We are pleased to announce that BOB has integrated the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol, which will see the leading BTC staking protocol provide Bitcoin finality for our Hybrid L2—transforming BOB into a Bitcoin Secured Network (BSN).
This is a significant milestone in BOB’s journey, and will play an important role in Phase 2 of our roadmap, which will start to roll out in early 2025.
Starting today, 4.5M additional Babylon Points for BTC LSTs will be allocated to users of BOB - to be distributed over 45 days. This presents the best opportunity for earning points other than through direct Bitcoin staking using the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol.
This all comes at an ideal time, right after the closing of the third and largest BTC staking cap, reaching $6B native BTC staked.
Read on to learn more.
What This Means for the Community
The integration has been designed in a way that not only benefits the communities around BOB and the Babylon ecosystem, but the Bitcoin DeFi space as a whole.
BOB as the home for Bitcoin DeFi
With the integration of Babylon’s BTC staking solution, BOB will be acquiring Bitcoin finality for our novel Hybrid L2 model. This differentiates BOB from the majority of Bitcoin L2s, which do not yet inherit Bitcoin security in any way.
BOB aims to drive the adoption of BTC LSTs, releasing untapped BTC liquidity into DeFi and underscoring BTC’s role as the future backbone of DeFi. BOB already supports a thriving ecosystem, featuring Babylon-backed LSTs by Solv, Bedrock, and PumpBTC.
The integration will help position BOB to capture a share of the vast Bitcoin staking market, estimated to reach $500B+ based on comparisons with Ethereum. Alexei Zamyatin, Co-Founder of BOB, had this to say:
“Accessing Bitcoin finality through the Babylon protocol as a BSN is a natural fit for BOB’s Hybrid Layer-2 model, which combines the best of Bitcoin and Ethereum on one platform. With LSTs built on top of the Babylon protocol already contributing significantly to BOB’s $200+ million DeFi TVL, and the imminent integration of Lombard’s LBTC, this integration reinforces our commitment to establishing BOB as the home for BTC DeFi. Furthermore, Bitcoin finality plays an important role in our BitVM roadmap.”
1-click access to Bitcoin staking LSTs for millions of users
BOB Stake, BOB’s 1-click BTC staking portal will make it easy for people to obtain LSTs built on top of the Babylon protocol with just a single Bitcoin transaction. The technology is already being integrated in a number of leading staking providers like Staking Rewards, Xverse Earn, Everstake and Pell Network - with a combined 5+ million users across retail and institutional audiences.
BOB Stake even allows people to easily swap from native BTC directly into DeFi positions on BOB, for example a Babylon Bitcoin LST already deployed within a lending protocol or a DEX pool.
Commenting on the collaboration, Fisher Yu, CTO of Babylon Labs, said:
“We’re thrilled to support BOB in its journey to become a Bitcoin Secured Network. The integration of the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol into BOB’s Hybrid Layer-2 model is laying the foundation for a robust Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. This integration is a key step towards realizing the vision of a Bitcoin-secured decentralized world.”
Native integration of Lombard’s LBTC on BOB
To coincide with BOB’s new BSN status, Lombard has announced they will be bringing LBTC to the network. LBTC is the largest Bitcoin LST with ~$1.5 billion TVL, of which 80% is actively deployed in DeFi. BOB will be the fourth native LBTC deployment, following Ethereum, Base and BSC.
Earn additional Babylon Points in our LST DeFi campaign
Now the moment many of you have been waiting for. To boost Bitcoin staking and LST DeFi activity, BOB is launching a special 6-week DeFi campaign.
Babylon-based LST holders on BOB will now receive extra Babylon Points. The more BOB Spice you harvest over the next 45 days, the more Babylon Points you can earn.
1) When will the campaign start, and how long will it last?
The campaign starts on [18 December 2024].
BOB will be distributing an additional 4.5 million Babylon Points over 45 days.
2) How will BOB distribute Babylon Points?
100k points will be distributed every day.
The points will be allocated pro rata based on the percentage of the eligible daily BOB Spice you have harvested. The more Spice points you harvest the more Babylon Points you will receive.
3) Eligibility
Only people who are registered with BOB Fusion will be eligible to earn Babylon Points in this campaign. Points can be earned by depositing Babylon LSTs on BOB and using them in DeFi.
Additionally, residents of certain jurisdictions (including the USA, Canada and Australia and sanctioned jurisdictions) will not be able to receive Babylon Points.
Additional BOB Spice points for Babylon stakers
BOB will assign 6.3 billion Spice points to Babylon BTC stakers for the 45 day duration of this liquidity program, allocated pro-rata based on amount staked. You can learn more about Spice, eligibility and terms here and on the BOB Fusion app.
Bonus LST partner pints are also available
BOB’s Bitcoin LST partners are also happy to celebrate this important milestone and are offering extra points to BOB DeFi users for the duration of the campaign:
- Bedrock: 50% more Diamonds. Pell and Segment will also provide points boosts for uniBTC holders during the campaign: Pell 1.5X, Segment tbc.
- PumpBTC: 3x more PumpBTC Points.
- Solv: Solv Points boost to be confirmed shortly by the Solv team.
Delivering on BOB’s Hybrid L2 roadmap
This integration with the Babylon protocol marks an important step in Phase 2 of BOB’s roadmap: achieving Bitcoin finality.
To recap, during Phase 1, BOB launched as an Ethereum L2 built with the OP Stack, attracting over 100 projects and 320k unique users. The primary focus was to enhance the Bitcoin DeFi user-experience through novel features such as 1-click BTC staking.
Now, by incorporating Babylon’s finality protocol into the Hybrid L2 model, we will enter Phase 2 of BOB’s roadmap, and move beyond a sole Ethereum L2 setup by anchoring our Hybrid L2 in Bitcoin security.
Why Bitcoin Staking Instead of Merge Mining
In our early designs, we considered merge mining as a way to incorporate Bitcoin security into BOB’s Hybrid L2 model. However, after extensive research, it became clear that embracing a staking-based approach as a Bitcoin Secured Network offered some important advantages over merge mining.
- Better economic security via slashing. With both merge mining and Bitcoin staking, a subset of Bitcoin nodes would verify that BOB is operating correctly. While the security guarantees are similar, BTC staking offers two key advantages:some text
- It is more accessible to the broader Bitcoin userbase, because it is easier to buy BTC and stake it than run a mining rig.
- Babylon’s BTC staking protocol introduces slashing. This means BTC stakers risk losing their capital if they try to attack the system. In merged mining, the main deterrence is missing out on mining fees.
- Bitcoin liquidity flywheel. As a BSN, a portion of BOB’s network fees directly contribute to the rewards for staking BTC. This creates a positive reinforcement loop: means: the more BTC LST liquidity grows on BOB, the more DeFi activity there is, the more fees are accrued back to Babylon BTC stakers. This encourages more BTC to be staked, which brings more DeFi activity, and the cycle continues.
- BitVM alignment. BitVM works best with Bitcoin-secured networks and BTC staking offers interesting advantages in terms of practicability of the trust-minimized BTC bridge BOB has been working on - thus accelerating development timelines.
Join the Home of Bitcoin DeFi Today
With Bitcoin finality integrated into BOB’s Hybrid L2, and a fresh opportunity for LST holders to put their BTC to work, our Babylon protocol integration represents an exciting step towards unlocking Bitcoin DeFi’s potential.
So whether you’re a long-time BTC holder or new to the space, we invite you to see why BOB is the best place to use BTC LSTs in DeFi.
