Berachain Mainnet Launch Announcement

The much-anticipated Layer 1 Berachain is set to launch its mainnet in just two days, according to the Berachain Foundation.

> “Berachain’s mainnet will launch on February 6th, 2025,” the Berachain Foundation posted to X on Tuesday. “TGE will occur at the same time as the mainnet launch. Tokenomics and checker tomorrow.”

Berachain is an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible Layer 1 blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK that employs a variant of delegated proof of stake consensus known as “proof of liquidity.” This mechanism is designed to ensure resistance to attacks while harmonizing staking with the alignment of incentives for security and liquidity.

The public test network named Artio was rolled out in January 2024, with the mainnet originally scheduled for release in Q2 2024. Upon launch, Berachain will be supported by custodians, cross-chain messaging, bridging protocols, and data availability solutions.

This bear-themed crypto project is led by a group of pseudonymous co-founders known as Homme Bera, Dev Bear, Papa Bear, and Smokey the Bera. Under development since late 2021, Berachain represents the co-founders’ primary foray into the industry following the NFT project “Bong Bears.”

In April 2024, Berachain announced raising $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Framework Ventures and the Abu Dhabi branch of Brevan Howard Digital. Previously, the project raised $42 million in a private token round led by Polychain Capital in April 2023.

How Berachain Works

Unlike traditional proof of stake chains, which require users to choose between contributing to security by staking with a validator or providing liquidity on a DeFi platform, proof of liquidity allows users to enhance network security only by first providing liquidity to a set of DeFi primitives, according to the team.

In Berachain’s tri-token system, users earn BGT staking tokens by providing liquidity to on-chain protocols such as the native DEX or stablecoin lending platforms.

> “BGT is naturally illiquid and soulbound, and cannot be market bought, only earned,” the team added. Rewards are managed through validators and the network’s governance process. However, BGT can be burned for the network’s native gas token, bera, in a one-way process.

Validators then reinvest the staking rewards back into the Berachain ecosystem across multiple supported protocols to maintain liquidity. Users delegating BGT tokens to validators earn fees in honey tokens, Berachain’s native stablecoin, from the protocols on the network, as well as “bribes” from the validators to whom they delegate.

> “Through their contribution to liquidity on the chain, users bootstrap its security,” the team stated, while also earning rewards. Protocols that pass governance votes can integrate their smart contracts into Berachain’s liquidity pool, thereby attracting liquidity at reduced costs and enhancing capital efficiency. Furthermore, “for Cosmos validators, there’s a chance to draw in new capital and delegates from the EVM world, which has been a significant barrier to growth in the Cosmos ecosystem,” they added.

The Block reached out to Berachain for further comment.