Babylon

What is the Babylon Chain?

Babylon aims to develop security protocols that expand Bitcoin's role in securing the decentralized landscape. Leveraging Bitcoin's asset, PoW-secured timestamping server, and censorship-resistant blockspace, Babylon pioneers innovative protocols for a more secure, Bitcoin-centered decentralized environment.

Babylon offers a suite of security-sharing protocols, including Bitcoin timestamping and staking, to achieve this vision.

The team is currently working on the core primitives of the Bitcoin staking protocol, which will be open-sourced in the near future. This documentation serves as a brief introduction to the design, with additional documents planned for release after open-sourcing.

What benefits does the Babylon Chain bring to Bitcoin?

Build dApps with Bitcoin’s Security: All decentralized applications (dApps) running on the Babylon chain benefit from the highest level of Bitcoin security. With the integration of CosmoWasm, there are no restrictions on the types of dApps that can be developed on Babylon.

Bitcoin Timestamping: Babylon's BTC timestamping protocol enables the timestamping of any data submitted to Babylon with Bitcoin timestamps. This ensures increased immutability over time as more work is added on top of these timestamps. One primary use case of this protocol is timestamping PoS blockchains to enhance their integrity and security against long-range attacks. The protocol involves using Bitcoin as the timestamping service, Babylon blockchain for checkpoint aggregation and data availability, and other PoS blockchains as consumers of security. By utilizing this protocol, several benefits are achieved, including faster unbonding for PoS blockchains, bootstrapping new zones with low token valuation, protecting important transactions, and providing censorship resistance. Through CosmWasm, developers can create timestamping services with custom data verification rules, enhancing the versatility of the protocol.

Bitcoin Staking Coming Soon: Babylon's Bitcoin staking protocol allows direct staking of bitcoin assets for PoS blockchains, removing the need for third-party custody. It ensures economic security guarantees to PoS chains and enhances liquidity for bitcoin holders. Security features include fully slashable PoS security and secure stake unbonding. Stakers initiate staking transactions on the Bitcoin chain and validate on the PoS chain. The protocol enables slashing in response to safety violations through a modular approach compatible with various PoS blockchains. The Babylon team is currently laying the groundwork for the bitcoin staking protocol.