the staking protocol for Bitcoin launches its mainnet

Babylon, the self-custodial staking protocol for Bitcoin, has announced that it will launch its mainnet on August 22. This protocol will be launched in three phases. 

Babylon and the launch of the self-custodial staking protocol mainnet for Bitcoin 

Babylon, the self-custodial staking protocol for Bitcoin, is ready for the launch of its mainnet which will take place on August 22. 

The countdown for the launch of Babylon Bitcoin Staking Mainnet has begun! Self-custodial Bitcoin staking; Bitcoin security for PoS systems; Unstaking on demand; Leverage over $1T of inactive Bitcoin capital.

Read the announcement:

https://babylonlabs.io/blog/babylon-bitcoin-staking-mainnet-launch-phase-1

Participation dashboard:

https://btcstaking.babylonlabs.io

Get ready to stake your inactive Bitcoin!

In practice, the protocol connects bitcoin holders with the security request of the network by Proof-of-Stake systems such as PoS chains, L2, data availability layers, oracles, and others.

According to Fisher Yu, co-founder of Babylon, the launch of the new staking system will bring users a “third native use case of Bitcoin”. Specifically, it would involve adding to the existing use cases of Bitcoin for value storage and payment, also staking, which allows users to protect the network while earning. 

The launch of the new Babylon mainnet will take place in three phases. 

Babylon: the three phases of the launch of the mainnet for self-custodial staking for Bitcoin 

Babylon has also described how the three phases of the launch of its new mainnet are structured. 

During the first phase, BTC holders will be able to stake their coins with the self-custody protocol. 

Immediately after, in the subsequent phases, the Bitcoin protocol will allow Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks to tap into the security of the Bitcoin network worth 1 trillion dollars.

With Proof-of-Stake network, Babylon includes in its ecosystem the layer 2 chains, the data availability layers, and the oracles.

The Babylon protocol has already raised 70 million dollars in a funding round led by the crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. Not only that, other financial service providers such as Allnodes, Galaxy Digital, P2P, Figment, Luganodes, and Stakefish, support the mainnet. 

Before this moment, then, Babylon has also already received support from the main crypto wallets, such as Binance Web3 Wallet, OKX Web3 Wallet, Bitget Wallet, Keystone, and TomoWallet.

The support of Binance Labs

At the end of February 2024, it had emerged that Binance Labs had already made an investment in the staking protocol for Bitcoin, Babylon. 

Binance Labs is the part dedicated to incubation and venture capital of the popular crypto-exchange Binance. 

The amount of such investment has not been disclosed. However, Babylon co-founder David Tse confirmed that it follows the same structure as Babylon’s seed and Series A rounds.