Bitlayer
Status
Mainnet
Type
Sidechain
Fee Token
WBTC
TVL
₿ 5397
Bitlayer's mainnet v1 is a federated sidechain. It supports an EVM execution environment with plans to support other VMs.
CUSTODY
DATA AVAILABILITY
OPERATORS
FINALITY ASSURANCE
BTC Locked
Total amount of locked on per day
Trust Assumption Review
BTC Custody
Very High
🛑
Bitlayer WBTC
Users trust federated signers set to custody their BTC. Less than 5, individual signers have been publicly announced
Bitlayer's current BTC bridge is a federated two-way peg with institutional signers. Bitlayer is working with multiple MPC custody platforms.
Users do not custody bitcoin assets backing tokens on Bitlayer.
Note that we are unable to verify the participants in this model - Source
Users do not custody bitcoin assets backing tokens on Bitlayer.
Note that we are unable to verify the participants in this model - Source
Data Availability
Medium
⚠️
Data is stored offchain with node software open-source
Bitlayer does not currently use Bitcoin for data availability. The data availability requirement is currently fulfilled by Bitlayer full nodes. The Bitlayer node software is open source and anyone can run a node and validate the state of Bitlayer.
Network Operators
Under Review
🔬
Bitlayer is operated by a permissioned validator set
Bitlayer blocks are currently produced by a permissioned validator set. There are currently 21 validators participating in Bitlayer consensus. Users cannot bypass this operator set if they are censored by the validator set.
🔬We are currently reviewing the identities of Bitlayer's validators.
🔬We are currently reviewing the identities of Bitlayer's validators.
Finality Guarantees
High
🚨
Bitlayer validators finalize blocks
There is no onchain enforcement of Bitlayer state transitions on bitcoin. Bitlayer's state transitions are finalized by a permissioned validator set. Validators sign off on proposed blocks and finalize them in the chain.
Bitcoin Security
Bitlayer does not currently inherit any security from Bitcoin consensus participants
Bitlayer is a federated sidechain, and Bitcoin consensus participants do not participate in securing Bitlayer.
BTR token issued, but validators are not required to stake BTR
None of the validators in Bitlayer’s validator set are staking its native token, BTR. Currently the BTR supply is 1B and is dispersed across 6 addresses. It is unknown if Bitlayer will use this token to incentivize its current set of validators, or other future operators.
No MEV introduced to Bitcoin
Bitlayer, due to a lack of current relationship with Bitcoin, does not introduce MEV on the Bitcoin blockchain. Users trust that Bitlayer's permissioned validator set will not extract MEV.
Bitlayer does not contribute to the security budget
Bitlayer does not currently contribute to the Bitcoin security budget.
Withdrawals
Users cannot unilaterally withdraw from the Bitlayer sidechain
Users of Bitlayer's primary bridge program, or third party bridges, cannot unilaterally withdraw their assets from Bitlayer. They trust that Bitlayer validators will include withdrawal transactions in Bitlayer blocks, and that multi-sig signers will process their withdrawal back to the Bitcoin mainchain.
Technology
Ethereum Virtual Machine
Bitlayer uses an EVM-compatible virtual machine. The Ethereum Virtual Machine is software responsible for smart contract execution for a number of blockchains, namely the Ethereum Network. It uses Solidity/Vyper as its code and is the dominant environment for smart contract execution in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Bitlayer is EVM-compatible, which means that a developer from Ethereum would have less difficulty deploying their applications on Bitlayer compared to other execution environments.
Use Cases
Onchain applications
Onchain applications are supported. Onchain applications including borrowing and lending protocols, onchain exchanges (commonly referred to as decentralized exchanges), and more. These applications are supported with more expressive smart contract environments.
Source Code
Portions of code is open-source
Some of the code related to the Bitlayer project is open-source.
Knowledge Bits
Learn more