Unlocking 21 Million BTC to secure the DeFi Economy

Bitcoin is back. It could be attributed to the increasing prices, Bitcoin ordinals or the development of Layer 2 initiatives on the most secure blockchain ever. In today’s episode, Ian Andrews (CMO, Chainalysis) speaks with Stanford Professor and Co-founder of BabylonChain, Davide Tse, to explore how Bitcoin can be used to secure proof of stake networks without the use of bridges. 

The episode kicks off with an introduction to BabylonChain, a protocol designed to leverage Bitcoin for securing proof of stake networks using Bitcoin's native time lock feature and cryptographic methods to ensure both security and incentivization of honest behavior by stakers.

David discusses his early days collaborating with Vitalik Buterin to identify vulnerabilities in Ethereum’s move to proof of stake and highlights the renewed interest in Bitcoin, powered by recent ETF approvals and L2 projects.

Minute-by-minute episode breakdown

2 | Why Bitcoin is the perfect asset to secure Proof of Stake blockchains 

4 | David Tse’s past life focused on wireless infrastructure to figuring out how to scale Bitcoin 

6 | Collaborating with Vitalik Buterin to transition Ethereum to a Proof of Stake protocol

8 | Integrating Bitcoin with Proof of Stake without bridging

13 | What is Babylon Chain and how does it work 

18 | The renewed interest in Bitcoin due to Bitcoin ETF approvals and Bitcoin L2 projects 

22 | The collaboration with Nubit, the first Bitcoin-native data availability layer

24 | How Babylon Chain can go from testnet to mainnet 

26 | What assets are staking rewards paid in?

28 | Bitcoin is Back and the innovation that will be built on top of it 

Related resources

Check out more resources provided by Chainalysis that perfectly complement this episode of the Public Key.

• Website: BabylonChain: Unlocking 21 Million Bitcoin to Secure the Decentralised Economy
• Blog: What is Bitcoin Staking?
• Article: Forbes: How Bitcoin Usage Could Skyrocket Thanks To Zero-Knowledge Proofs
• Article: Blockworks: Yes, staking actually should be regulated
• Blog: Zero-Knowledge Rollups and Optimistic Rollups: An Overview
• Report: The 2024 Global Adoption Index: Central & Southern Asia and Oceania (CSAO) Region Leads the World in Terms of Global Cryptocurrency Adoption
• YouTube: Chainalysis YouTube page
• Twitter: Chainalysis Twitter: Building trust in blockchain
• Telegram: Chainalysis on Telegram 

Speakers on today’s episode

• Ian Andrews * Host * (Chief Marketing Officer, Chainalysis) 
• David Tse (Co-Founder, BabylonChain)

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