Who is still staking BTC crazily?

Yesterday, the first phase of the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon Cap-2 staking ended. Although the staking only lasted for 10 blocks, nearly 23,000 BTC were still involved in the staking. However, judging from the community discussion and on-chain fees, the staking in the Babylon Cap-2 phase is obviously much calmer. What is the reason for the difference before and after? Who is still staking BTC crazily?

Looking back at the staking in the Babylon Cap-1 phase, in order for users to stake BTC into Babylon, the Bitcoin network transaction fee was pushed up to over 1,000 satoshis/byte, and the transaction Gas loss exceeded 4% of the principal. It eventually took more than three hours to reach the staking limit of 1,000 BTC, with approximately 12,700 participating addresses.

In contrast, the Cap-2 stage was much calmer on the staking chain. Although the total staking amount was 22,891 BTC and the number of participating addresses was 12,570, the average transaction fee during the period was only maintained at 30 satoshis/byte. There are three main reasons for this difference:

The Cap-1 pledge rules not only have a pledge hard cap, but also the upper limit of each pledge transaction is only 0.05 BTC, and the lower limit is 0.005 BTC. In contrast, the Cap-2 pledge removes the pledge upper limit and changes it to a "limited time, unlimited quantity" pledge mechanism, with a pledge period of 10 blocks (864790-864799), and increases the upper limit of a single pledge from 0.05 BTC to 500 BTC.

The limited-time, unlimited-quantity mechanism can alleviate the FOMO sentiment of users to a certain extent, and pledge according to the time schedule. The change in the upper limit of a single pledge may have little impact on retail investors who pledge independently, but it has a greater impact on some re-pledge protocols and institutions. Because their pledge volume is often large, a low upper limit of a single pledge will force them to trade more frequently and more easily cause on-chain congestion. The upper limit of a single pledge in the Cap-2 stage is 500 BTC, which is suitable for the needs of institutions and re-pledge projects.

Therefore, the change in staking rules is the main reason for the “calmness” on the Babylon Cap-2 staking chain.

In Cap-1, because of the 1,000 BTC staking cap, the 3,125 points generated by each block are distributed according to the staking ratio. For example, if an address has staked 0.05 BTC, it can earn 3,125* 0.05/1,000 = 0.15625 points for each Bitcoin block. The "first mining" benefits are also the biggest reason why Cap-1 can cause FOMO.

While the points distribution mechanism remains unchanged, the points generated by each block will increase to 10,000 points after Cap-2 is enabled. At this time, if an address still has 0.05 BTC staked, it can now earn 10,000* 0.05/23891 = 0.0209 points for each Bitcoin block passed.

It can be seen that after Cap-2 staking is enabled, the staking points are severely diluted, which will also affect users’ enthusiasm for participation to a certain extent.

According to statistics, there are 12,700 addresses participating in Cap-1 staking, and 12,570 addresses participating in Cap-2 staking. Not only has there been no significant increase, the number of addresses has even decreased slightly.

In Cap-1 staking, according to the official disclosure, about 80% of the 1,000 BTC staking amount comes from Liquid Staking Token (LST) projects, and about 20% comes from native speakers. In Cap-2 staking, the proportion of re-staking projects has further increased. According to Daily Planet Daily statistics, the proportion of mainstream re-staking projects has reached nearly 90%, and the proportion of native speakers may have been less than 10%.

The main battlefield of Babylon's pledge is undoubtedly institutions and re-pledge projects, which are professionally pledged through custodians and some transaction final confirmation service providers. For users who have already deposited BTC into the re-pledge platform, they do not need to directly participate in the whole process, or even pay attention to it, but only need to collect rewards at a specific time. Therefore, Cap-2 pledge looks very "calm", which is also due to the continuous development and growth of the Babylon re-pledge ecosystem, which provides convenience for users.

Odaily Planet Daily counted the pledge status of the current 7 mainstream Babylon re-pledge protocols in Cap-1 and Cap-2.

According to the data in the above table, overall, these seven re-pledge agreements account for more than 80% of the total pledge share in Cap-1, and the share in Cap-2 pledge increases to about 90%.

Babylon has developed a trustless and self-custodial solution that allows users to securely stake their BTC and earn rewards while providing security for the POS system.

The Babylon ecological re-pledge agreement acts as a "pledge intermediary" between users and Babylon. Users first deposit BTC into the re-pledge platform, and then when Babylon pledge is turned on, it uses business and technical expertise to help users pledge BTC into BTC. In terms of rewards, users can enjoy double points rewards from the platform and Babylon.

From the perspective of benefits and convenience, it is understandable that users re-pledge. On the one hand, re-pledge not only allows users to enjoy rewards from the re-pledge platform and Babylon, but also allows users to enjoy staking rewards from the platform even if they have not pledged their BTC to Babylon. On the other hand, because Babylon's staking rules and time are relatively complicated, the re-pledge agreement can save users energy and time.

But from a security perspective, is it worth sacrificing some security for the sake of benefits and convenience? Even contrary to the narrative promoted by Babylon of trustlessness and BTC self-custody?

Babylon's re-pledge agreement currently uses a custody solution. Previously, Bedrock has stolen about 2 million US dollars due to a contract loophole. Although the official later repaired and compensated users, this incident also made users worry about the security of the re-pledge agreement. Will there be other black swan events in the future? When the user's pledged principle is threatened, the points reward obtained by the pledge will be worthless like "Happy Beans".

"Not your keys, not your coins", Babylon tries to release the potential of BTC without breaking this principle, but if the security of the re-staking protocol within the ecosystem is not taken seriously and upgraded, or the native staking ratio remains low, then the problem may return to the starting point.

Is it a good sign that over 90% of Babylon Cap-2 pledges are wrapped up by LST programs? Try it together for free!