Babylon Launches World's First Trustless Bitcoin Staking Testnet

Babylon, the project that aims to build a Bitcoin-secured decentralized economy, today announced the launch of the world's first trustless Bitcoin staking testnet.

Today’s testnet launch significantly advances Babylon’s mission to enable a Bitcoin-secured Proof-of-Stake economy. Babylon’s Bitcoin Staking protocol allows Proof-of-Stake (“PoS”) systems such as PoS chains, L2s, Data Availability (DA) layers, oracles etc to acquire staking capital from bitcoin, the largest, decentralized crypto asset in the world. Through its modular design and slashing functionality, Babylon’s Bitcoin Staking Protocol will enable PoS systems to introduce bitcoin as a staking asset and enjoy higher crypto-economic security than what native tokens can provide. As a result, PoS systems will be able to utilize Babylon’s scalable staking and restaking features to unlock value from the idle, unencumbered $1 trillion Bitcoin ecosystem.

The testnet is built on BTC Signet, so that no real Bitcoin is at stake. The testnet is open to the public and is accompanied by an explorer and a user-friendly web application, enabling bitcoin holders to easily and safely test Bitcoin staking using the protocol. Users who complete the testnet process will also be able to claim a Bitcoin Staking Pioneer NFT.

“We are proud to have reached this milestone in our mission to introduce Bitcoin as a trusted security backbone for PoS systems that can not only generate yields, but also foster integrated, secure, and decentralized economies of scale,” said David Tse, Co-Founder of Babylon. “We look forward to working with PoS systems and validators to enhance our network and infrastructure as we enable Bitcoin holders to provide crypto-economic security to PoS systems and earn PoS yields by staking their bitcoins.”

"Babylon's advanced cryptography allows Bitcoin to be used to secure PoS chains, a groundbreaking achievement," said Jehan Tremback, from the Cosmos Hub team at Informal Systems. "This testnet launch provides a practical demonstration of how bitcoin can be staked to secure PoS chains. We are following it with great interest, and we can't wait to integrate Babylon into the products that we build."

The launch of its testnet represents another substantial milestone for Babylon following the successful close of its $18 million funding round in December 2023, and its recently announced collaboration with Cosmos Hub. Through this collaboration, Cosmos Hub will integrate Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol within the Cosmos ecosystem, which boasts a combined $2.5 billion worth of staked assets, to enable bitcoin holders to stake their bitcoins to secure the Cosmos Hub consumer chains.

Validators, developers, and others interested in learning more about Babylon and its testnet can visit BTC Staking Testnet.

About Babylon

Babylon is a blockchain project that designs security sharing protocols for the decentralized economy, founded in 2022 by Stanford Professor David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu. Professor Tse is a member of the U.S. Academy of Engineering. He is renowned as the inventor of the legendary proportional-fair scheduling algorithm for wireless communications, and is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal. The project is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers and experienced layer 1 engineers from around the world.

Babylon's mission is to scale Bitcoin to secure the decentralized economy. To achieve this, Babylon utilizes the three primary facets of Bitcoin: its asset, its reliable timestamping service, and its most censorship-resistant blockspace in the world. To leverage these facets, Babylon is developing three innovative security-sharing protocols: Bitcoin Staking Protocol, Bitcoin Timestamping Protocol, and Bitcoin Data Availability Protocol. Through these pioneering protocols, Babylon envisions a more secure and decentralized future.

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