Native Gas Coin & BabyFX DEX
The native BabyChain coin is the network's execution asset. It has three distinct jobs:
- Gas for native transfers and smart-contract calls on BabyChain L1
- Execution gas for the planned BabyFX DEX (swaps, approvals, liquidity operations)
- On-chain medium for any future protocol utility that requires a native asset
It is not automatically a swap fee token, a dividend token, or a governance token. Those roles are defined per protocol and have not been deployed.
Why a blockchain needs a native gas asset
Every EVM-compatible chain prices transactions in a native asset for three reasons:
- Spam resistance. A non-zero minimum gas price prevents free transaction floods. BabyChain uses a low non-zero minimum gas price as a spam shield.
- Validator compensation. Validators collect the gas paid by transactions. The native coin is the only asset that can be paid without depending on a third-party token.
- Deterministic accounting. Protocol-level operations (state, validator self-stake, slashing) need a single canonical asset. Without it, the chain cannot price its own block space.
The native coin is the one asset the chain will always accept and never reject. This is what makes it the network's gas.
Which actions consume gas
On BabyChain L1 today:
| Action | Pays gas in | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Native coin transfer (send / receive) | 2BABY | Cheap, ~1 second finality |
| EVM transaction (contract call, deployment) | 2BABY | Same gas unit as native transfer |
| Smart-contract execution | 2BABY | Per EVM opcode accounting |
| Validator self-stake / operations | 2BABY | Carved from the operations bucket at genesis |
On the planned BabyFX DEX (not yet live):
| Action | Pays gas in | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Token approval | 2BABY (planned) | Standard ERC-20 approve |
| Swap (exact input / exact output) | 2BABY (planned) | DEX contract call |
| Add liquidity | 2BABY (planned) | Pair contract call |
| Remove liquidity | 2BABY (planned) | Pair contract call |
| Other protocol interactions | 2BABY (planned) | Per final DEX design |
Swap and liquidity-provider fees depend on the final BabyFX DEX protocol design. The current specification does not guarantee that swap fees are paid in the native coin; that decision is part of the protocol design phase. This page will be updated once the final design is published.
How the native coin interacts with the DEX
When the BabyFX DEX ships, every contract call on it will be a normal EVM transaction. That means:
- Network gas (the cost of running the EVM) is paid in 2BABY
- Swap fees (the protocol's own fee on each trade) are defined per DEX contract — not yet locked
- LP rewards (if any) are defined per incentive contract — not yet locked
The native coin is required for execution gas, but it is not necessarily the fee or reward token. Treat those as separate protocol decisions.
Current status
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Network gas paid in native coin | ✅ Live on testnet |
| 1B hard-capped supply at genesis | ✅ Designed, pending public mainnet |
| BabyFX DEX on-chain contracts | ❌ Not deployed |
| BabyFX DEX swap fees paid in native coin | ❌ Not specified |
| BabyFX DEX UI | ❌ Not shipped |
For the broader roadmap, see Roadmap & gaps and the Locked decisions page.
How to obtain 2BABY today
The native coin is not currently sold or distributed. There is no public sale, no airdrop, and no claim form. The 1B genesis supply is allocated across treasury, reserve, team, operations, and faucet buckets per the Locked decisions page.
The faucet, when active, issues testnet 2BABY to anyone running a local node. See Run locally for instructions.
See also
- What is BabyChain? — primary product page
- The chain — chain identity, denominations, supply allocation
- Locked decisions — canonical parameters
- Roadmap & gaps — what is and is not in production