Babylon brings Bitcoin security and faster unbonding to Router’s network
In the last few years, the blockchain industry has witnessed an incredible level of innovation in computation and decentralized finance. However, increased adoption by users has also brought with it scalability issues. Many layer 1 and layer 2 solutions have emerged as a result, focused on lower gas costs and higher transaction speeds. This has led to increased activity across multiple networks. Because of this, interoperability has become more important than ever.
Babylon is thrilled to announce its testnet integration with Router Protocol, a layer 1 cross-chain, interoperable blockchain built using Cosmos’ Tendermint consensus. This integration equips Router Protocol with Bitcoin's unmatched security layer, promoting user trust and transaction safety. Additionally, Babylon's innovative Bitcoin Security Architecture allows PoS chains to significantly reduce their secure stake unbonding time, turning weeks into just a few hours.
Incorporating Babylon’s Bitcoin Security Architecture
One of the key aspects of Babylon's integration is its Bitcoin Security Architecture, which leverages Bitcoin's robust security infrastructure as a timestamping server. This process ensures that events from Router Protocol are timestamped onto the Bitcoin blockchain, providing the same level of security as Bitcoin transactions receive.
Unbonding periods generally last weeks because they serve as a trust period where users can return to the chain and safely re-synchronize to the chain knowing any attacks that may have occurred while they were away will have already been slashed. For instance, unbonding requests on Cosmos chains typically takes 21 days.
The integration of Babylon’s innovative Bitcoin-powered security architecture significantly mitigates these risks, effectively negating the need for a prolonged trust period. It achieves this by using Bitcoin timestamps, allowing users to distinguish the genuine chain from the attack chain, as the latter would have a later Bitcoin timestamp.
In the context of the Cosmos chain, the typical duration for unbonding requests is around 21 days. But with Babylon’s application of Bitcoin security, this process is significantly expedited. Users only have to wait for the Bitcoin timestamp of their unbonding request transaction to gain sufficient confirmation on the Bitcoin blockchain — approximately after 100 Bitcoin blocks, which generally takes about a day. What the Babylon integration brings to Router Protocol in terms of stake unbonding is a secure and reliable unbonding process regardless of how long or short Router Protocol desires.
Babylon's integration with Router Protocol goes beyond merely enhancing security. Babylon's advanced Bitcoin security measures bolsters the security of high-value asset transfers across bridges between PoS chains, making them more resilient against double-spend attacks and other security risks. This increased security fosters an environment of trust and confidence for developers and users.
About Babylon
Babylon is a project that designs security protocols for the decentralized world. Babylon’s origins come from a research paper about Bitcoin security co-authored by co-founder of Babylon David Tse, a professor at Stanford and Ethereum 2.0 researcher, and the founder of EigenLayer Sreeram Kannan, and their colleagues. The project is led by a team of consensus protocol researchers from Stanford and experienced layer 1 engineers from around the world.
Babylon's mission is to scale Bitcoin to secure the decentralized world. To achieve this, Babylon utilizes the three primary facets of Bitcoin: Bitcoin as an asset, its reliable timestamping service, 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.
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