According to CoinDesk, Babylon, a Bitcoin staking platform led by Stanford University professor David Tse, is advancing to the next stage of its development. The project, which has been identified as a promising new scaling initiative for Bitcoin, plans to launch the first phase of its main network on August 22. Earlier this year, Babylon raised $70 million in a funding round led by Paradigm.

During this initial phase, Bitcoin holders will have the opportunity to lock their tokens on the Bitcoin network. For security reasons, Babylon has set a cap of 1,000 BTC, equivalent to $57.9 million, that users can stake in total. Staking involves crypto holders offering their tokens to a network to support its ongoing operations, with the expectation of receiving rewards in return. While this system is common in most blockchains, it is largely absent from Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency network. Babylon aims to address this gap, thereby adding greater utility to Bitcoin.

The project is supported by over 200 'finality providers,' who will approve transactions to maintain the network's protocol operation, similar to the role of validators in proof-of-stake ecosystems. Among these finality providers are Allnodes, Figment, and Galaxy Digital.