Babylon Partners with Merlin in Major Ecosystem Update to Unlock Bitcoin’s Full Potential
Babylon, a leading non-custodial platform, has announced several key initiatives and strategic alliances aimed at unlocking the full potential of Bitcoin (BTC). These developments include making BTC liquidity more accessible and enhancing both yield and security.
On May 28, Babylon successfully launched the Babylon Bitcoin Staking Testnet-4, designed to stress-test the security of staked Signet Bitcoin by evaluating user interactions with the Signet BTC test network. The initial cap was reached in less than 20 minutes, underscoring the high interest and participation.
More than 70 finality providers have been onboarded to fortify the system and ensure steadfast support from the testnet phase onward. Additionally, six wallets supported Babylon at the testnet launch, demonstrating broad ecosystem engagement.
To educate the community, Babylon introduced a “Bitcoin Staking 101” blog series detailing the workings of Bitcoin staking. They also launched the BTC Chronicles, a community campaign competition from testnet to mainnet, allowing participants to climb the leaderboard, rank, and support Babylon.
Strategic Alliances Unleash Bitcoin’s $1T Potential
Babylon’s ecosystem continues to expand, attracting major DeFi projects eager to innovate with Bitcoin and benefit from its potential. Bedrock has launched uniBTC, a liquid Bitcoin restaking token built on Babylon. This innovation enables BTC holders to earn rewards while maintaining liquidity, a significant development for unlocking Bitcoin’s $1 trillion capital. Similarly, pStake is poised to drive growth in BTCfi by offering BTC holders a pathway to staking yields through their liquid staking solution on Babylon.
Mind Network is leveraging Babylon’s Bitcoin LSTs in conjunction with their Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE). This allows secure, trustless validation of PoS networks and subnets without exposing private keys. FHE, often considered the “holy grail” of cryptography, enables computation on encrypted data, enhancing Bitcoin’s unmatched security in consensus layers while maintaining decentralization.
The Chakra ZK-Rollup integrates the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, enhancing security by using ZK-STARK proofs to map staked BTC across ecosystems. This unprecedented interoperability unlocks Bitcoin’s $1 trillion-plus liquidity stream, elevating network security.
Merlin L2 is integrating Bitcoin’s security into its chain via the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol. Merlin users can stake native BTC through Babylon, extending Bitcoin’s immense proof-of-work consensus to bolster the security of any network and chain. This integration allows Merlin’s ecosystem of rollups, dApps, and services to tap into the vast security capital of Bitcoin.
On the infrastructure front, wallets like Cobo have launched the first dedicated APIs for integrating Bitcoin staking through the Babylon protocol, enabling integration in just 30 minutes. Cobo’s industry-leading MPC wallet solution accelerates mass adoption by providing a seamless onramp, enhancing the BTC DeFi summer.
Game Plus is building infrastructure for gaming on the Bitcoin blockchain using the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol. Their Layer 2 solution employs Optimistic rollups and ZK proofs secured by Babylon-enabled Bitcoin staking. Game Plus provides SDKs to simplify deploying Bitcoin-based games, featuring asset management and wallets.
Particle Network, a modular Layer 1 blockchain, aims to enable “chain abstraction,” allowing users to interact across multiple chains. They are integrating Babylon’s Bitcoin staking as part of a “Dual Staking” security model where transactions are validated by both native tokens and Bitcoin stakers.
The Babylon ecosystem continues to grow, with Tomo Wallet being the latest to support the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol. Tomo Wallet has launched its extension integrated with Babylon Testnet, allowing users to stake sBTC (Signet Bitcoin) directly from the wallet. It provides a seamless login experience using Google accounts and prioritizes security by encrypting seed phrases with Shamir’s Secret Sharing.
With each innovative alliance, Babylon’s vision of unlocking Bitcoin’s vast potential through staking takes another monumental stride. The future utility of the world’s largest cryptocurrency is finally coming into focus, driven by Babylon’s relentless pursuit of innovation and strategic partnerships.
