The BABY token serves as the native asset of the Babylon Genesis chain, facilitating governance, incentivizing participation, and enabling interoperability across the Babylon ecosystem. It plays a crucial role in rewarding Bitcoin stakers, coordinating Finality Providers, and supporting decentralized governance. Through integration with platforms like Axelar, BABY extends its utility across over 70 blockchain networks, enhancing cross-chain functionality and adoption. ​

Babylon allows users to stake their Bitcoin directly without wrapping or bridging it to another blockchain. This means your BTC remains on the Bitcoin network, maintaining its native security and integrity. The protocol provides full slashable security guarantees to the chains it secures, all while keeping your Bitcoin self-custodied.

The minimum amount required to stake on Babylon is 0.005 BTC.

Yes, you can request to unbond your BTC at any time before its 64,000-block (~15 months) expiration. However, there is an on-chain unbonding period of 1,008 Bitcoin blocks (~7 days) before you can redeem your BTC.

Finality Providers (FPs) are entities that participate in the Babylon network to provide finality to transactions. They run specialized software and are responsible for signing off on blocks, ensuring the security and integrity of the network. FPs must meet certain hardware requirements and follow best practices to maintain their status and avoid penalties.

Staking BTC in the Babylon protocol is a mechanism for securing external PoS chains by providing slashable economic security without bridging or wrapping the asset. This staking is non-inflationary and preserves BTC’s native form.

In contrast, staking BABY involves participation within the Babylon Genesis chain itself, typically contributing to governance or validator selection processes. BABY staking may involve inflationary rewards and is used to secure Babylon’s internal consensus, rather than external PoS chains.