Author: HAOTIAN-CRYPTOINSIGHT; Source: Substack
How do we perceive the collaboration between ParticleNetwork and Babylon? In simple terms, Particle’s Omini unified entry point, built on the chain abstraction framework, must coordinate the processing of a large number of cross-chain communications and transactions. By introducing Babylon’s Dual Staking dual staking model, the dual security of $PARTI + $BTC can provide a “double insurance” for the underlying security operating mechanism of the Particle POS chain. Next, let me briefly explain my understanding:
1) Particle Network provides a chain abstraction L1 network, built on a modular architecture based on the Cosmos SDK, allowing it to simultaneously connect the EVM environment, BTC stateless chain environment, and other POS chain environments that support smart contracts. As I have analyzed in previous articles, it essentially encapsulates a set of Interoperability capabilities, including: low-level language compilation, account model compatibility, interoperable smart contract standards, and other component designs that facilitate a unified user UX experience. To become a unified access point chain connecting various heterogeneous chain environments, Particle Chain must ensure that it is a very powerful POS chain, which can then achieve a unified full-chain account. The total contract of Particle Chain will schedule the synchronization and verification of accounts and state information on various heterogeneous chains, routing and processing of cross-chain information, and so on. For non-smart contract chains like BTC, Particle has specifically introduced BTC Connect to achieve communication and interconnection between native BTC wallets and EVM Compatible POS chains, making the mechanism more complex than normal POS chain communication. If you are familiar with the logic of the IBC relayer processing mechanism in Cosmos, you will understand that Particle Chain needs to deploy sub-contracts on other heterogeneous chains, while using the total contract on the main chain to listen to transactions and state updates on various chains, and respond to and process a large number of requirements in an orderly manner. Moreover, Particle has implemented many interactive experience upgrades through chain abstraction. The limited interaction perceived by users will be followed by more complex contract interaction logic. Particle accepts complex intent operation instructions from users through decentralized Bundler services and performs complex Solver processing. The coordination work of the Relayer relayer in this process requires higher “security” requirements. Usually, the underlying framework of a POS chain needs to ensure that nodes do not behave maliciously by staking native token tokens. However, if the early token price fluctuates significantly, malicious nodes may hoard a large number of tokens to potentially carry out governance attacks, seriously undermining the stability of the chain. Especially for hubs like Particle that coordinate a large amount of inter-chain communication, any slight error in the consensus governance layer is intolerable.
2) Recently, Babylon has secured a huge investment led by Paradigm, and its native technical security mechanism is recognized by the industry. As one of the first public chains to launch the Babylon Dual Staking dual staking model, the goal of the collaboration between Particle and Babylon is to “strengthen” the security mechanism of the underlying POS chain. Since both parties have deep integration and application in the BTC ecosystem, a strong alliance will directly elevate the security architecture of Particle Chain by one level. How is this technical logic achieved? Babylon can implement a hierarchical asset security model through various technologies such as time lock, one-time signature EOTS, and final round multi-signature consensus, ensuring that user assets remain on the main network when crossing to the second-layer network, without having to worry about threats to user assets caused by malicious behavior on the second-layer POS chain. Specifically, Babylon combines multiple technologies to achieve a “layered” asset security model: The first layer of security locks user assets in a multi-signature contract on the main network through a time lock, so that if there are issues on the second-layer network, user assets will not be immediately compromised, providing users with a basic guarantee through the high security of the Bitcoin main network; The second layer of security makes it difficult for attackers to meet the conditions for attacking the second-layer network, constrained by the final round multi-signature consensus. Attackers not only need to stake native tokens on the second layer but also lock a certain amount of BTC on the BTC main network. Even if attackers can gain “governance” rights through low-value tokens on the second layer, they must also own corresponding BTC assets on the main network to truly succeed, making the cost of malicious behavior so high that ordinary nodes dare not even think about it. The third layer of security cleverly uses BTC timestamps to prevent “long-range attacks.” Even if attackers attempt to fork the second-layer chain, they must also fork the main network’s longest chain. Considering the huge computational power and security of the Bitcoin main chain, this type of attack would clearly be astronomically difficult;
Based on the above understanding, the value significance of the Particle+Babylon alliance collaboration is self-evident.