<\/p>\n
Can Bitcoin help enhance the security of proof-of-stake blockchains? The team behind the Babylon network has published a new paper exploring that question.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Babylon is built using the Cosmos software development kit (SDK) and was designed by a team of researchers from Stanford University. And as Blockworks has previously reported, the team isn\u2019t new to the idea of using Bitcoin in conjunction with the network.<\/p>\n
The team released a paper earlier this year for a Bitcoin timestamping protocol<\/a> for use by proof-of-stake networks. Yet according to David Tse, the founder of Babylon Chain and a Stanford University professor, the timestamping protocol has limitations. Namely, it\u2019s only useful for long-range security protection.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe timestamp takes a long time before it becomes secure on the Bitcoin chain, because Bitcoin is very slow,\u201d Tse said.<\/p>\n The latest paper<\/a> explores the other end of the spectrum: utilizing Bitcoin for short-range security on such chains.\u00a0<\/p>\n A problem faced today by many layer-1 proof-of-stake blockchains (outside of Ethereum) is that the capital backing the chain is comparatively insignificant. According to Tse, most proof-of-stake chains rely on their native tokens to back their assets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea we have is, is it possible to use a non-native asset to secure a chain?\u201d Tse said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s where Bitcoin comes in. Although using Bitcoin to secure a proof-of-stake chain may sound impossible \u2014\u00a0 Bitcoin is a distinct, proof-of-work chain \u2014 Tse and his team have utilized simple staking logic to make this possible.<\/p>\n \u201cStaking has similarities to lending. When you borrow money to me, you might be worried that I will run away with the money, so you demand collateral \u2014 for example my house \u2014 this means if I run away, you can take my house,\u201d Tse said.\u00a0<\/p>\n To participate in network activities on a proof-of stake-chain, one must provide collateral. In the event a staker proves to be malicious, their stake is subsequently taken from them in a process known as slashing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe challenge for our problem then, is how do we slash the Bitcoin asset,\u201d Tse said.<\/p>\n Bridging<\/a>, in this case, wouldn\u2019t be an option, as Bitcoin bridging is often considered an insecure process, Tse said. Further, Bitcoin does not support smart contracts as far as its scripting language capability is concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n What Babylon\u2019s latest paper proposes is using a particular cryptographic scheme so that once a validator does something wrong, their private key is automatically revealed.<\/p>\n \u201cSlashing functionalities is achieved through a spending condition which is expressible in the Bitcoin scripting language,\u201d Tse said. \u201cThere is a type of signature called the extractable one-time signature \u2014 which means when you sign something once, it is secure, but when you use the same key to sign something twice, then automatically your key will be revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n Within Babylon\u2019s Bitcoin staking protocol, all slashable offenses then can be reduced to signing something twice \u2014 which will cause a private key to be revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s an approach that could prove compelling for participants \u2014\u00a0but one not devoid of risk.<\/p>\n Bob Summerwill, the executive director of the Ethereum Classic Cooperative, told Blockworks that Babylon\u2019s \u201csell\u201d is that stakers are getting yield on Bitcoin. \u201cBut that also means that you are putting it at risk,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, the Babylon team is soliciting feedback from the community. It plans to launch a mainnet early next year.<\/p>\n Get the day\u2019s top crypto news and insights delivered to your email every evening.\u00a0Subscribe to Blockworks\u2019 free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0now.<\/strong><\/p>\n Want alpha sent directly to your inbox? Get degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance, can\u2019t-miss tweets and more from\u00a0Blockworks Research\u2019s Daily Debrief<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Can\u2019t wait? Get our news the fastest way possible.\u00a0Join us on Telegram<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Google News<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Can Bitcoin help enhance the security of proof-of-stake blockchains? The team behind the Babylon network has published a new paper exploring that question.\u00a0 Babylon is built using the Cosmos software development kit (SDK) and was designed by a team of researchers from Stanford University. And as Blockworks has previously reported, the team isn\u2019t new to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[230,225,221,227,226,228,229,60,223,224,222],"class_list":["post-138160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency","tag-brave","tag-coinbase","tag-crypto","tag-decentralised","tag-decentralized","tag-decentralized-exchange","tag-erc-20","tag-featured","tag-meme-coin","tag-robinhood","tag-solana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138160"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148179,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138160\/revisions\/148179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dripp.zone\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How it works\u00a0<\/h2>\n
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