The skepticism towards honest majority multi-sig federations, despite their widespread use, stems from their vulnerability to exploits. This has made Robin Linus' BitVM "1 of n honest" approach particularly attractive for constructing trust-minimized bridges. However, finding low-risk alternatives for two-way pegs on Bitcoin remains a complex issue, with existing solutions like Citrea, LN, BitVM2, and SnarkNado being notable yet isolated examples of attempts to provide settlement assurance. The lack of broad examples across categories suggests a need for clearer or more practical characterizations of these mechanisms.

Janusz's initiative, the Bitcoin Layers project, aims to evaluate various L2 and sidechain implementations within the cryptocurrency space. By developing a risk framework, this project seeks to offer a detailed analysis of each protocol's potential vulnerabilities based on unilateral exit capabilities, data availability, block production, and state validation (settlement). The project acknowledges the diverse trade-offs between different protocols, such as rollups and payment channel protocols, and proposes a refined assessment methodology. This method involves assigning weighted scores to specific risk factors rather than overall scores, thereby allowing for a nuanced understanding of each protocol's risks. The initial assessments categorize protocols into high, medium, or low risk based on criteria including data availability, network operators, settlement assurance, and bridge custody.

The framework also explores the impact of alternative tokens on network security, the risks associated with Miner Extractable Value (MEV) at both the protocol and base layer, and the implications of not paying fees to Bitcoin miners. Given the absence of a unified scaling roadmap for Bitcoin and the unique set of trade-offs presented by each protocol, the project aims to adapt its framework to better capture the complexities of Bitcoin's scaling solutions. Janusz encourages community engagement through the community chat, emphasizing the importance of feedback and ongoing refinement to ensure the risk framework accurately reflects the evolving nature of Bitcoin scaling efforts. This participatory approach underlines the project's goal to enhance the Bitcoin community's understanding of these intricate systems.