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Introducing Pell Network: BTC Restaking Network

November 26, 2024 written by 01NODE

01node is excited to announce its latest addition to our pool of networks where we serve as node operators: Pell Network. Pell is the first omnichain BTC Restaking Network, designed to enhance Bitcoin’s security potential, improve capital efficiency for stakers, and provide developers with a secure, cost-effective way to validate services. With this addition, Pell expands the capabilities of BTCFi, bridging the gap between Bitcoin’s security and the broader crypto ecosystem.

What is Pell Network?

Pell Network is an Omnichain Restaking Network built to provide cryptoeconomic security using Bitcoin and its Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD). By leveraging BTC Restaking, Pell creates a Decentralized Validated Services (DVS) ecosystem, offering a universal trust network. Pell provides a seamless way for developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) with robust security from the start, significantly lowering the barriers to entry and operational costs for new protocols.

Pell allows protocols to leverage Bitcoin’s security from day one, removing the need for costly and dilutive validator incentives. It offers a scalable and efficient solution for securing applications, enabling a broader range of developers to build innovative, secure infrastructures.

How Does Pell Network Work?

Pell Network introduces the concept of Restaking to extend Bitcoin’s security into the validation of services beyond Bitcoin’s native blockchain. Here’s how it works:

  • Restaking: BTC holders can stake their assets through Liquid Staking Derivatives (LSD) and allocate them to various Decentralized Validated Services (DVSs) within Pell’s ecosystem. This allows users to repurpose their staked assets to enhance the security of different services, such as data availability protocols, bridges, and oracles.
  • Stakers and Operators: Pell functions as a marketplace where stakers can delegate their assets to operators. These operators run the DVS software on Pell and agree to enforce specific slashing conditions that align with the security requirements of the services they validate. This decentralized model ensures integrity and enforces high standards of security across the ecosystem.
  • DVSs: Services built on Pell leverage the shared security of Bitcoin, which provides a scalable, non-dilutive way for developers to incentivize validators without having to create their own custom tokens.

In essence, Pell enables developers to quickly integrate secure and efficient validation services into their protocols by leveraging the powerful security of Bitcoin without needing to bootstrap new validator sets or risk creating inflationary reward mechanisms.

How Pell Extends the BTCFi Value Chain

Pell Network builds on the BTCFi ecosystem by introducing a new layer of security and utility for Bitcoin holders. The process works as follows:

  • BTC Liquid Staking: Bitcoin holders can liquid stake their BTC using protocols such as Lorenzo and Lombard, receiving BTC LST (Liquid Staking Tokens).
  • Pell Network’s Restaking: These LSTs can then be restaked within Pell to enhance the security of various DVSs.
  • PoS Chain Integration: Pell links with Proof of Stake (PoS) chains like Babylon to help secure transactions and earn a security yield for both BTC holders and stakers.
  • Additional Yield: DVSs built on Pell provide an extra yield layer on top of the PoS yield, maximizing capital efficiency and enhancing returns for BTC holders.

In this way, Pell extends the BTCFi value chain, offering Bitcoin holders a way to earn passive income by providing cryptoeconomic security to other decentralized services and networks.

Ecosystem Architecture Overview

Pell Network is designed with a layered modular architecture to offer omnichain shared security to developers across a wide range of blockchain ecosystems, including EVM, SVM, MoveVM, Cosmos SDK, and more. This architecture significantly reduces the integration and maintenance costs for developers in multi-chain environments.

Key components of Pell’s ecosystem include:

  • Restaking Layer: The Pell Restaking Layer allows stakers to deploy their assets across multiple blockchains without the need to switch wallets or RPC nodes. This simplifies the user experience and reduces operational complexity.
  • Pell Chain: Built on the Cosmos SDK and Tendermint PBFT consensus, Pell Chain provides fast block times and instant finality, ensuring the efficiency and scalability of transactions within the Pell Network.

By allowing seamless integration and low-cost participation in the Pell ecosystem, developers can build decentralized applications with robust, cryptoeconomic security from the outset.

Ecosystem Synergy

Pell Network works closely with Babylon and underlying blockchains to co-develop a multi-layered security framework that ensures the security of not only the base blockchain layer but also the decentralized services built on top of it.

  • Babylon’s Role: Babylon secures PoS chains and provides yield to stakers by validating transactions.
  • Pell’s Contribution: Pell enhances this by offering an additional layer of cryptoeconomic security for decentralized infrastructures and services, making the entire blockchain ecosystem more secure.

Together, Pell, Babylon, and PoS chains create a more secure and efficient blockchain ecosystem, ensuring that decentralized services are properly validated and secure across multiple networks.

Pell Chain Overview

Pell Chain is a Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK and utilizing the Tendermint PBFT consensus engine. This architecture allows Pell Chain to achieve high transaction throughput (up to 4000 transactions per second) while maintaining low latency and fast block finality. Pell Chain’s consensus engine supports scalability with the potential to accommodate over 1000 nodes in the future.

Pell Chain is designed to support decentralized validation of external blockchain states through distributed key signing by validators. Validators on Pell Chain are incentivized with staking rewards, ensuring that the network remains decentralized and secure.

Validators and Dynamic Hidden Committee (DHC)

Pell Chain uses a Dynamic Hidden Committee (DHC) to ensure the security of its payment channels. The DHC is composed of multiple verification nodes whose identities are kept hidden to prevent attacks. This setup, combined with Ring VRF election algorithms, enhances the security and privacy of Pell Chain’s operations. The DHC manages private keys for various blockchains, including Bitcoin, and ensures the integrity of cross-chain transactions.

By leveraging Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), the DHC provides an added layer of security to the network, making Pell Chain a robust platform for validating decentralized services.

Restaking Guides - How to Deposit and Withdraw on Pell Network

Pell Network offers a straightforward process for restaking BTC and earning rewards:

Deposit

  1. Navigate to https://app.pell.network.
  2. Connect your wallet to the platform.
  3. On the dashboard page, you’ll be able to see:
    • The points you’ve accumulated.
    • The amount of assets you’ve restaked, denominated in BTC.
    • The value of your restaked assets, denominated in USD.
    • Your referral codes at the top right corner, which you can share with friends.
  4. On the Restake page, select the asset you wish to restake.
  5. In the selected asset’s page, go to the order box and click on the “Deposit” tab.
  6. Enter the amount you wish to deposit, sign the approval transaction, and confirm your deposit.
  7. Click “Deposit” and wait for the deposit transaction to be confirmed.
  8. Once your deposit is successfully confirmed, you will receive a notification.
  9. Congratulations! You’ve successfully restaked and are now earning points on your assets.
  10. Don’t forget to share your referral code with friends and encourage them to restake to earn more points!

Withdraw

  1. Navigate to https://app.pell.network.
  2. Connect your wallet to the platform.
  3. Navigate to the page of the asset you wish to withdraw.
  4. In the form, click the “Unstake” tab.
  5. Enter the amount of the restaked asset you wish to withdraw and click “Unstake”.
  6. Once you click “Unstake”, the unstaking period will begin. Please note:
    • The withdrawal period takes 7 days and cannot be reversed.
    • You will stop earning points once you unstake.
  7. After 7 days, navigate to the “Withdraw” tab. Your assets will now be available for withdrawal.
  8. Click “Withdraw” to complete the withdrawal process and finish transferring your assets.

By following these steps, you can easily manage your assets within the Pell Network, whether you’re depositing to earn rewards or withdrawing your staked assets.

Cooldown Period

For security purposes, Pell implements a 7-day withdrawal delay on LSD tokens. This delay ensures the integrity of the system in case of vulnerabilities or suspicious activity.

Conclusion

Pell Network is a significant advancement in decentralized finance (DeFi), providing a secure and scalable solution to extend Bitcoin’s cryptoeconomic security to a variety of decentralized services. With its omnichain approach, user-friendly architecture, and innovative restaking features, Pell is set to become a core network for both developers and stakers. It maximizes capital efficiency while enhancing the security of decentralized applications. Pell creates new opportunities for the Web3 ecosystem, offering a versatile and efficient framework for building and securing the decentralized internet.

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