Researcher

About SatLayer

SatLayer is the leading provider of shared security for Bitcoin, unleashing the possibilities of the world’s best economic collateral. We’re the premier Babylon partner and work closely with the team in extending BTC restaking support to dApps and infrastructure of all shapes and sizes as BVSes (Bitcoin Validated Service).

We are founded by serial entrepreneurs from MIT, Stanford, Y Combinator; and backed by notable leaders in crypto, including Hack VC, Castle Island Ventures, OKX Ventures, Mirana Ventures, and Franklin Templeton.

The role

SatLayer’s mission is to unlock Bitcoin’s potential to secure the world via shared security. To achieve this, we are looking for a giga-brain researcher to help build and grow Bitcoin restaking. Do you love keeping up with the latest research in decentralized protocol mechanisms and designing new architectures? Are you able to make and understand rigorous arguments regarding the safety and liveness of distributed systems?

At SatLayer, you will be part of a small, driven team solving highly technical problems in a fast-paced environment. You will work regularly with our dApp and infrastructure partner protocols to design sound and incentive-aligned BVS architectures that best fit their crypto-economic security needs. You will also be responsible for identifying promising new categories of BVS applications and communicating those insights to the wider Web3 audience.

Join us our journey to unlock the potential of Bitcoin as programmable collateral.

Key responsibilities

• Designing crypto-economically sound BVS architectures with our partner protocols
• Researching and writing blog articles about interesting BVS categories and/or core protocol mechanics
• Researching new AVS projects on EigenLayer and networks on Symbotic to understand their architecture/cryptographic security assumptions at a deep level
• Writing technical litepapers describing various aspects of the SatLayer protocol such as the slashing mechanism, tokenomics, etc.
• Collaborating on academic whitepapers proving various correctness and liveness properties of the SatLayer protocol

Requirements

• Masters or crypto-equivalent in a technical or engineering related field
• Technical whitepapers and/or academic papers published in peer reviewed journals
• Deep understanding of a wide range of decentralized application architectures such as:
  • L1 consensus mechanisms
  • Optimistic and ZK-rollup settlement mechanisms
  • BitVM2 settlement on Bitcoin
  • Slashable safety on Babylon
  • Restaking protocols such as Eigenlayer
  • How various DeFi protocols work, such as money markets, interest rate swaps, AMMs, perp protocols, etc.
    • Bonus points if you can freely speculate on how to re-implement parts of these protocols as BVSes

What we offer

• Opportunity to work with a team of friendly, highly-motivated, execution-focused colleagues with established track records
• Cutting-edge work in the Bitcoin space
• Spontaneous and fun work environment, with full autonomy and decision-making capacities
• An attractive mix of tokens and competitive salary

How to apply

Please email and follow the below required format.

• Subject Line: [Apply] Position Name - Your Name
• Email should include:
  • A short 3m max video introducing yourself and describing something you’re proud of
  • Links to a paper or blog post that best showcases your technical talent
  • How you came across this position
  • What you want to accomplish at SatLayer