Merged Mining Variants
Merged Mining Variants

Since the day Satoshi mentioned the possibility of merged mining in 2010, several techniques have been devised to take advantage of the Bitcoin hashrate to secure a sidechain or a remorachain. In this article ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Jun 24, 2021 • 6 min read
Taproot and Rootstock
Taproot and Rootstock

Taproot is the the second of set of exciting improvements that are coming to Bitcoin. First it was segwit, now taproot, and someday we’ll see the activation of covenants, drivechains and coinwitness. However ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Jun 22, 2021 • 3 min read
Modern Merge-mining
Modern Merge-mining

The Bitcoin community welcomes Bitcoin sidechains because they are increasing Bitcoin’s utility now and probably they will do even more in the future. The Rootstock sidechain was specially designed to provide incentives ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Jun 14, 2021 • 19 min read
Verifiable Delay Functions
Verifiable Delay Functions

Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs henceforth) are a cryptographic primitive that allows a prover to show a verifier that a certain amount of time running a function was spent, and do it in a way that the verifier can ...

Ramsès Fernàndez-València
Ramsès Fernàndez-València
May 20, 2021 • 11 min read
A Review of the Stacks Blockchain from a Rootstock perspective
Stacks Blockchain from a Rootstock perspective

In this article I analyze the Stacks blockchain and compare it with Rootstock, especially on their origins and consensus protocols. To keep this article as short as possible, other platforms’ features, such their ecosystems ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
May 12, 2021 • 19 min read
Post-Quantum Cryptography - A blockchain perspective
Post-Quantum Cryptography

Quantum computing will have a big impact on our lives: drug development, traffic optimization, artificial intelligence or weather forecasting will benefit from the power increase that a quantum computer will bring with it ...

Ramsès Fernàndez-València
Ramsès Fernàndez-València
Mar 1st, 2021 • 8 min read
Bitcoin Sidechains
Bitcoin Sidechains

In this post I talk about what is a Bitcoin sidechain and why they have a key role in the cryptocurrency Ecosystem. Let’s start by briefly reviewing the history of sidechains. The first attempt to build a sidechain dates back to 2012 ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Feb 25, 2021 • 11 min read
A Primer on Blockchain Storage Economics
A Primer on Blockchain Storage Economics

Most web and mobile applications rely on cloud-storage solutions. Storage costs charged to developers and enterprises are determined using tiered-pricing schemes that depend on several factors e.g. amount of data stored, duration, bandwidth ...

Shreemoy Mishra
Shreemoy Mishra
Feb 9, 2021 • 10 min read
An Introduction to Second Layer Protocols
An Introduction to Second Layer Protocols

Second layer protocols are scalability or privacy enhancements that reduce the amount of transactions published on a given blockchain, while still relying on the consensus algorithm of the parent chain to achieve certain security guarantees ...

Javier Álvarez Cid-Fuentes
Javier Álvarez Cid-Fuentes
Jan 29, 2021 • 5 min read
Rootstock “Iris” Network Upgrade is Coming
Rootstock Iris Network Upgrade is Coming

The Iris network upgrade is coming to Rootstock in the near future. The Rootstock IPs that will be included have been discussed by the Rootstock community and, apart from one RSKIP whose addition still depends on code readiness, no further change will occur ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Jan 22, 2021 • 8 min read
RIF Enveloping: sponsored transactions
RIF Enveloping: sponsored transactions

With the advent of DeFi, several fiat-pegged tokens have become a preferred means of payment and savings for both users and miners. Most blockchains rely on a single native token to pay for transaction fees. This results in ...

Raul Laprida
Raul Laprida
Jan 13, 2021 • 9 min read
Similarities and Differences between Rootstock and Ethereum
Similarities and Differences between Rootstock and Ethereum

The Rootstock project started as a fork of an Ethereum codebase in 2016 and it was developed for 2 years until it was finally launched in 2018. During those years, crucial data structures were upgraded, and precompiled contracts and new opcodes were added ...

Sergio Demian Lerner
Sergio Demian Lerner
Jan 11, 2021 • 18 min read
Elliptic Curve PKC and Key Sizes
Elliptic Curve PKC and Key Sizes

Rootstock’s 2-way peg protocol, called “the Powpeg”, has matured from its inception in 2018 as a federation to now include many decentralized qualities. The new Rootstock Powpeg protects private keys stored in special purpose PowHSMs based on tamper-proof secure elements (SE) ...

Sebastian Linder
sebastian linder
Jan 8, 2021 • 5 min read
Building the Most Secure, Permissionless and Uncensorable Bitcoin Peg
Crypto Lotteries, Entropy and Rootstock

Rootstock’s 2-way peg protocol, called “the Powpeg”, has matured from its inception in 2018 as a federation to now include many decentralized qualities. The new Rootstock Powpeg protects private keys stored in special purpose PowHSMs based on tamper-proof secure elements (SE)....

Sergio Lerner
sergio Lerner
Dec 2, 2020 • 18 min read
Crypto Lotteries, Entropy and Rootstock
Crypto Lotteries, Entropy and Rootstock

Many decentralized applications require the generation of random numbers with a certain amount of entropy. This requirement occurs in simple lotteries and in complex smart-contracts that verify proofs interactively using challenge-response protocols...

Sergio Lerner
sergio Lerner
Oct 30, 2020 • 9 min read
Why enveloping
Why enveloping

Most blockchains have a preferred cryptocurrency to pay for transaction fees. This simple design has many benefits. First, to bootstrap an economy, the native token model creates an initial demand for a new token. Second, it ...

Sergio Lerner
sergio Lerner
Jul 13, 2020 • 30 min read
The Dark Side of Ethereum 1/6t4th CALL Gas Reduction
The Dark Side of Ethereum 1/6t4th CALL Gas Reduction

In this article we argue that the 1/64 CALL gas reduction in EIP150 is problematic and we suggest Ethereum 2.0 should revert this change. That’s why Rootstock ...

Sergio Lerner
Sergio Lerner
15 min read
Aspirations and challenges in De-Fi
Aspirations and challenges in De-Fi

In the United States, my bank charges $3 for an electronic funds transfer to someone else’s account, a process that takes 2-3 business days. Next day ...

SHREEMOY MISHRA
SHREEMOY MISHRA
5 min read