Sidechain · settles to Bitcoin
Rootstock ticker RBTC
Summary
Merge-mined proof of work. Bitcoin mining pools place a commitment to a Rootstock block in the coinbase of the Bitcoin block they are working on; any hash that meets Rootstock's lower difficulty target can be submitted to Rootstock as a block, so the same SHA-256 work serves both chains. Rootstock docs describe a block about every 30 seconds. There is no block subsidy: fees go to a built-in reward contract (REMASC) and are paid out 4,000 blocks later, about 79% to miners, about 20% to Rootstock and about 0.8% to the peg signers. Contracts run on the Rootstock Virtual Machine, compatible with the EVM at the opcode level. 123141518
Design
- System
- SidechainRootstock runs its own merge-mined proof-of-work chain and is joined to Bitcoin by the PowPeg, a two-way peg whose BTC sits in a multisignature address controlled by hardware security modules run by nine known organizations. Bitcoin does not check Rootstock transactions or state, and no validity or fraud proofs go to Bitcoin, so it is not a rollup. Rootstock's docs, site and 2022 technical paper call it a Bitcoin sidechain, so the suggested layer-2 label is not used. RBTC, pegged 1:1 to BTC, is the gas asset; there is no separate block-reward currency.
- Settles to
- BitcoinThe link to Bitcoin is merge mining plus the PowPeg. Rootstock blocks borrow Bitcoin mining work, and BTC moves in and out through a signer-controlled multisignature: peg-ins wait 100 Bitcoin blocks, and peg-outs wait 4,000 Rootstock blocks before the signers' hardware will sign them. Bitcoin does not validate Rootstock state or enforce withdrawals, so this is not rollup-style settlement.
- Settlement family
- Bitcoin family
- Scarce resource
- Work (proof of work)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Any miner that merge-mines; in practice Bitcoin mining pools. Rootstock's Q2 2026 mining report puts merge-mining hashrate at 83.96% of Bitcoin's and says five pools (Foundry USA, AntPool, F2Pool, ViaBTC and SpiderPool) supplied nearly 85% of Rootstock's securing hashrate. Rootstock's own pages variously say over 80% or over 85% of Bitcoin's hashrate; the figures are Rootstock's extrapolation from merge-mining activity, not an independent measurement.
- Fork choice
- Heaviest-work chain with GHOST-based weighting, which the 2019 whitepaper names, combined with DECOR, the core team's deterministic rule for resolving competing blocks and sharing rewards. Miners are rewarded for referencing uncle blocks, and conflicts go to the block with more uncles, then a much higher reward, then the lowest hash. Merge-mining tags in Bitcoin coinbases carry extra data that the Armadillo monitor uses to detect Rootstock forks mined in secret.
Qualifications
- Block reward and issuance · Not applicable. Rootstock has no block subsidy and issues no new RBTC. RBTC enters circulation only when BTC is pegged in, and miners are paid from fees through the reward contract.
- Slashing · Not applicable. Proof of work has no staked deposit to destroy. Miners who break the conflict-resolution rule receive a reduced share of fees, and late-published sibling blocks earn less.
- Peg trust · Contested. Rootstock argues colluding signers cannot steal peg funds because the hardware will only sign peg-outs backed by enough Rootstock proof of work, so the worst case is a halt. That still relies on the hardware and firmware being correct, and on no attacker mining roughly 100 Bitcoin blocks' worth of work on a hidden Rootstock branch; the one-year emergency path is described differently across Rootstock sources.
- Finality · Partial. Confidence grows with confirmations: the FAQ recommends at least 12 blocks (about 6 minutes) for ordinary payments, while the peg waits 100 Bitcoin blocks in and 4,000 Rootstock blocks out. Reversal remains a question of how much merge-mining hashrate an attacker controls.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Security and Scalability Contested
- Gives up
- Decentralization of block production and of peg custody. A handful of Bitcoin mining pools produce most Rootstock blocks, and the BTC backing RBTC is held in a 5-of-9 multisignature controlled by hardware modules run by named organizations, two of them Rootstock entities, rather than being secured by Bitcoin consensus. In return, contracts get Bitcoin-denominated gas, 30-second blocks and heavy proof of work behind the chain's history.The security corner rests on Rootstock's framing that most of Bitcoin's hashrate merge-mines it. Merge mining is optional for pools, Bitcoin does not validate Rootstock, peg safety also depends on signer hardware and firmware, and Rootstock's 2019 whitepaper says its low fees lower the cost of a double-spend attack, so this reading is contested. Scalability means moving programmable activity off Bitcoin with faster blocks, not a measured throughput.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 67Rootstock's node requirements page lists 2 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage on an x64 system. The current database size and growth rate were not measured in this review, so treat the storage figure as a stated minimum. Anyone can run and verify a node; producing blocks needs merge-mining through a Bitcoin mining pool, and signing peg-outs is limited to the PowPeg members.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; Rootstock has no protocol-level swap primitive, and its contracts can hold funds under hash and time locks, which are building blocks for swaps. A November 2024 Rootstock post describes Boltz atomic swaps between Lightning, Bitcoin and RBTC, but Boltz suspended its swap services indefinitely on 3 August 2026, per a TFTC report quoting its notice, and its site did not resolve in this review, so no live swap tool was confirmed. 2223 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Consensus produces what a light client checks: a proof-of-work header chain carrying its cumulative work. Each PowPeg hardware module runs a Rootstock node in SPV mode and signs only when enough cumulative Rootstock work is shown. Limit: the peg's hardware modules are the only light verifier cited; no user-facing light client for Rootstock was found. The Bridge contract also tracks Bitcoin headers inside Rootstock; that verifies Bitcoin, not Rootstock. 514 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | RIF Lumino, a payment channel network on Rootstock announced in 2019, has had its code archived since August 2022, and no current channel layer appears in Rootstock docs. 3940 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Accounts and Turing-complete contracts on the Rootstock Virtual Machine, which implements the EVM instruction set with different gas costs, plus built-in contracts for the peg bridge and fee distribution. Contracts execute on Rootstock itself. 414 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; the earlier review found no protocol feature for cancelling, delaying or recovering payments. Contracts could implement timelocked recovery, but no such product was reviewed. The one-year emergency path that Rootstock describes for peg funds, which its main docs page still calls planned, would only apply if peg signing stops; it is not a user feature. 17 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup anchored to Rootstock was found in the reviewed sources. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemSovryn, Oku (Uniswap v3 contracts) | Rootstock's help desk describes Sovryn's AMM and lending markets on Rootstock, and Sovryn's site describes swapping, lending and borrowing. GFX Labs deployed Uniswap v3 contracts to Rootstock in December 2023 with Oku as the front end; Uniswap's own deployment list does not include Rootstock. Liquidity depth and current activity were not measured. 24252627 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemDOC (Money on Chain), USDRIF (RIF On Chain) | DOC is minted against RBTC locked in Money on Chain contracts, with BPRO holders absorbing BTC price swings; USDRIF is minted against over-collateralized RIF and, after a 2026 governance change, also DOC. Both are issued on Rootstock. USDT0 is present too, but it is a bridged token backed by USDT locked on Ethereum, not issued on Rootstock. Supply and usage were not measured. 2829303132 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | None found | No algorithmic stablecoin with material usage was verified. DOC and USDRIF are backed by crypto collateral held in contracts (RBTC, RIF and DOC), so they carry collateral and liquidation risk but are not algorithmic in the narrow sense. 2829 |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolPowPeg (BTC to and from RBTC), Flyover, Atlas, Stargate, LayerZero, Wormhole, Hyperlane, Union Bridge (testnet) | The PowPeg is built into Rootstock: peg-ins wait 100 Bitcoin blocks and peg-outs wait 4,000 Rootstock blocks, about 33 to 36 hours. Flyover liquidity providers front faster transfers, capped at 0.1 BTC by default, and still rely on the PowPeg. Atlas compares routes across providers. Rootstock docs list Stargate, LayerZero, Wormhole and Hyperlane for other chains. The Ethereum Token Bridge was set to stop transfers after March 2026 and is gone from the bridge docs. The BitVMX-based Union Bridge is an experimental testnet with mainnet planned for 2027. Risk: PowPeg users trust that five of nine signers stay online and that their hardware modules, based on Ledger Nano S devices or Intel SGX enclaves, sign only peg-outs backed by enough Rootstock proof of work. Rootstock says a colluding majority could halt peg-outs but not steal funds; that depends on firmware correctness and on no attacker out-mining the honest chain. A one-year emergency path for peg funds is described inconsistently (the main docs page calls it planned) and its keyholders were not confirmed. Third-party bridges add their own validator and contract risk. 5891617192021 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemRootstock Explorer (RootstockLabs), Blockscout, Blockchair | Rootstock docs list its own explorer, Blockscout, Blockchair and the Tenderly developer explorer. The Rootstock Explorer footer names RootstockLabs as builder; Blockchair's page could not be fetched. Explorer data is provider-indexed, not consensus. 103334 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (RSK device app), Trezor Safe 3, 5 and 7 through MetaMask or Rabby | See the custody rows. Ledger's own source code builds an RSK device app and its wallet configuration marks Rootstock as active, but Ledger's product pages could not be read. Trezor's rBTC page lists the Rootstock network and Trezor Safe devices with wallet apps such as MetaMask and Rabby, but Rootstock is absent from Trezor's list of EVM networks in its own app, so Trezor use on Rootstock runs through those third-party wallets. 111235363738 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | PartialSame as native: Unknown | Can: Sign RBTC transactions with the RSK device app, which Ledger's own app source builds for chain ID 30 and Rootstock's coin type 137 Can: Peg in with the Ledger Bitcoin app through Electrum and peg out with the RSK app through MyCrypto or MyEtherWallet, following Rootstock's Ledger guide Can: Use Ledger with Rootstock address checksums and derivation path, which Rootstock's wallet page marks as supportedLedger's wallet source configuration lists Rootstock (chain ID 30) as active, but Ledger's support and coin pages for Rootstock returned no readable content or a not-found error in this review, so whether Ledger's own wallet app opens Rootstock accounts was not confirmed on a Ledger product page. 11123738 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or Rabby, listed on Trezor's rBTC pageSame as native: Unknown | Can: Keep the key for a Rootstock address on a Trezor Safe 3, 5 or 7 and sign Rootstock transactions through MetaMask or Rabby, which Trezor's rBTC page lists beside the Rootstock network Cannot: Open Rootstock accounts in Trezor Suite: Trezor's list of EVM networks available in Suite does not name RootstockTrezor's rBTC page names Trezor Suite, MetaMask, Rabby and other apps beside five networks without saying which app handles which network; its generic text says Suite works with Bitcoin on Rootstock, but Suite's list of EVM networks omits Rootstock. Tokens labelled rBTC on the other listed networks, such as Ethereum or Solana, are not custody on Rootstock, so the Rootstock network is recorded as reached through third-party wallets. Rootstock's Trezor guide says the Model T's firmware safety checks must be relaxed to use the peg's Bitcoin derivation path. 11133536 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Rootstock yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Node patch 9.0.4 fixes gas estimation and Import Sync
Rootstock published version 9.0.4 of RSKj as an optional patch in the Vetiver line. It stops eth_estimateGas from using the gas amount supplied by the caller as the simulation budget, repairs the Import Sync feature, fixes handling of invalid ports and adds logging for monitoring federation (peg signer set) changes, along with security and performance work the notes do not itemize. Rootstock recommends that node operators upgrade.
- Implementation:released as RSKj 9.0.4
- Release:optional patch release; upgrade recommended for node operators
- Activation:no network activation; changes apply when an operator installs the release
Sources: Rootstock — Vetiver 9.0.4: Patch Release (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — RSK Vetiver Release 9.0.4 (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — Release notes from rskj (external site)
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Node patch 9.0.3 corrects trace call data and adds default eth_getLogs limits
Rootstock published version 9.0.3 of its node software, RSKj, as an optional patch in the Vetiver line. It fixes incorrect call data reported for internal calls by the trace_transaction and trace_block methods, corrects the commit hash recorded in Docker images and sets default limits on the eth_getLogs method. Rootstock says nodes that rely on the tracing methods should update.
- Implementation:released as RSKj 9.0.3
- Release:optional patch release; update advised for nodes using the tracing methods
- Activation:no network activation; changes apply when an operator installs the release
Sources: Rootstock — Vetiver 9.0.3: Patch Release (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — RSK Vetiver Release 9.0.3 (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — Release notes from rskj (external site)
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Union Bridge released on Rootstock testnet
Rootstock released Union Bridge, a BitVMX-based bridge in which disputes are meant to be settled on Bitcoin with proofs rather than by a fixed signer set, on testnet through Atlas. The release is experimental, lacks dispute resolution and fraud proofs, and Rootstock plans a second testnet in 2026 and a gradual mainnet launch in 2027.
- Implementation:basic flows only; no dispute resolution yet
- Release:Testnet
- Activation:not on mainnet; mainnet planned for 2027
Sources: Rootstock — Introducing Union Bridge on Testnet: Verifiable Bitcoin Bridging Begins (external site) · Rootstock — Introducing Atlas: The easiest way in to BTCFi (external site)
-
Vetiver network upgrade released and activated
Rootstock released node version 9.0.0 for the Vetiver network upgrade, activating at mainnet block 8,804,200. It adds block header methods for contracts, improves the Bridge's peg-out fee estimate, rejects new contract code starting with byte 0xEF and tightens a precompile's input checks, and lowers default limits on the node's public API.
- Proposal:RSKIP553 adopted
- Implementation:released as node version 9.0.0, with patch releases through 9.0.4
- Release:mandatory release
- Activation:active from mainnet block 8,804,200
Sources: Rootstock — Introducing Vetiver 9.0.0: What You Need To Know About Rootstock's Upcoming Network Upgrade (external site) · Rootstock Improvement Proposals — Network Upgrade: Vetiver (external site) · Blockscout — Rootstock block 8,804,200 (API record) (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — rskj releases (external site) · Rootstock Improvement Proposals — Rootstock Improvement Proposals (external site) · Rootstock (GitHub) — RSK Vetiver Release 9.0.0 (external site)
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Ethereum to Rootstock Token Bridge sunset announced
Rootstock announced that the Token Bridge between Ethereum and Rootstock would stop supporting bridging after the end of March 2026, with shutdown expected by the end of April, and pointed users to Stargate and to current tokens such as USDT0 in place of legacy bridged dollars like rUSDT.
- Implementation:sunset announced
- Release:bridging support ending after March 2026
- Activation:shutdown expected mid to late April 2026; completion not verified
Sources: Rootstock — Token Bridge Sunset: How to Move Your Assets and Bridge to Rootstock via Stargate (external site) · Rootstock Developers Portal — Cross-chain bridges (external site)
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PowPeg signer set changed and maximum signer count raised
Rootstock announced a PowPeg composition change in which Collider left the signer set and a new signer run by RootstockLabs, using an Intel SGX-based hardware module audited by Quarkslab, joined. The set stayed at nine signers with the same threshold, and the maximum supported signer count had been raised from 9 to 20.
- Proposal:on-chain vote by the signers completed
- Implementation:composition change scheduled
- Release:not a software release
- Activation:scheduled for Rootstock block 8,558,281; the current PowPeg page lists nine members without Collider
Sources: Rootstock — PowPeg Composition Change: Signer Set Update (external site) · Blockscout — Rootstock block 8,558,281 (API record) (external site) · Rootstock — PowPeg (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Rootstock through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No throughput figure is listed. The only primary-source rate found was a January 2019 whitepaper capacity figure, which was not classified for this profile.
- The merge-mining hashrate share is Rootstock's own extrapolation and its pages disagree (over 80% on the PowPeg page, over 85% in the docs, 83.96% for Q2 2026); no independent measurement was reviewed.
- The one-year emergency path for peg funds is described three ways: RSKIP201 (adopted) names a 3-of-4 key group of IOVlabs, Money on Chain, Jameson Lopp and Adrian Eidelman; a September 2026 Rootstock post says the end state returns funds to original depositors; the main PowPeg docs page still calls it planned. Current keyholders and activation were not confirmed.
- Which PowPeg members run Ledger-based versus Intel SGX-based hardware modules, and where they are hosted, was not established; the PowHSM code allows SGX on cloud providers.
- Ledger's own support and coin pages for Rootstock could not be read. Ledger custody rests on Rootstock's guides plus Ledger's public source code (the RSK device app build and a wallet configuration marking Rootstock active), not on a Ledger product page.
- Trezor's list of EVM networks in Trezor Suite does not include Rootstock, so Trezor use rests on MetaMask or Rabby; which Rootstock actions, including the peg, work through those apps with a Trezor was not tested.
- Node database size and growth were not measured; the docs list only a 128 GB minimum.
- Liquidity depth on Sovryn and Oku, and whether the Uniswap v3 deployment is still maintained, were not measured. Sovryn's deployment on other networks such as BOB was not confirmed from its own text.
- DOC and USDRIF supply, collateral ratios and redemption history were not reviewed.
- Boltz's current status could not be checked at its own domain; the 3 August 2026 suspension comes from a TFTC report quoting Boltz's notice, and the report does not mention Rootstock swaps specifically.
- The Flyover liquidity provider set, its collateral and penalty rules, and Atlas's route providers were not detailed in the reviewed pages.
- No light client, rollup or current channel layer for Rootstock was found; RIF Lumino's code has been archived since August 2022.
- Rootstock docs describe 30-second blocks, but block timestamps checked in this review suggest shorter average spacing in 2026; wall-clock waits in blocks are therefore approximate.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Rootstock Foundations (external site)
- Merged Mining (external site)
- REMASC (external site)
- Rootstock Stack (external site)
- The PowPeg Protocol (external site)
- PowPeg Security Summary (external site)
- Node requirements (external site)
- RBTC Flyover (external site)
- Cross-chain bridges (external site)
- Block explorers (external site)
- Wallets on Rootstock (external site)
- Peg-in and peg-out with a Ledger (external site)
- Trezor custom derivation path for the peg (external site)
- RSK: A Bitcoin sidechain with stateful smart-contracts (external site)
- RSK Whitepaper (revision 11, January 2019) (external site)
- rsk-powhsm: PowHSM firmware for the RSK PowPeg (external site)
- RSKIP201: Time-locked Emergency Multisignature (external site)
- Rootstock x Bitcoin: Merged Mining Insights Report, Q2 2026 (external site)
- Rootstock Bridge Security 101: Commonly Asked Questions (external site)
- Token Bridge Sunset: How to Move Your Assets and Bridge to Rootstock via Stargate (external site)
- Introducing Union Bridge on Testnet: Verifiable Bitcoin Bridging Begins (external site)
- Boltz Integrates RIF Relay to Simplify Bitcoin Layer Swaps (external site)
- Boltz Suspends Bitcoin Swaps Indefinitely as AI Attacks Outpace Patching (external site)
- Oku x Rootstock: User's Guide to Getting Started with Uniswap on Rootstock (external site)
- Uniswap v3 deployments (external site)
- Sovryn (external site)
- Sovryn (external site)
- DoC: Bitcoin Stablecoin (external site)
- New Stablecoin Protocol Launched on Rootstock: Introducing USDRIF (external site)
- RIF On Chain V3 Introduces Multi-Collateral Support (external site)
- Ecosystem Tokens (external site)
- USDT0 documentation (external site)
- Rootstock Explorer (external site)
- Rootstock blockchain explorer (external site)
- Bitcoin on Rootstock (rBTC) wallet (external site)
- Layer 2 EVM (external site)
- RSK build settings for the Ledger Ethereum app (rsk.mk) (external site)
- Ledger Wallet EVM network configuration (config.ts) (external site)
- RIF Lumino network launch announcement (external site)
- rsksmart/lumino (archived) (external site)
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Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding