RSK Labs Gets $1M Boost from Major Bitcoin Companies

Smart contracts are one of the hottest trends in the world of digital currency and blockchain technology today, which is also attracting a lot of attention from startups and entrepreneurs. RSK Labs is one of these companies looking to introduce smart contracts by using the Bitcoin blockchain, and they have recently raised $1 million USD in seed funding thanks to the support of various prominent Bitcoin companies.

Also read: Block Size Survey Reveals ‘Deep Divide’ Between Bitcoin Subreddits

RSK Labs Gets Financial Support from Bitcoin Companies

Most people and companies in the digital currency ecosystem are focusing on smart contracts, yet seem to be eyeing the Ethereum blockchain. Up until this point, many people have thought it impossible to use smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain, although several companies are working on making that feature a reality.

RSK Labs is one of the companies looking to do exactly that, and the recent round of seed funding will put the company on the right path. Various prominent bitcoin companies contributed to RSK’s funding, including Coinsilium, Digital Currency Group, and Bitmain Technology. These funds will be used to expand the presence of Rootstock across the continents, and ensure the team can stick to their previously disclosed roadmap.

RSK Labs is the team behind the Rootstock project, which will serve as an open-source smart contracts platform. The company will also offer a way to reward Bitcoin miners through merge-mining, which serves as a way for the miners to be part of the Bitcoin smart contract ecosystem as a whole.

Additionally, RSK Labs wants to design Rootstock so that it will be able to introduce new smart contract capabilities over time, by connecting Bitcoin and Ethereum into one solution. Moreover, there are also plans on the table to make this entire project address the scalability of smart contracts and even allow for almost instant payments.

One particular worry for any technology relying on the Bitcoin blockchain is how scalable it can be. RSK Labs is fairly confident that will be a non-issue with Rootstock as the protocol should be able to handle up to 100 transactions every second. Keeping in mind how the Bitcoin protocol currently handles 7 transactions per second, there is still a lot of work to do if these numbers are ever to be achieved.

That being said, solutions such as Rootstock need to ensure all of the necessary security precautions have been taken as well. A decentralized platform structure is a good way to start, and fraud proofs will be implemented as well. Moreover, the project will take a page out of Ethereum’s playbook and introduce sharding techniques.

Bitcoin Miners Get the Attention They Deserve

With the entire block size debate taking up so much attention these days, some people might forget the true power of the Bitcoin network lies with the individual miners. After all, these are the people responsible for including transactions in network blocks, keeping the Bitcoin protocol going, and ensuring the coin supply keeps rolling out at its predetermined rate.

RSK Labs wants to strengthen their relationships with individual miners, as they will be the ones running decentralized smart contracts while merge-mining RSK. In return, this creates an additional stream of [passive] revenue for Bitcoin miners, which is always a good thing. If all goes to plan, the public beta testing of Rootstock and Bitcoin smart contracts will take place in September of this year.

What are your thoughts on the companies participating in this round of funding? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Silicon Angle

Images courtesy of RSK Labs, Shutterstock

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