Babylon: Unlocking Bitcoin Staking for Enhanced Security

As the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization in the world, Bitcoin plays a major role in the crypto community. However, even if it's one of the oldest and most respected crypto systems, Bitcoin has some downsides. Its blockchain doesn't support staking, so it can be difficult for people to earn passive income from their bitcoins. The Babylon staking program claims to offer a revolutionary staking design that’s both fair and profitable. Keep reading to learn more about Babylon and how you can collect interest for your BTC tokens.

Key Takeaways:

• Babylon, a Bitcoin staking platform, helps people derive income from their BTC savings. 

• Babylon stands out from other BTC staking platforms due to its trustless design, which discourages malicious actors.

• Learn how you can use Bybit to participate in the Babylon ecosystem in this comprehensive article.

What Is Babylon?

Babylon is a Bitcoin staking platform that helps people derive income from their BTC savings. The network allows users to temporarily lock their tokens and earn interest from them. Babylon stands out from other BTC staking platforms due to its trustless design, which discourages malicious actors.

History of Babylon

The Babylon project was started in 2023 by Stanford engineering professor David Tse. Tse's background is primarily in information theory. Over time, his research led him to explore more of the applications of blockchain technology. Eventually, Tse became interested in staking and decided to create a project that could apply this mechanic to the Bitcoin network.

After launching Babylon, Tse was able to attract multiple investors. The project has raised more than $70 million in funding from Paradigm and other investors, and after partnering with Allnodes, Figment and Galaxy Digital, Babylon launched the first phase of its public network on Aug 22, 2024.

What Does Babylon Aim to Achieve?

Babylon has chosen to focus on Bitcoin staking because it believes Bitcoin is an untapped source of capital. Unlike many other modern proof of stake (PoS) tokens, Bitcoin has a proof of work (PoW) blockchain. This means that thousands of BTC tokens end up inactively sitting in wallets while their owners wait for market conditions to change. Babylon hopes to provide a convenient way for users to actually earn passive income from their unused BTC tokens.

However, implementing this concept is a challenge with which many other platforms have struggled. The Bitcoin blockchain doesn't support smart contracts or complex coding language, so it's hard to find a system that reliably implements staking on it. There’s also the difficulty of generating the funds used to pay interest to users with staked Bitcoin. Babylon aims to create design methods that will tackle these problems as efficiently as possible.

How Does Babylon Work?

The Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol relies on remote staking from the Bitcoin chain, which involves locking a user's BTC away in a smart contract while an equivalent amount of staking power is delegated to a PoS chain. These second-party organizations, called finality providers, use the staked funds to validate other blockchains. They then collect the rewards and transfer them back to Babylon. Once the staking rewards are back in Babylon's custody, they can be transferred to the correct user, whose original Bitcoin can be unlocked. Ultimately, Babylon operates as a secondary layer (called the control plane) that manages all the interactions between users' BTC tokens and the PoS chains that use the funds to secure their chains.

Since Bitcoin doesn't natively support smart contracts, there are a few additional technologies running behind the scenes. Babylon employs a combination of cryptography and Bitcoin scripting language to accurately track and manage all contributions from Bitcoin holders. Furthermore, Bitcoin's native unspent transaction output (UTXO) system is used to hold staked bitcoins, and only to spend them under specific circumstances.

The final key mechanic of Babylon is its slashing technique. If a Babylon staker behaves maliciously, Babylon enables a slashing transaction that burns the user's staked BTC. This allows Babylon to maintain a self-custodial style of staking, while still preventing bad-faith actors from harming Bitcoin’s security or taking over control of PoS chain data.

Features of Babylon

Babylon provides many ways for Bitcoin and PoS chains to interact. Here are the main features you can explore from the Babylon system.

Bitcoin Staking Protocol

Babylon offers a secure, trustless and rapid way of staking Bitcoin tokens. Users temporarily lock their BTC in smart contracts in order to earn interest. Babylon's method allows for self-custody of staked coins, and lets users choose which PoS system to delegate their coins to. This helpful feature ensures that you get to improve systems you like by improving their PoS security. Babylon's staking method is also faster than most other methods. Instead of having to wait weeks to get rewards, you can withdraw your coins whenever you want.

Bitcoin Timestamping Protocol

Babylon's protocol lets people timestamp events on other blockchains. Users can thus mark specific events on the blockchain with a timestamp recorded in Unix time. In addition to helping to order blocks, timestamping also addresses security issues. If a false actor changes the blockchain, timestamps help to discover the fraud and restore the chain to the right fork.

Bitcoin-Backed Security

Babylon functions as a two-sided market. While most casual investors will be interested in the staking rewards they can earn through Babylon, DApps and blockchains can also use Babylon's services. Those who choose to work with Babylon can improve their network security and enjoy a stable, reliable consensus method.

Babylon Road Map

Since 2023, Babylon's growth has been quite rapid. The company raised millions in funding, created a lite paper and ran a testnet of the Babylon chain. In the summer of 2024, its main focus is on getting its public launch ready. Babylon is working to make its system more accessible to attract more users from the general public. 

Alongside this growth, Babylon is also trying to expand its ecosystem. It’s looking for more organizations in the decentralized economy to partner with so it can connect users with more PoS systems. The company hopes to collaborate with many other DeFi businesses as well, so users can easily try the Babylon staking protocol from their preferred websites.

How to Participate in the Babylon Ecosystem With Bybit

If you're interested in trying out Babylon BTC staking, Bybit Web3 makes the whole process fast and easy. The following three steps will help you start earning yield from your stored BTC tokens.

1. Create Your Bybit Web3 Wallet

If you don't already have a Bybit Web3 Wallet, this is the first thing you'll want to do. Visit the Bybit Web3 site or app, and follow the prompts to create your wallet. Next, double-check your wallet to make sure it's all set up for staking Bitcoin. If you’d like to, link it to your other wallets, and make sure your account is fully verified with Bybit.

2. Prepare BTC or Wrapped BTC Tokens

Next, you need to add tokens to your wallet so that you can stake them. Explore Bybit's market to find BTC or Wrapped BTC at your desired price. Purchase your preferred amount of tokens, and add them to your wallet. Keep in mind that Babylon currently has a minimum staking requirement of 0.005 BTC, and a maximum staking value of 0.05 BTC per transaction.

3. Learn Babylon's Workflows

Before you start staking, take the time to learn a little about how Babylon's workflow operates. If you prefer to hold onto your staking funds and confirm transactions yourself, the system will let you choose which PoS chain to validate. It will also let you delegate your stake to a validator if you prefer to have someone else manage the details of the process for you. Once you know which option you prefer, you can follow the prompts and begin staking.

Closing Thoughts

While Bitcoin staking isn't a brand-new concept, Babylon is one of the first systems to create a reliable staking protocol for Bitcoin. It's still a fairly new company that needs to attract more users, but so far, the Babylon project is doing quite well. If you're interested in staking your bitcoins on PoS networks, you’ll want to explore Babylon's Bitcoin staking protocol.

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