On December 18, the hybrid Layer2 project BOB (Build on Bitcoin) announced a partnership with the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon. The two parties will leverage their respective strengths to integrate the Bitcoin security network and bring Bitcoin Finality into BOB's hybrid L2 network.
By integrating with the Babylon protocol, BOB will build a world-leading Bitcoin Security Network (BSN). The two parties will jointly create a safer, low-threshold, and easy channel for users to participate in Bitcoin staking, promote the development of the Bitcoin staking ecosystem, and bring users a new staking innovation experience between Bitcoin and BOB's powerful hybrid L2 network, ultimately releasing $500 billion in potential energy in the Bitcoin staking market. At the same time, this is also an important step in the second phase of BOB's development roadmap, which will be officially launched in early 2025.
BOB is a hybrid layer 2 platform that combines the security of Bitcoin and the flexibility of Ethereum smart contracts. It supports Bitcoin ecosystems such as Ordinals, Lightning, and Nostr, and aims to improve the practicality of Bitcoin and expand its functionality. BOB's vision is to ensure security by BTC L1, the most secure L1, and use this security to create a trustless bridge to connect BTC, ETH, and other L1 blockchains. Therefore, Hybrid L2 does not rely on third-party bridging tools to achieve interoperability, while solving the decentralized BTC multi-chain liquidity problem.
Relying on Hybrid L2's leading liquidity aggregation products and technologies, BOB has been committed to promoting the large-scale use of BTC liquidity pledge assets (LSTs) and releasing untapped BTC liquidity potential to the DeFi world. BOB believes that DeFi has higher potential on the Bitcoin network and emphasizes the irreplaceable role of BTC as the future pillar of DeFi. It is reported that BOB has contributed more than $200 million in TVL to the Bitcoin pledge ecosystem, including Babylon LST assets supported by liquidity aggregation platforms such as Solv, Bedrock and PumpBTC. In addition, BOB's one-click Bitcoin pledge product, BOB Stake, enables millions of users to easily obtain Babylon LST assets with just one Bitcoin network transaction through integration with third-party pledge service platforms such as Staking Rewards, XverseEarn and Everstake.
In order to support the new positioning of BOB Bitcoin Security Network (BSN), Lombard announced that it will introduce LBTC into the BOB network. LBTC is the largest Bitcoin LST asset with a TVL of approximately $1.5 billion, of which 80% is actively deployed in DeFi. BOB will become the fourth largest native LBTC deployment network after Ethereum, Base and BNB Chain.
In addition, BOB announced that starting today, additional Babylon points for Bitcoin LST asset staking will be distributed to BOB users within the next 45 days, providing users with a channel and opportunity to obtain generous Babylon points in addition to directly participating in Babylon official staking.
Alexei Zamyatin, BOB co-founder and BitVM core contributor, said: "Bringing Bitcoin Finality to BOB's hybrid L2 model through Babylon is a natural fit, combining the best features of Bitcoin and Ethereum on a single platform. Babylon-based LST assets have already made a significant contribution to BOB's DeFi TVL. In addition, BOB will also integrate Lombard's LBTC. This partnership reinforces our commitment to making BOB the "Home of BTC DeFi". The Bitcoin staking ecosystem has huge potential, with DeFi accounting for only 0.1% of BTC's market cap, while ETH accounts for 30%."
On the Babylon platform, users can achieve secure staking without transferring Bitcoin out of their own addresses. In this way, Bitcoin holders do not need to bridge to the Pos chain. And there is no need to encapsulate, custody, etc. the pledged Bitcoin. This retains the inherent security of the Bitcoin network while enabling BTC holders to earn returns on their assets. With the launch of Babylon Cap-3 mainnet staking last week, Babylon once again demonstrated the surge in demand for Bitcoin staking. On December 17, Babylon Cap-3 staking officially ended, with the value of pledged BTC exceeding $6 billion.
Fisher Yu, CTO of Babylon Labs, said: "We are excited to support BOB in becoming a Bitcoin security network. By integrating Babylon LST assets into BOB's hybrid L2 model, this collaboration lays the foundation for both parties to jointly build a powerful Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. This integration is a key step in realizing Bitcoin's vision of a secure decentralized world."
BOB’s integration with Babylon follows the release of BOB’s Hybrid L2 Vision document, which outlines BOB’s role in positioning Bitcoin as the backbone of DeFi. Phase 2 of the Hybrid L2 Vision includes the addition of Bitcoin Finality, now provided by Babylon, coupled with the launch of a trust-minimized Bitcoin bridge powered by BitVM (expected to release a testnet in Q1 2025). This will enable BOB to combine the security of Bitcoin with the innovation of Ethereum, resulting in a more prosperous on-chain ecosystem for developers and users.
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About BOB (Build on Bitcoin)
BOB (Build on Bitcoin) is a hybrid Layer-2 network that combines the best of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and is committed to establishing itself as the "Home of BTC DeFi". The unique Hybrid L2 model combines the advantages of both ecosystems - Bitcoin's security and dormant BTC capital, and Ethereum's DeFi innovation and versatility. By positioning BTC as the backbone of a new decentralized financial system, BOB can unlock new use cases and trillions of BTC liquidity. BOB perfectly inherits the security of the Bitcoin network using the BitVM protocol, and creates a trust-minimized bridge between BOB, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other L1 networks. As a result, Hybrid L2 does not need to rely on a third-party cross-chain bridge for interoperability, easily concentrating liquidity around the Bitcoin network instead of being scattered across various chains.
BOB is supported by leading investment institutions such as Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Ledger Cathay Ventures and IOSG.
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About Babylon
Babylon is a project that designs Bitcoin security sharing protocols to build a decentralized world secured by Bitcoin. Its latest development is the world's first trustless and self-custodial Bitcoin staking protocol, which allows Bitcoin holders to stake their Bitcoin on proof-of-stake (PoS) systems (such as PoS chains, L2, data availability DA layers, etc.), enabling them to earn returns without the need for third-party custody, cross-chain bridges, or packaging services. Babylon's approach combines the high security and widespread adoption of Bitcoin with the efficiency and scalability of PoS systems, increasing the practicality of Bitcoin. Babylon was founded in 2022 by Stanford University professors David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu. Professor Tse is a member of the U.S. Academy of Engineering and is known for inventing the legendary proportional fair scheduling algorithm. Babylon is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers and experienced L1 blockchain engineers from around the world.
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