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Babylon Labs has released details of Genesis, the first-ever bitcoin-secured layer-1 blockchain.
Based on Babylon’s own bitcoin staking technology, the chain marks a turning point in bitcoin’s utility. Genesis has the potential to turn BTC from a passive store-of-value asset (derided as a “pet rock”) into a cornerstone for proof-of-stake (PoS) security and liquidity.
Ancient Babylon’s Code of Hammurabi, one of the oldest recorded legal codes (circa 1754 BC), introduced the concept of codified, public and enforceable rules with clear penalties for violations. It marked a transition from informal justice (based on trust, status or brute force) to a formal system of accountability.
Babylon’s bitcoin staking introduces a modern crypto-native parallel, codifying slashing-based accountability into bitcoin staking.
Since Babylon’s August 2024 launch of Phase 1, the protocol has attracted as much as 57.5k BTC staked in self-custodial contracts. It ranks third by staking market cap — behind Lido and EigenLayer, which currently have about $4.4 billion in assets. Despite this impressive figure, it represents just 0.27% of bitcoin’s total supply.
Instead of relying on custodial bridges or centralized intermediaries, the Babylon protocol enables native BTC holders to secure PoS networks without ever relinquishing control of their coins. That focus on self-custody and trust-minimized participation appeals to long-time Bitcoiners like Spencer Yang, co-founder of Fractal Bitcoin.
“Bitcoin OGs really care about custodying [their] own keys, having control over [their] own financial decisions,” Yang said.
The “three facets”
Babylon Genesis functions as:
- A bitcoin-secured L1 — built on CometBFT from the Cosmos stack with dual-quorum staking: 100 validators staking BABY (the L1’s native token) plus 60 BTC-staked finality providers. The network boasts hourly Bitcoin timestamping for fast unbonding and protection against long-range attacks.
- A control plane — Genesis coordinates security and staking information across what it terms BSNs, or Bitcoin Secured Networks. BSNs use Genesis for timestamping, finality and protocol integration, sharing revenue back to Genesis participants.
- A BTC liquidity hub — with DEXs, restaking, vaults and, in a subsequent phase, BTC LST minting. Genesis will compete as a prime venue for BTCFi, with other trust-minimized bridge destinations building on BitVM.
Babylon certainly has some narrative winds in its sails. “Babylon Genesis feels like something that could change the entire system,” wrote @jack_mfer on X. “Every network that connects to Genesis benefits from Bitcoin’s strength.”
Dozens of other protocols and teams have rallied around the Babylon ecosystem, such as:
- Liquid staking: PumpBTC, Chakra, Solv, Acorn, Bedrock
- Custodians/wallets: Binance, Anchorage, Cobo, OKX
- Bitcoin-secured networks: Osmosis, Sei, Nomic, Manta, Corn, Cosmos Hub
- Finality providers: Kiln, Chorus One, P2P, Figment, Blockdaemon
- Infra: AltLayer, Ankr, Satlayer
Next up: A trust-minimized bridge
To fulfill its role as a liquidity hub, Babylon is building a trust-minimized bridge between Bitcoin and Genesis, with research grounded in BitVM2. The goal is to remove the need for trusted multisigs in BTC bridging and enable native staking for apps and other networks without needing upgrades to Bitcoin Core, explained Babylon co-founder David Tse.
“Rather than waiting for protocol changes, simply leverage Bitcoin’s existing capabilities in novel ways,” Tse said, “replacing trusted committees with bitcoin-backed stakers who face automatic slashing for misbehavior.”
The ambitions of Babylon Genesis thus go beyond being a proof-of-concept bitcoin-secured chain, but extend to a Bitcoin-native coordination layer designed around trustless interoperability, liquidity and PoS security with crypto’s premier asset.
Bitcoin’s market cap is larger than all other crypto assets combined, noted Dan Held, general partner at Asymmetric. “If we unlock any sort of DeFi activity on top of Bitcoin, that would soon be larger than all other DeFi combined.”
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