tracked in an off-chain centralized database, and will serve as the basis for future community ownership of the Obol Collective.
Learn more about the Contribution program at Obol.org/contributions.
Learn more about Obol Collective’s Obol retroactive funding program here.
The Obol Vault is relevant for:
The Obol Vault benefits ETH stakers by:
Users can join the Obol Contribution Program by staking ETH through our Obol DV Vault on OPUS Pool, where they can also easily track their contributions.
Chorus One validators automatically make contributions based on the rewards in gwei that are received in a day, with 1% of these going to the Obol Collective’s retroactive funding program. Each address that is present in a reward splitter will be recognized for their contributions based on the percentage of the rewards received for each DV cluster. The lowest level at which contributions are made is at the validator level which can be aggregated into addresses, clusters, operators, and protocol if relevant. For more information, visit Obol’s docs.
Chorus One is proud to be at the forefront of enhancing Ethereum’s security and decentralisation through our partnership with the Obol Collective. The launch of the Obol Vault represents a significant milestone in our mission to support the Ethereum ecosystem and we invite all ETH stakers, institutional investors, and ecosystem contributors to join us in this exciting initiative. Together, we can build a more secure, resilient, and decentralized Ethereum for the future. Let’s make Ethereum stronger, together.
For more information on how to get started with the Obol Vault, please reach out to us at https://chorusone.my.salesforce-sites.com/WebToLead or email at staking@chorus.one, or visit obol.org/contributions.
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.
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.
