Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author: Golem (@web3_golem)
Yesterday, the first phase of the Bitcoin staking protocol Babylon Cap-2 staking ended. Although the staking only lasted for 10 blocks, there were still nearly 23,000 BTC 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?
Odaily Planet Daily will analyze the above issues in this article, and count the pledge status of the mainstream Babylon re-pledge agreement in Cap-2. Finally, it will briefly discuss whether there are hidden dangers in user funds security and Babylon ecological development while the re-pledge ecosystem is growing?
Why is Cap-2 staking so quiet?
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:
Staking rule changes
The Cap-1 pledge rule not only has a pledge hard cap, but also the upper limit of each pledge transaction is only 0.05BTC, and the lower limit is 0.005BTC. In contrast, the Cap-2 pledge removes the pledge upper limit and changes it to a "limited time but unlimited quantity" pledge mechanism. The pledge period is 10 blocks (864790-864799), and the upper limit of a single pledge is increased from 0.05BTC to 500BTC.
The limited-time, unlimited-quantity mechanism can alleviate the user's FOMO emotions 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 agreements 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 500BTC, which is suitable for the needs of institutions and re-pledge projects.
Therefore, the change in pledge rules is the main reason for the “calmness” on the Babylon Cap-2 pledge chain.
Staking Points Diluted
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 stakes 0.05 BTC, it can earn 3,125* 0.05/1000 = 0.15625 points for each Bitcoin block. The "first mining" benefit is 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.
Staking is now dominated by institutions and project owners
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 official disclosure, about 80% of the 1,000 BTC staking amount comes from Liquid Staking Token (LST) projects, and about 20% comes from native stakers. In Cap-2 staking, the proportion of re-staking projects has further increased. According to Odaily Planet Daily statistics, the proportion of mainstream re-staking projects has reached nearly 90%, and the proportion of native stakers may have been less than 10%.
The main battlefield of Babylon 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 Babylon's re-pledge ecosystem, which provides convenience for users.
Who is the craziest at staking BTC?
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%.
Among them, Lombard has pledged the most BTC in Cap-2, with a total of 7,166 BTC, accounting for 31.66% in Cao-2. Previously, in Cap-1, Lombard did not choose to pledge BTC to Babylon due to excessive handling fees. So far, users have deposited 8,081.8 BTC on its platform, and the platform pledge rate (the ratio between BTC pledged to Babylon and BTC deposited by users on the platform) has reached more than 88%.
In addition, the protocols with platform pledge rates reaching 100% include Solv, Chakra, and pSTAKE.
Does the re-pledge agreement go against Babylon’s original intention?
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-stake. On the one hand, re-staking not only allows users to enjoy rewards from the re-staking platform and Babylon, but also allows users to enjoy staking rewards from the platform even if they have not staked their BTC in Babylon. On the other hand, due to the complexity of Babylon's staking rules and time, the re-staking agreement can save users energy and time.
But from a security perspective, is it worth sacrificing some security for the sake of profit and convenience? Even contrary to Babylon’s narrative of trustlessness and BTC self-custody?
Babylon's re-pledge agreement currently uses a custody solution. Previously, Bedrock was attacked and caused a loss of about 2 million US dollars on DEX. Although the official repaired and compensated users later, 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 principal is threatened, the points reward obtained by staking 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.
