RSK Labs Raises $1 Million to Bring Smart Contracts to the Bitcoin Blockchain
The company behind the platform codenamed Rootstock (RSK) has successfully completed its initial seed funding round.
RSK Labs has announced that in a round led by Bitmain Technology, the world’s largest bitcoin hardware mining producer, Coinsilium, a leading blockchain investment firm based in London and Digital Currency Group, the prolific investor from New York, RSK Labs raised $1 million to further develop the first smart contracts platform secured by Bitcoin and fully compatible with Ethereum. This successful round allows RSK Labs to expand its current presence in Latin America to Asia, Europe and US, while securing the funding needed to ensure the complete execution of its roadmap.
RSK is the first 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 adds value and functionality to Bitcoin while creating the most robust and secure smart contract platform in the ecosystem. RSK connects the two most successful blockchain platforms built to date – Bitcoin and Ethereum – to enable new smart contracting capabilities.
RSK Labs founders believe that decentralized blockchains with smart contract capabilities will be the driving force behind global financial inclusion, new democratic political systems and the internet of things.
On this issue Barry Silbert, CEO of the DCG Group said
“Our team at DCG feels that Rootstock developing is important for both the technical and business communities building on blockchain technology today, and will enable many new use cases that have not been possible to date”.
RSK Labs is led by Sergio Lerner, its Chief Scientist Officer, and Diego Gutierrez Zaldívar, its Chief Executive Officer. Sergio is a world-class security and cryptocurrency researcher. He created the first Turing-complete cryptocurrency blockchain in early 2013, QixCoin, and collaborated to strengthen Bitcoin security as a Core team advisor. Diego has been leading Bitcoin adoption in Latin America for more than three years creating some of the strongest grassroots Bitcoin communities in the world. Their combined understanding of the technical, economical and social impact effects of Blockchain technologies have shaped the unique and transformative company culture behind RSK Labs.
Eddy Travia, CEO of Coinsilium, quoted
”I am very proud that Coinsilium supports the talented Rootstock team to develop a platform enabling smart contracts secured by the Bitcoin blockchain which I see as an essential element in the transition to a world of blockchain-based solutions for enterprises and public organizations.”
RSK private testnet will be opened by the end of April to a small number of miners, partner companies and users. During the following months, wallets, block explorers and further enhancements to the network will be implemented by the company and its partners and a public fully functional Beta testnet is expected to be launched in September 2016.
Meanwhile, the RSK team continues to strengthen its relationships with Bitcoin miners, who are a fundamental pillar of the project. RSK provides them with the opportunity to use all their installed capacity to run decentralized smart contracts while merge-mining RSK, creating an additional revenue stream in their current business model. Wu Jihan, CEO of Bitmain Technology, commented “Rootstock is the most exciting opportunity for me among the startups in the Bitcoin ecosystem. The tidal wave of startups developing smart contract solutions based on RSK will bring countless miracles”
About RSK Labs
RSK Labs is the company behind the Project codenamed RootStock, a smart contract platform with a 2way peg to the Bitcoin Blockchain. RSK founders have been actively involved in the Bitcoin ecosystem and smart contract development since early 2013. The company was founded in 2015 and its initial white paper was later published on December 2015.
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About Bitmain Technology
Bitmain technologies Limited is a Chinese IC design company founded in the first quarter of 2013 specialized in research, development and manufacturing of custom mining chips and mining equipment.
Read more about Bitmain Technology at http://bitmaintech.com/
About Coinsilium
Coinsilium is a London-based blockchain technology investment and development company, supporting early-stage blockchain companies through investment, acceleration, development and education.
More information about Coinsilium at http://coinsilium.com/
About Digital Currency Group
Based in New York City, DCG has been an active seed investor in the digital currency industry with 60 investments in 20 countries.
Learn more about Digital Currency Group at http://dcg.co/ or @DCGCo for the latest news.
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