Bio
Co-Founder of Babylon Labs & Stanford Professor
David Tse is a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University and Co-Founder of Babylon Labs, a company developing protocols that allow Bitcoin holders to stake their BTC to provide economic security to Proof-of-Stake chains without moving Bitcoin off its native chain. Tse is a well-regarded information theorist with extensive academic work in wireless communications and network information theory; his pivot to blockchain research brought rigorous academic methods to Bitcoin security design.
Tse co-founded Babylon Labs with Fisher Yu, combining Tse's information-theoretic and cryptography background with practical protocol engineering. Babylon's core innovation is a trustless Bitcoin staking protocol that treats Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work security as a cryptoeconomic resource that can be borrowed by PoS systems.
Babylon Labs & Bitcoin Staking
Babylon Labs has developed a protocol allowing BTC holders to time-lock their Bitcoin on the Bitcoin mainchain while simultaneously generating slashable stake commitments that can be used to provide finality and security guarantees to Proof-of-Stake chains. The protocol does not wrap or bridge BTC; the Bitcoin remains on the Bitcoin network under the holder's control, with slashing executed through on-chain Bitcoin script mechanisms.
The Babylon Genesis network (Babylon's own PoS chain) uses the BABY token for governance and validator staking. The broader vision is a "Bitcoin Shared Security" ecosystem where multiple PoS chains can lease security from Bitcoin holders. Integration partners and ecosystem participants — including infrastructure providers and DeFi protocols — should be verified from official Babylon documentation for current live vs. pilot status.
Current 2026 Work
As of August 2026, David Tse holds dual roles: as a Stanford professor, continuing research in information theory, communications, and blockchain security; and as Co-Founder of Babylon Labs, where he contributes to protocol research and technical direction. Babylon's mainnet and ecosystem integrations have been actively developing through 2025–2026.
Key Contributions
- Bitcoin Staking Protocol: Co-designed a trustless mechanism for Bitcoin holders to stake BTC and provide PoS security to other chains without bridging.
- Slashing via Bitcoin Script: Developed the cryptographic mechanism enabling slashable commitments anchored directly in Bitcoin's scripting language.
- Babylon Labs Co-Founding: Co-founded Babylon Labs with Fisher Yu; bridged academic information theory with practical Bitcoin protocol design.
- Bitcoin Shared Security Model: Introduced the concept of Bitcoin as a cryptoeconomic security provider to the broader PoS ecosystem.
- Academic Research in Blockchain: Applied rigorous information-theoretic methods to analyze blockchain security properties.
Career Timeline
Extensive career as Stanford EE professor in information theory and wireless communications research.
Co-founded Babylon Labs with Fisher Yu; began developing Bitcoin staking protocol.
Babylon published Bitcoin staking protocol research; mainnet and Genesis network development progressed.
BABY token launched; Babylon Genesis network operational; ecosystem integrations expanded.
Continues as Co-Founder of Babylon Labs and Stanford Professor; advancing Bitcoin shared security ecosystem.
Sources & Verification
Information last checked: August 2026
Profile at a glance
- Country
- USA
- Status
- Active
