Babylon will launch its Phase-2 testnet, bbn-test-5, on Jan. 8, 2025. The testnet will focus on the development of the Babylon PoS chain and will only make use of simulated tokens, including Signet Bitcoin and Babylon Token, for testing.
Production of blocks will officially commence at 9 AM UTC on the launch day. This is when registration for validators and finality providers will start being possible. This would be followed one hour later with an upgraded staking web app that will come an hour after this at 10:00 UTC.
It will let users migrate their Phase-1 stakes to the new Phase-2 chain. The old staking application will be available for viewing Phase-1 stakes until 8:30 AM UTC on the same day.
The core objective of Phase-2 is to test the integration of fresh stakes with Signet Bitcoin stakes from Phase-1. Participants include Signet Bitcoin stakers, finality providers, CometBFT validators, wallets, and dApp developers. It will also look toward Liquid staking protocols and smart contract deployment on the network.
Babylon sets participation guidelines for validators and stakers
Participation will require Signet Bitcoin and Babylon test tokens; two faucets, Discord and OKX, will dispense the tokens after their launch. It requires Signet Bitcoin tokens to create new stakes, while the Babylon tokens will be necessary to register a stake on the Phase-2 chain. Each faucet has limits per request to enforce fairness in token distribution.
The stakers can fill in information about their Phase-1 stakes within the first 72 hours. After that, all stakes are registrable, but there might be a limit to new ones so as not to allow spam. The minimum per transaction would be 0.0005 Signet Bitcoin, and the maximum would be up to 350 Signet Bitcoin.
Some of the most important entities include validators and testnet finality providers. Validators are to be responsible for consensus and block production, while finality providers will vote to secure the network. It is expected that wallet providers support integration, while deployment for developers could be permissionless smart contracts.
Participation eligibility excludes individuals and entities from sanctioned jurisdictions, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Mainland China. The exclusion criteria also apply to entities listed on global sanctions lists. This policy ensures compliance with international regulations.
