Babylon, a Bitcoin staking protocol which we have covered in detail before, has announced the sunsets of the current bbn-test-3 testnet at 12 pm UTC, 16/05/2024.
bbn-test-3 was launched in February 2024 to collect community feedback, test existing infrastructure, and find areas of improvement. Since bbn-test-3 has fulfilled its goals, the Babylon team has decided to sunset it and launch a new Testnet-4 by the end of May 2024.
Going forward, in response to users’ consistent calls for security assurances regarding staked BTC, Testnet-4 will prioritize security as its main focus. To achieve this, Babylon will focus on testing the user’s interaction with the BTC signet network. BTC signet network will be a lock-only network without a Babylon chain operating, meaning that finality providers and Bitcoin stakers will be the only participants.
Key Features of Testnet-4:
- The BTC Signet test network will be retained, while the Babylon PoS test chain will be discontinued
- Since the Babylon PoS test chain is removed, the test staking rewards will also be disabled
- The Babylon PoS removal will also remove voting. This is because finality providers will only need to publish their EOTS public keys to allow stake delegation, hence the maintenance of programs like node and finality provider daemons becomes redundant.
- A staking webb app will be set up where users can stake, unbond, and withdraw by submitting the corresponding transactions to BTC Signet test network
- Slashing will be disabled and stakers will not be requested to sign any slashing-related authorisations
On the security front, the Test-4 introduces:
- Finality provider registration: Those finality providers who want to be included in the list of staking web dapp should register in advance. The registration requirements are set out in this detailed guide. Registration steps include depositing a small amount of Signet Bitcoin and submitting a Pull Request (PR) to a dedicated Github registry repo before the testnet launch. Because POS network is removed in Test-4, there is an absence of an information registry. Therefore, registration will be done on Github to preserve decentralisation and open-source data access.
- Staking cap: starting at 5 sBTC, Babylon will gradually escalate staking limits to regulate the influx of Signet Bitcoin. This strategy will coincide with comprehensive security audits and a public security campaign aimed at evaluating the system’s robustness. Besides relying on infrastructure audits, one can simply stake and secure their assets with the Ledger wallet.
To prepare for the new testnet, stakers are encouraged to unbond and withdraw their Signet Bitcoin from the existing testnet and check the Discord faucet which is set to open soon.
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