Berachain ¹

What is Berachain?

The NFT meme chain that became a serious L1 with a novel twist: your staked assets keep earning DeFi yields. The key difference: Proof-of-Liquidity means validators must provide actual liquidity to earn rewards, not just lock tokens — creating the first chain where security literally equals liquidity.

Best for: Liquidity mining maximalists, DeFi protocols wanting built-in rewards, projects needing cultural momentum.

Technical: An EVM-identical L1 using Proof-of-Liquidity consensus with a tri-token system (BERA/BGT/HONEY) built on Cosmos SDK.

• Security & Data Availability

  • Proof-of-Liquidity: validators stake LP tokens instead of native tokens
  • Staked assets remain productive in DeFi while securing the network
  • 69 active validators with ~$38M in delegated BGT governance tokens
  • Built on CometBFT (Tendermint) with single-slot finality

• Infra & Execution

  • 100% EVM-identical — MetaMask, Hardhat, Foundry work without modifications
  • BeaconKit framework enables modular consensus and L2 integration
  • Native DeFi primitives built into protocol layer (BEX, BEND, BERP)
  • Tri-token model: BERA (gas), BGT (non-transferable governance), HONEY (stablecoin)

• Performance

  • 1-2.5M daily transactions sustained post-launch
  • Sub-3 second block times with instant finality
  • Gas costs comparable to other Cosmos chains
  • Hit $3B TVL within weeks of mainnet launch

• Use Cases

  • Native DeFi suite: BEX (DEX with gas rebates), BEND (lending), BERP (20x leverage perps)
  • Liquidity wars: Kodiak, Infrared competing for BGT bribes and rewards
  • Meme culture: Originated from Bong Bears NFT, "Ooga Booga" community
  • Cross-chain liquidity: BeraHub manages BGT rewards across protocols

• Trade-offs

  • PoL is experimental — economic security depends on sustained DeFi activity
  • BGT governance is non-transferable, creating complex delegation dynamics
  • Validator rewards tied to liquidity provision, not just validation
  • Young ecosystem despite rapid growth — infrastructure still maturing

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