# SatLayer on Babylon

**What is Babylon**

[Babylon Genesis](https://babylonlabs.io/) is a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain built using the Cosmos SDK, making it a part of the broader Cosmos ecosystem. Babylon Genesis will also be the first Bitcoin-secured network (BSN) in the Babylon 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 Finality Provider acts maliciously.

Babylon employs **extractable one-time signatures** (EOTS) to achieve such slashing. EOTS is a cryptographic technique that allows any third 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.

<div data-full-width="true"><figure><img src="/files/rGpFZFWxGSFDR9ReJKPd" alt="" width="563"><figcaption><p>How Babylon secures native Bitcoin on its chain</p></figcaption></figure></div>

This technology enables Babylon to secure any proof-of-stake chain against forking using staked Bitcoin. The Bitcoin staked in Babylon is staked non-custodially, meaning that the entire stack is trust-minimized. This makes Babylon a powerful, yet limited, primitive for activating the potential of Bitcoin staking for security purposes. Many applications cannot utilize Babylon for their security needs.\
\
SatLayer bridges this functionality gap by building a fully programmable slashing layer on top of Babylon. Bitcoin staked in Babylon can be **restaked** in SatLayer and used to secure off-chain **Bitcoin Validated Services** (BVSs) using programmatically specified reward and punishment schemes.

## Building SatLayer on Babylon

<figure><img src="/files/kL8mVZeu8S9uF4fd6luu" alt=""><figcaption><p>How SatLayer fits into the Babylon ecosystem</p></figcaption></figure>

SatLayer is a set of core smart contracts, written in CosmWasm, that will be deployed onto Babylon Genesis. CosmWasm is a Turing-complete smart contract 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 behaviors 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 alone to secure these types of applications, instead we must use Turing-complete smart contracts.


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.satlayer.xyz/overview/satlayer-on-babylon.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.