What is Babylon?

Babylon Genesis is a newly launched Bitcoin-secured Layer 1 blockchain that enables native BTC staking without relying on custodial bridges or wrapped assets. Built with the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT consensus engine, Genesis allows Bitcoin holders to participate in staking while maintaining full self-custody of their coins. Through a dual staking model involving BTC and the native BABY token, users can earn rewards by supporting network security and finality processes. With over 57,000 BTC already locked in the system, Babylon is establishing a foundation for Bitcoin-native DeFi, offering a trust-minimised platform where Bitcoin’s economic weight can be used to secure decentralised systems, validate transactions, and unlock new opportunities for on-chain utility. Babylon’s Genesis Layer 1 Bitcoin Secured Network (BSN) Babylon Genesis is a newly launched Layer 1 blockchain designed to bring native staking capabilities to Bitcoin without requiring custodial bridges or wrapped assets. Built using the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT consensus engine, Genesis operates as a Bitcoin-secured chain where holders of BTC can stake their coins directly while maintaining self-custody. Unlike traditional proof-of-stake models, Babylon enables stakers to participate without relinquishing control over their funds. The platform has already attracted over 57,000 BTC in total value locked, creating a foundation for Decentralised Finance (DeFi) applications that utilise Bitcoin as economic collateral while reinforcing the security of associated networks. Babylon’s staking mechanism allows BTC holders to secure other decentralised systems, such as PoS chains, rollups, or Layer 2s, by delegating their bitcoin to entities known as Finality Providers (validator nodes). These providers participate in consensus rounds that validate and finalise blocks across Bitcoin Secured Networks (BSNs). The protocol includes slashing mechanics to penalise malicious behaviour, echoing similar accountability systems in existing PoS architectures but without compromising on Bitcoin’s non-custodial principles. Stakers receive rewards for their contributions, with Genesis supporting a dual-staking model that includes both BTC and the native BABY token, which is also used for gas fees, governance, and validator incentives. Babylon’s Genesis chain also functions as a coordination layer between Bitcoin and other decentralised applications. By integrating timestamping, finality, and liquidity management, Genesis serves as a hub for interoperable infrastructure where BSNs can share protocol data and revenue. This role as a “control plane” makes it a central pillar in Babylon’s vision of a multi-chain, Bitcoin-secured internet of blockchains. Projects integrating with Genesis gain access to Bitcoin’s economic weight and decentralised assurances, unlocking new utility for dormant BTC in wallets and treasuries. Babylon is preparing to introduce a trust-minimised bridge between Bitcoin and Genesis based on advancements in BitVM2 , eliminating the need for trusted multisignature intermediaries. The project’s roadmap includes expanding support for restaking, vaults, and BTC-based liquid staking tokens (LSTs), aiming to make Genesis a liquidity centre for Bitcoin-native DeFi. By leveraging Bitcoin’s existing security properties in new ways, Babylon Genesis proposes a fundamentally different model for extending Bitcoin’s relevance in a world increasingly dominated by programmable, yield-generating assets, without altering Bitcoin’s base-layer design. How Does Staking Bitcoin On Babylon’s Genesis BSN Work? Staking Bitcoin on Babylon introduces a novel mechanism that enables BTC holders to participate in network security and earn rewards without relinquishing custody of their coins or wrapping them into synthetic assets. Instead of relying on bridges or custodians, users lock their bitcoin in self-custodial contracts using the Babylon protocol. These staked coins then serve as economic backing for Babylon’s own layer-1 chain, Genesis, as well as a broader network of BSNs, such as rollups, and proof-of-stake chains. This approach maintains the trust-minimised ethos of Bitcoin while allowing participants to generate yield from otherwise idle assets. Validation on Babylon is carried out through a dual staking model. The Genesis chain operates with two types of validators: those staking the native BABY token and “finality providers” who are backed by staked BTC. Finality providers participate in consensus rounds, based on the CometBFT consensus engine, where they help secure block production, confirm transactions, and provide finality to BSNs. These providers may also receive delegated BTC from users who prefer not to run their own infrastructure, further decentralising the network while offering stakers a share of the validation rewards. Slashing mechanisms are in place to ensure validator accountability, reducing the risk of misbehaviour or downtime. What makes Babylon’s model transformative is that it allows Bitcoin, the most secure and widely held digital asset, to serve as a foundation for securing proof-of-stake ecosystems. Bitcoin’s lack of native programmability has historically limited its use in decentralised applications, but Babylon overcomes this by building staking and finality layers around the asset itself, rather than within Bitcoin’s base protocol. This opens up access to BTC’s immense economic weight, currently over $1.6 trillion in market capitalisation, to help bootstrap the security and liquidity of emerging decentralised applications, without sacrificing the principles of self-custody or decentralisation. From a DeFi perspective, Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol has the potential to fundamentally reshape the sector. It offers a path to unlock vast amounts of dormant capital for decentralised lending, trading, governance, and infrastructure security, activities that were previously dominated by Ethereum and its tokens. By enabling Bitcoin to act as an active asset in DeFi systems, Babylon bridges a longstanding gap between Bitcoin’s store-of-value function and the dynamic, composable world of smart contract platforms. In doing so, it paves the way for a more inclusive and capital-efficient decentralised economy where Bitcoin is not merely stored, but actively used to support and secure the future of open finance. Will Hardcore Bitcoiners Adopt Babylon’s Hybrid BTC/Web3 Use Case? Traditionally, decentralised finance (DeFi) has been rooted in the domain of Web3, primarily flourishing on Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains. These ecosystems offer smart contract functionality and composability, enabling applications for lending, borrowing, decentralised exchanges, and derivatives. Web3 DeFi has evolved with an emphasis on experimentation, token-based governance, and rapid iteration, with protocols like Uniswap , Aave , and Curve becoming foundational pillars. However, Bitcoin, the largest and most secure blockchain by market cap, has remained largely separate from these developments due to its intentionally limited scripting language and conservative approach to protocol upgrades. Babylon introduces a significant shift by enabling native Bitcoin staking and providing infrastructure for Bitcoin-based DeFi without requiring bridging, wrapping, or relinquishing custody of BTC. Through the Babylon Genesis chain and its network of Bitcoin Secured Networks (BSNs), BTC holders can now contribute to the security of decentralised systems and earn rewards while maintaining self-custody. This represents a novel model in which Bitcoin is used productively within a DeFi framework, preserving its monetary and security principles while unlocking yield-generating opportunities typically associated with Web3 environments. Yet the question remains whether Bitcoiners, particularly those who identify as Bitcoin maximalists, will adopt these new capabilities. Bitcoin’s cultural community has historically been sceptical of DeFi and Web3 innovations, often viewing them as overly complex, insecure, or motivated by short-term token speculation. This ideological divide has led to a persistent tribal rivalry between Bitcoin advocates, who prioritise simplicity, censorship resistance, and hard money, and Web3 users, who embrace programmability, token economies, and governance experimentation. The rise of Ordinals and Runes has revealed a clear appetite within a subset of the Bitcoin community for Web3-style applications, and their technically cumbersome implementation has spurred a wave of venture capital investment into Bitcoin layer 2s and sidechains aiming to deliver more scalable and flexible programmability. As a result, even innovations like Babylon, which are designed with Bitcoin-native principles in mind, may face hesitancy or resistance from parts of the Bitcoin community. Despite these philosophical differences, Babylon presents a middle ground that may help bridge the divide. By offering staking and DeFi functionality that aligns with Bitcoin’s emphasis on trust minimisation and sovereignty, Babylon could attract a subset of users who are open to using BTC productively, so long as it doesn’t compromise core values like self-custody or protocol integrity. Whether or not this is enough to foster mainstream adoption among Bitcoiners is still an open question. What is clear, however, is that Babylon introduces a compelling new chapter in Bitcoin’s evolution, one that challenges traditional assumptions about what Bitcoin can and cannot do within the broader decentralised economy. The post What is Babylon? appeared first on Bitfinex blog .