Today, the Nomic DAO Foundation announced its plans to integrate Babylon’s pioneering Bitcoin staking protocol into its decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge. Leveraging Babylon’s technology, Nomic is introducing stBTC, a groundbreaking Bitcoin Liquid Staking Token (LST). Additionally, through the integration of Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol, Nomic will roll out dual-stake security, where Nomic will become secured both by staked BTC and staked NOM, Nomic’s native token.
LSTs have gained significant traction in the crypto industry, with liquid staking ranked as the top decentralized finance category at over $50 billion total value locked, according to DefiLlama as of this writing. LSTs allow users to stake their assets while retaining access to the assets’ liquidity. With LSTs like stETH, for example, users can stake their Ethereum to earn yields while maintaining flexibility in their assets. Built utilizing Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol, stBTC is a new Bitcoin LST that will offer Bitcoin holders similar advantages within the Cosmos ecosystem. This innovation enables users to stake their Bitcoin to earn yield while simultaneously having the option to use their staked Bitcoin’s liquidity in IBC-compatible DeFi protocols.
Standard staking of BTC involves locking it within a UTXO, rendering it non-transferable until a specified time or event. However, Nomic’s decentralized BTC reserve enables the exchange of BTC for nBTC tokens, which can be freely moved throughout any IBC-compatible chain. Through Nomic’s Staking Pool, users can lock their nBTC to mint an equivalent amount of stBTC tokens, which like nBTC can be used throughout the Cosmos ecosystem. Redeeming stBTC involves unlocking tokens, which can be exchanged for BTC or nBTC. Moreover, stakers receive periodic rewards via IBC Interchain Account transactions, further incentivizing participation.
Nomic’s integration with Babylon will also expand upon the cutting-edge security of Nomic, while offering Bitcoin holders another avenue to stake their Bitcoin and earn yield. Nomic will become one of the first PoS chains to implement Babylon’s Bitcoin staking solution to make Nomic dual-secured by both staked NOM and BTC via Babylon. Users who stake their Bitcoin via Babylon to Nomic will earn both NOM and nBTC staking rewards, redeemable for BTC, a feature unique to Nomic.
“Nomic and Babylon provide two important primitives to Bitcoin: decentralized custody and staking.” said Matt Bell, CEO of Turbofish, Nomic’s founders and core contributors. “By pairing the two, their impact is magnified, making a more practical solution for the average Bitcoin holder to earn yield through staking. With innovations like stBTC emerging, Bitcoin DeFi now has the potential to compete with the trading volumes and total value locked of Ethereum DeFi.”
“We are thrilled to see Babylon’s Bitcoin staking protocol play a crucial role in Nomic’s launch of stBTC. This is a major step forward for Bitcoin holders that will allow them to use their staked Bitcoin for DeFi, while still supporting the security of Proof-of-Stake systems.” said David Tse, Co-founder of Babylon.
stBTC is active in testnet and is available for users to experience these features’ functionality and benefits before their official mainnet release.
About the Nomic DAO Foundation
The Nomic DAO Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to the growth and integration of the Nomic ecosystem. The Foundation supports the goals and objectives of the Nomic DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), is the initial steward of the Nomic blockchain, and will support and grow the Nomic DAO until it becomes self-sufficient.
About Nomic
Nomic is a blockchain which offers a decentralized, non-custodial Bitcoin bridge. Built on Turbofish’s Orga, a custom high-performance blockchain application framework, Nomic uses IBC to securely and efficiently bridge your BTC to Cosmos for use on any IBC-enabled chain.
About Babylon
Babylon is a blockchain project that designs security sharing protocols for the decentralized economy, founded in 2022 by Stanford Professor David Tse and Dr. Fisher Yu. Professor Tse is a member of the U.S. Academy of Engineering. He is renowned as the inventor of the legendary proportional-fair scheduling algorithm for wireless communications, and is the recipient of prestigious awards such as the IEEE Claude E. Shannon Award and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal. The project is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers and experienced layer 1 engineers from around the world.
Babylon’s mission is to scale Bitcoin to secure the decentralized economy. To achieve this, Babylon utilizes the three primary facets of Bitcoin: its asset, its reliable timestamping service, and its most censorship-resistant blockspace in the world. To leverage these facets, Babylon is developing three innovative security-sharing protocols: Bitcoin Staking Protocol, Bitcoin Timestamping Protocol, and Bitcoin Data Availability Protocol. Through these pioneering protocols, Babylon envisions a more secure and decentralized future.
