Babylon Labs

Babylon introduces a new major utility for Bitcoin: trustless and self-custodial staking. The Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol turns Bitcoin into a stakable and slashable asset for any Proof-of-Stake systems. This allows Bitcoin HODLERs to hold their Bitcoins while earning staking rewards from the PoS systems for the slashable security they provide, in the same way as how native PoS token staking works.

This is a brand new significant protocol, and it is at its very early stage. Its success lies in its protection of the Bitcoin stakers. More specifically, as long as:

• a Bitcoin staker manages its secret key properly, and
• the Bitcoin staker or the delegatee of its PoS attestation power (called a finality provider) does not act maliciously, then

no one can steal or slash the staked Bitcoin, and the Bitcoin staker can safely unbond and/or withdraw the stake as per the protocol.

Achieving such protection requires comprehensive security of the Bitcoin staking protocol at both the algorithm and implementation level. To this end, we have open-sourced all our code, and launched, on the 28th May 2024, a public Bitcoin staking testnet that focused on the Bitcoin stakers’ interaction with the Signet Bitcoin chain and the staking web DApp developed by the Babylon team. No PoS chain and staking reward is involved in this testnet.

Based on the successful operation of the testnet and the associated security audits on the code deployed in it, we are now launching a public Bitcoin Staking mainnet. This mainnet contains a staking cap that limits the amount of Bitcoins that enter into the system, with the goal of gradually rolling out the protocol.

For more information about Babylon Labs Ltd. (“Babylon Labs”), please visit https://babylonlabs.io

Babylon Labs provides rewards in USDC on Ethereum, denominated in USD. For more details about the payment process, please view the Rewards by Threat Level section.

This bug bounty program will have a hard cap of USD $3,000,000. If multiple bug reports are submitted that exceed this amount, the rewards will be provided on a first come first served basis until that cap is reached.

KYC Requirement

Babylon Labs will be requesting KYC information in order to pay for successful bug submissions. The following information will be required:

• Full name
• Date of birth
• Proof of address (either a redacted bank statement with address or a recent utility bill)
• Copy of Passport or other Government issued ID

Additional or alternate KYC information may be required by Babylon Labs or its KYC services provider. If you are an entity, KYB information will be required. Security researchers will need to provide accurate and complete information in response to each such KYC or KYB request.

Eligibility Criteria

Security researchers who wish to participate must adhere to the rules of engagement set forth in this program and cannot be:

• Official contributor, both past or present
• Employees and/or individuals closely associated with the project
• Security auditors that directly or indirectly participated in the audit review
• a resident or agent of, or an entity organized, incorporated or doing business in, any country to which the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union or any of its member states or the United Nations or any of its member states (collectively, the “Major Jurisdictions”) embargoes goods or imposes sanctions
• and is not directly or indirectly owned or controlled by, any person that is listed on any sanctions list or equivalent maintained by any of the Major Jurisdictions.

Responsible Publication

Babylon Labs adheres to category 3 - Approval Required. This Policy determines what information researchers are allowed to make public from their submitted bug reports. For more information about the category selected, please refer to our Responsible Publication page.

Primacy of Impact vs Primacy of Rules

Babylon Labs adheres to the Primacy of Impact for the following impacts:

• Blockchain/DLT - Critical
• Web/App - Critical

Primacy of Impact means that the impact is prioritized rather than a specific asset. This encourages security researchers to report on all bugs with an in-scope impact, even if the affected assets are not in scope. For more information, please see Best Practices: Primacy of Impact

When submitting a report on Immunefi’s dashboard, the security researcher should select the Primacy of Impact asset placeholder. If the team behind this project has multiple programs, those other programs are not covered under Primacy of Impact for this program. Instead, check if those other projects have a bug bounty program on Immunefi. If the project has any testnet and/or mock files, those will not be covered under Primacy of Impact. All other impacts are considered under the Primacy of Rules, which means that they are bound by the terms and conditions set within this program.

Proof of Concept (PoC) Requirements

A PoC, demonstrating the bug's impact, is required for this program and has to comply with the Immunefi PoC Guidelines and Rules.

Public Disclosure of Known Issues

Bug reports covering previously-discovered bugs (listed below) are not eligible for a reward within this program. This includes known issues that the project is aware of but has consciously decided not to “fix”, necessary code changes, or any implemented operational mitigating procedures that can lessen potential risk.

• Anything included as an open issue in the GitHub repositories.
• The informational components of the system operate under the assumption that transactions with sufficient confirmations are irreversible. In the event that a re-org happens reversing more blocks than this confirmation delta, the system will have to be restarted and re-index Bitcoin staking transactions. To combat this, the number of required confirmations defined in the global parameters is set to a high value based on historical Bitcoin data relating to re-orgs.
• A staker intentionally setting a very low Bitcoin fee, might find their transaction stuck in the mempool or included in a Bitcoin block where different staking parameters apply.
• Natural stake expiration (i.e. without on-demand unbonding) does not reduce the TVL amount the API service considers active. This design decision was made as the testnet and mainnet environments involve timelocks above a 15 month period (64000 blocks). All stake is expected to transition to the phase-2 PoS security system much earlier than that, so we do not expect naturally expiring stake for the lifespan of the phase-1 API service.

Previous Audits

Babylon Labs’ completed audit reports can be found in the following list. Any unfixed vulnerabilities mentioned in these reports are not eligible for a reward.

• Coinspect Audit: https://docs.babylonlabs.io/assets/files/coinspect-phase1-audit.pdf
• Zellic Audit: https://docs.babylonlabs.io/assets/files/zellic-phase1-audit.pdf
• Cantina Competition: https://docs.babylonlabs.io/assets/files/cantina-phase1-competition.pdf

Feasibility Limitations

The project may be receiving reports that are valid (the bug and attack vector are real) and cite assets and impacts that are in scope, but there may be obstacles or barriers to executing the attack in the real world. In other words, there is a question about how feasible the attack really is. Conversely, there may also be mitigation measures that projects can take to prevent the impact of the bug, which are not feasible or would require unconventional action and hence, should not be used as reasons for downgrading a bug's severity.

Therefore, Immunefi has developed a set of feasibility limitation standards which by default states what security researchers, as well as projects, can or cannot cite when reviewing a bug report.

Immunefi Standard Badge

By adhering to Immunefi’s best practice recommendations, Babylon Labs has satisfied the requirements for the Immunefi Standard Badge.

Additional Terms

As a condition of your participation in Babylon Labs Bug Bounty Programs, including the submission of bug reports, you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions in addition to any other terms and conditions that govern your participation. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, you should not submit any bug report.

1. Babylon Labs will determine the severity level and impact for each submission, whether any submission is within scope and eligible for a reward, and the amount of a reward within a stated range, in its reasonable discretion.

2. Babylon Labs is not liable or responsible for any costs, fees, or expenses incurred by you in connection with this Bug Bounty Program. You acknowledge and agree that you shall be solely and exclusively responsible for the payment of any and all taxes, levies, duties, or similar governmental charges (collectively, "Taxes") that may arise in connection with any reward payments made to you. However, Babylon Labs may be required by applicable law to withhold or deduct any Taxes from payments.

3. Babylon Labs is an express third-party beneficiary of the Security Researchers Terms & Conditions between you and Immunefi, and entitled to enforce the terms and conditions therein as if it were an original contracting party. Babylon Labs is the party designated to be the transferee of intellectual property rights under Section 7 of the Security Researchers Terms & Conditions.

4. Babylon Labs, its affiliates and licensors, and their respective directors, officers, and employees (collectively, “Babylon Parties”) will have no liability arising from or relating to your use of, or conduct in connection with this Bug Bounty Program or the Immunefi platform, other than Babylon Labs’ potential obligations to pay you a reward. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, under no circumstances will any Babylon Parties be responsible or liable under any theory of liability, whether based in tort, contract, negligence, strict liability, warranty, or otherwise: (a) for any direct, indirect, exemplary, special, punitive, incidental, or consequential losses or damages of any kind, including without limitation, loss of profits arising from or relating to the bug bounty program or your use of the Immunefi platform. The foregoing limitations apply even if Babylon Parties were advised of or should have known of the possibility of such losses or damages and notwithstanding any failure of essential purpose of any limited remedy. The foregoing limitations will apply even if the above stated remedy fails of its essential purpose. Some jurisdictions do not allow the limitation or exclusion of certain liabilities, and damages. Accordingly, some of the disclaimers and limitations set forth in this Agreement may not apply in full to you, but will apply to the fullest extent as permitted by applicable law.