Rootstock

Rootstock logo

Rootstock (RSK) is an open-source smart contract platform with a 2-way peg to Bitcoin that also rewards the Bitcoin miners via merge-mining, allowing them to actively participate in the Smart Contract revolution. RSK goal is to add value and functionality to the Bitcoin ecosystem by enabling smart-contracts, near instant payments and higher-scalability[1].

Contents

Rootstock (RSK) Review

What is RSK?

RSK platform is, at its core, the combination of:

  • Turing – complete resource-accounted deterministic virtual machine (for smartcontracts)
  • Two-way pegged Bitcoin sidechain (for BTC denominated trade)
  • Dynamic hybrid merge-mining/federated consensus protocol (for consensussecurity), and a low-latency network (for fast payments).

RSK – Platform for smart contracts

Smart contracts are an active and attractive field of research. Initially, they were offered more than two decades ago now the famous Nick Szabo. At its core, these are computerized contracts that can be executed automatically according to rules and signals. Smart contracts are the next step or even the next generation of automation tools for all kinds of commercial activities. They have the potential to destroy many existing business models. As an example, take the car insurance, which is purchased for each trip. As soon as the car starts moving, the insurance policy is activated. And when the trip ends, according to the location of the car or on the signal from the user, the policy is terminated. This type of insurance can even be implemented on a peer-to-peer basis, completely eliminating the intermediary in the form of traditional insurance companies. This kind of innovation will be possible thanks to smart contract platforms like Rootstock[2].

Rootstock sidechain

Rootstock will be a bitcoin sidechain. If you have not heard about the sidechains, you can read the documentation or read our article about them. But, in short, the sidechain is a blockchain that exists separately from the main chain of bitcoin blocks, but the funds can move in both directions. That is, we can send a few bitcoins to sidechain, and then when we no longer need them there, send them back to the main chain. This allows you to innovate without worrying about investments turning into nothing, as has happened with hundreds of altcoins. Because of this, Rootstock does not have to create a new currency or unit of account. Instead, the account unit called the RTC used to pay for transactions in Rootstock will be linked to bitcoin. To make transactions in RSK, you will need to move BTC to the sidelines, which will block them and then unblock the equivalent amount of RTC on the Rootstock platform. To make a reverse translation, the process will need to be repeated in the opposite direction. RTC locked[3].

Federation

In practice, however, the transfer of BTC to RTC and back a little complicated. Since bitcoin knows nothing about transactions in another blockchain, a workaround is needed. The mediator in this process in RSK will be the Federation of “leading bitcoin companies”, which will ensure the movement of funds between the chains. To encourage members of the Federation will serve as a Commission for exchange transactions. Locking and unlocking of funds will take place automatically, without human intervention. A multi-signature architecture might be involved when a lock is released if a transaction is signed by some minimum number of Federation members. This is, of course, a partially credible model.

Testnet

The RSK testnet, “Turmeric” was launched in November with 30 globally destributed nodes. The mainnet release, “Ginger” is scheduled for April 2017

Rootstock ICO

There is currently no information about Rootstock ICO, emission of tokens and Rootstock price on the official website. Crypto RSK is not published on Coinmarketcap website.

Advantages of RSK

Rootstock promises to bring a lot of innovation. First, it is a Turing-complete virtual machine (VM) that will be backward compatible with Ethereum, that is, to support Ethereum virtual machine operations. This will allow Ethereum contracts to be launched on Rootstock as well. The platform is aimed at generating blocks every 20 seconds and 300 TPS (transactions per second) initially, followed by scaling up to 1000 TPS. This is comparable to PayPal, although it does not reach the capacity of networks of credit card operators. The biggest advantage of Rootstock over other platforms, when using its own blockchain — is the combined mining (merged mining) with Bitcoin, which will raise its security to the level characteristic of bitcoin. However, this will need to persuade bitcoin miners to include merged mining with the Rootstock[4].

The Rootstock promises to increase the income of miners, if the fee for the execution of a contract, the Rootstock will form a significant part of their revenue. This, no doubt, is possible if the platform will gain popularity and the volume of contracts will be significant.

See Also on BitcoinWiki

External links

References

  1. Rootstock Project webpage
  2. Rootstock Raises $1 Million to Bring Smart Contracts to Bitcoin
  3. Rootstock — Smart Contracts on the Bitcoin Blockchain – Medium
  4. What is Rootstock? – CryptoCompare