In a significant move for the cryptocurrency industry, Ankr, the renowned Web3 infrastructure provider known for its advancements in liquid staking and RaaS, has announced a groundbreaking collaboration with Babylon. With this partnership, Ankr aims to assist Babylon in introducing a pioneering trustless Bitcoin (BTC) staking protocol designed to enhance the security framework of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks by leveraging the robustness of Bitcoin.
Babylon, a renowned player in the crypto space, is set to revolutionize the way PoS systems operate. With its innovative Bitcoin Staking Protocol, PoS networks will now have the opportunity to incorporate Bitcoin as a staking asset, thereby achieving a level of crypto-economic security surpassing that offered by their native tokens. This strategic move is expected to harness the immense potential of the largely idle Bitcoin market, which is estimated to be worth around $1 trillion.
The unique feature of Babylon’s BTC staking protocol is its ability to allow BTC stakers to engage in trustless “restaking”. This mechanism mirrors the principles of EigenLayer and permits users to generate multiple layers of yield. This not only benefits the Bitcoin holders by providing them with additional income streams but also significantly enhances the crypto-economic security across participating networks.
New Frontiers in the Crypto Industry
In this collaboration, Ankr is tasked with the creation of Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs) for the Bitcoin staked through Babylon’s protocol. These LSTs will be subsequently issued on PoS chains that are secured via the BTC staking framework. This innovative approach ensures that while BTC is securely locked on the Bitcoin blockchain, new LSTs are minted on the selected PoS chain, bolstering both security and liquidity for these networks.
Chandler Song, Co-Founder and CEO of Ankr, expressed his enthusiasm for the project, stating, “As the industry finds innovative new ways to secure blockchain networks while utilizing all available capital to its full potential, Ankr is proud to take its place in the technical implementation of Babylon’s bitcoin staking and restaking mechanics. This will be an incredibly powerful protocol for both the bitcoin community to earn yield while they hold BTC as well as the Web3 developer community to tap into a trillion dollars worth of capital to secure the next generation of apps and use cases.”
Fisher Yu, Co-founder of Babylon, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the transformative potential of their collaboration with Ankr. “We believe our collaboration with Ankr will ignite a new era of Bitcoin-secured decentralized economies. By enabling PoS systems to utilize Bitcoin as a staking asset, we are pioneering a pathway for the trillion-dollar Bitcoin economy to contribute to the security of PoS systems,” he remarked.
Furthermore, Ankr’s role extends beyond the creation of LSTs; the company will also engage in running validators on the Babylon testnet and develop sophisticated security infrastructures to support Babylon nodes and finality providers. Leveraging Ankr’s vast experience as one of the industry’s leading staking infrastructure providers, this collaboration is set to lay a robust foundation for Bitcoin staking, thereby enabling global BTC holders to yield significant returns while concurrently enhancing the security of various PoS ecosystems.
Liquid Staking Tokens are anticipated to become a critical element of Babylon’s offerings, facilitating the integration of Bitcoin’s total value locked (TVL) into diverse chains and ecosystems. This will notably simplify the use of BTC in decentralized finance (DeFi) and other applications, marking a significant milestone in the crypto-economic landscape.
Ankr continues to stand out as a comprehensive Web3 development hub, offering an extensive array of tools for the creation of Web3 applications and their operation through high-performance connections to over 45 blockchains. The company’s suite of services includes multi-chain dApp development tools, blockchain engineering solutions, crypto staking services, and a globally distributed node infrastructure. Through its innovative products, Ankr is making it increasingly accessible for individuals and businesses alike to build, earn, and participate in the Web3 space.
