SatLayer on Babylon
Last updated
Last updated
Babylon Chain is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK, making it a part of the broader Cosmos ecosystem. What sets Babylon apart is its security model: instead of solely relying on its own token and validators for security, Babylon has an extra guarantee secured by Finality Providers who stake native Bitcoin. This native Bitcoin remains on the Bitcoin network, but can still be slashed if a Finaly Provider acts maliciously.
Babylon employs extractable one-time signatures (EOTS) to achieve this. EOTS a cryptographic technique that allows any 3rd party to extract the private key of a Bitcoin wallet, if that wallet attested to a double-spend or fork attack. Thus, when a validator acts maliciously, the staked Bitcoin can be slashed as a penalty.
SatLayer is a set of core smart contracts, written in CosmWasm, and deployed on Babylon’s smart contracts. CosmWasm is a Turing-complete platform that allows for highly customizable smart contracts. This flexibility allows SatLayer to implement advanced security features, including tailored slashing mechanisms to penalize specific types of malicious behavior on the network.
These custom slashing mechanisms are crucial for applications such as oracles, data availability platforms, bridges, and decentralized exchanges, as their security requirements extend beyond basic equivocation attacks like fork attacks or double spends. As a result, we cannot use extractable one-time signatures (EOTS) alone to secure these types of applications, instead we must use Turing-complete smart contracts.
