On the 26th, the cryptocurrency (virtual currency) exchange BitBank announced its participation in the phased mainnet launch of the Bitcoin (BTC) staking protocol Babylon.
He explained that he will investigate the technical structure and project direction of Babylon. The company also stated that it will gather knowledge about staking trends, including Bitcoin, and utilize this knowledge to consider future business operations and service expansions.
The Babylon project announced in August that the protocol will launch in three phases. The outlines of each phase are as follows.
Phase 1: Bitcoin owners lock up their Bitcoins
Phase 2: Enable Bitcoin staking
Stage 3: Allow the same Bitcoin to be staked on multiple chains simultaneously
Currently, the release of Babylon is in the first stage. Phase-1 is further divided into 'Cap' stages, and the third stage 'Cap-3' involves adding bit groups.
Cap progresses in a timely manner, with Cap-3 starting on the 10th and lasting about a week. Each cap primarily increases the maximum number of Bitcoins per transaction during phased staking.
The Babylon project reported on the 19th that $6 billion worth of Bitcoin has been staked to Cap-3. At this time, the number of stakers is 135,000.
In addition, BitBank is participating in Cap-3 with its own Bitcoin.
The Babylon project is working to make it possible to stake Bitcoin on blockchains that use a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Bitcoin uses Proof of Work (PoW), making staking impossible.
Regarding Babylon, Zaif announced on the 25th that it will launch a project to provide Bitcoin staking services to users utilizing the Babylon protocol. He explained that the plan is to offer users the opportunity to transform their Bitcoin from 'merely owning it' to 'a way to increase their Bitcoin.'
Babylon has gained attention for receiving investments from major venture capital firms such as Paladigm and Binance Lab, with its total value locked (TVL) being the highest in the Bitcoin blockchain (see DeFi Camel). Additionally, compared to Ethereum staking giant Eigen, valued at about $15 billion, Babylon is only one-third of that scale.