In a significant move for the cryptocurrency world, Babylon, a project founded by Stanford Professor David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu in 2022, has closed an $18 million funding round. This impressive capital injection, co-led by Polychain Capital and Hack VC, marks a pivotal moment in the advancement of Bitcoin’s role in the decentralized economy.
The Concept of Bitcoin Staking
Babylon’s Bitcoin Staking Protocol is a trailblazing concept in the blockchain realm. It introduces Bitcoin, the world’s most decentralized asset, as a staking asset for Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chains. This innovative approach allows PoS chains to leverage Bitcoin’s vast market capital and bolster their crypto-economic security significantly. Historically, PoS chains have been tethered to native assets for security, but Babylon’s protocol offers a groundbreaking alternative.
Addressing PoS Challenges
The Bitcoin Staking Protocol addresses critical challenges faced by PoS chains, such as limited staked resources and the need for high inflation to attract staking. By integrating Bitcoin into the staking process, Babylon reduces the inflationary pressure on PoS chains, offering a more sustainable economic model.
Technical Innovations
Babylon’s approach, inspired by Nakamoto’s vision, allows Bitcoin holders to provide crypto-economic security to PoS systems while earning yields through staking. Remarkably, this does not require any soft/hard fork of the Bitcoin chain, bridging, wrapping, or third-party custody of Bitcoin. This innovation taps into the potential of the vast amount of dormant Bitcoin, providing a valuable opportunity for enhancing the security of PoS chains and decentralized applications that rely on staking.
The Team and Mission
Under the guidance of its distinguished founders, Babylon’s team, comprising consensus protocol researchers and experienced layer 1 engineers, aims to scale Bitcoin to secure the decentralized economy. The project focuses on three primary facets of Bitcoin: its assets, its reliable timestamping service, and its censorship-resistant blockspace. Through its innovative protocols, including Bitcoin Staking, Timestamping, and Data Availability, Babylon envisions a more secure and decentralized future.
David Tse
David Tse, the Thomas Kailath and Guanghan Xu Professor of Engineering at Stanford University, has a notable academic and professional background. He completed his B.S. in Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo in 1989, followed by an M.S. and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1991 and 1994, respectively. Postdoctoral, he was a staff member at AT&T Bell Laboratories. Tse’s research at Stanford focuses on information theory, with applications in wireless communication, machine learning, energy, and computational biology. He has contributed significantly to the field, including designing assembly software for DNA and RNA sequencing data and inventing the proportional-fair scheduling algorithm for cellular wireless systems. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2017 Claude E. Shannon Award, and he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018.
Dr. Fisher Yu
Dr. Mingchao (Fisher) Yu, the Founding CTO of Babylon, has an impressive background blending academic research with practical applications in the field of decentralization. His academic journey includes a Ph.D. in network information theory, which laid the foundation for his later work. His initial foray into the world of decentralization came with the invention of a decentralized multimedia delivery system, which he subsequently sold to Dolby Laboratories. Following this, Dr. Yu deepened his involvement in decentralized systems during his postdoctoral research at the University of Southern California, focusing on the security and scalability of these systems.
His return to Dolby Laboratories marked a significant phase in his career, where he led the development, standardization, and production of decentralized multimedia delivery systems. Concurrently, Dr. Yu was also actively involved in the burgeoning blockchain space, assisting several well-known ICO projects with debugging, upgrading, and maintenance, as well as launching new chains. This extensive experience in both academic and practical aspects of decentralization and blockchain technology culminated in his realization of the transformative potential of these technologies. Motivated by the powerful impact of decentralization and cryptocurrency in reshaping society and enhancing collaboration, Dr. Yu co-founded Babylon, dedicating his expertise to the growth and security of the field.
The $18 million funding round marks a significant milestone for Babylon and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem. By effectively utilizing Bitcoin in the PoS economy, Babylon stands at the forefront of a major shift, potentially reshaping the landscape of decentralized finance and blockchain technology.
Author Profile
- Ex-community moderator of the Banano memecoin. I have since been involved with numerous cryptocurrencies, NFT projects and DeFi organizations. I write about crypto mainly.
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