Rootstock, the first and most enduring sidechain of Bitcoin, experienced a quarter of unprecedented growth, consolidating itself as the leading blockchain thanks to a record number of transactions and a series of new integrations. 

With the panorama of Bitcoin layer 2 in turmoil, Rootstock has made a leap in quality, becoming a point of reference for the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Here are the highlights of this impressive growth.

Growth of transactions and security of the Bitcoin Rootstock sidechain network

According to data from the block explorer, Rootstock has surpassed 13 million total transactions, with a monthly average of 45,000 transactions over the past three months. This significant increase highlights the growing adoption of the sidechain, which offers a secure and reliable environment for building on Bitcoin. With over 60% of Bitcoin’s hash rate ensuring the network’s security and 100% uptime since its launch in January 2018, Rootstock stands out as a premier destination for development on Bitcoin.

In the last three months, more than 25 dApps and protocols have joined the Rootstock ecosystem, offering users new innovative ways to interact with the platform. Key integrations include Artoshi, Bitget, SushiSwap, Uniswap, and many others, expanding the possibilities of use and development on Rootstock. These new collaborations highlight the growing attractiveness of the platform for developers and users.

Looking to the future, Rootstock has outlined an ambitious roadmap for the next 12 months, promising significant improvements that will further strengthen the platform. Among the main objectives are the reduction of transaction confirmation times to just 5 seconds and the enabling of non-custodial swaps between Lightning Network and Rootstock. These improvements aim to increase transaction speed, improve usability, and further decentralize the network.

Improvement Proposals of Rootstock (RSKIPs)

The roadmap includes a series of Rootstock Improvement Proposals (RSKIPs) that address various aspects of the platform:

  • Reduction of transaction confirmation times: going from 30 to just 5 seconds, greatly improving the speed of the network.

  • Non-custodial swaps: enable exchanges between Lightning Network (LN-BTC) and Rootstock (RBTC) through Boltz.

  • Evolution of the PowPeg: integrating a 2-Way Peg compatible with SegWit, increasing the number of entities supervising the signing of Bitcoin transactions to over 60 and reducing peg-out fees.

  • Bridge for native Bitcoin assets: allow Runes tokens to flow freely between the Bitcoin mainchain and Rootstock.

  • Development of a trust-minimized bridge: prepare the development of a truly trust-minimized Bitcoin/Rootstock bridge, using BitVMX without requiring changes to the Bitcoin consensus protocol.

Reflecting on the last three months of growth, Henrik Jondell, Chief Technology Officer of RootstockLabs, stated:

“The last three months have been an important period for the growth of Rootstock and we are excited to see how the next twelve months will develop. Rootstock has become one of the most used Bitcoin layer 2 for cryptocurrencies, and the increase in functionality and accessibility this quarter has only helped to expand its reach.”

Conclusion

With a promising future and an ambitious roadmap, Rootstock is ready to further consolidate its position as a leader in the world of Bitcoin sidechains. To learn more about the Rootstock ecosystem and its innovations, visit their website.