On December 7th, Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol, announced the successful completion of its Series A funding round, raising up to $18 million. Leading the funding round were Polychain Capital and Hack VC, with the participation of various investment funds such as Framework Ventures, Polygon Ventures, OKX Ventures, Symbolic Capital, IOSG Ventures, GeekCartel, and angel investors like Evan Cheng, Co-founder and CEO of Mysten Labs, and Yaoqi Jia, Founder of the AltLayer Network.
Babylon is a Bitcoin staking protocol that allows Bitcoin owners to stake their BTC on Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks to earn rewards, similar to staking projects on the Ethereum network. Additionally, Babylon aims to enhance the security of PoS networks by making Bitcoin a primary security element.
David Tse, Co-founder of Babylon and a technical professor at Stanford University, expressed concerns about the high inflation rates associated with PoS networks due to the need to attract stakers with high rewards. This can lead to inflationary pressures and weaken the token utility and economic model, potentially undermining security.
Babylon seeks to become the world’s most decentralized asset market for Bitcoin, serving PoS networks through its BTC staking protocol. By integrating Bitcoin, PoS networks can strengthen their security and reduce token inflation pressures without requiring hard or soft forks, third-party custodians, or bridge solutions.
Babylon is scheduled to launch during the “Having Bitcoin” event in April 2024 and will act as a bridge between the Bitcoin blockchain and PoS networks, such as Cosmos Hub and Polygon, which will support Babylon’s development.