A few days ago, LayerZero, a well-known cross-chain interoperability protocol, announced the integration of Rootstock, a layer-2 built on Bitcoin.
This partnership opens the doors to a new era for DeFi on Bitcoin, allowing users to access dApps, stablecoins, and decentralized financial services on more than 100 different blockchains. Furthermore, thanks to this new exchange channel, there will be the opportunity to enhance liquidity on Rootstock, expanding the possibilities of using Bitcoin.
Let’s see everything in detail below.
LayerZero integrates Bitcoin Rootstock layer-2
The LayerZero cross-chain protocol has just completed the integration of Rootstock, a layer-2 sidechain based on Bitcoin. This strategic move is aimed at providing an outlet for interoperability for the second-layer chain, while also contributing to the expansion of the LayerZero ecosystem. It is a fundamental step towards the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin in the world of decentralized applications.
The collaboration between the two parties resolves one of the problems that has long plagued the world of blockchains: the fragmentation of liquidity. Bitcoin is indeed isolated from other networks as it does not support native smart contracts and relies entirely on wrapped token versions. Thanks to LayerZero, these barriers are removed, opening the doors to new DeFi connections for Bitcoin. It is believed that now Rootstock, with this new interoperability feature, will have the opportunity to tap into up to 1.5 trillion dollars of liquidity.
More closely, we see how the integration allows Rootstock developers to create connected applications with over 100 different chains. Rootstock’s compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), combined with its robust suite of developer tools and the messaging capabilities offered by LayerZero, creates a powerful ecosystem for dApp that relies on the security of Bitcoin.
There is already talk of BTCFI, a trend that combines the solidity of Bitcoin with the flexibility and innovation of decentralized finance (DeFi), creating the foundations for new financial services denominated and managed in BTC. Regarding the news spread across the crypto markets, Bryan Pellegrino, the CEO of LayerZero, commented as follows:
“Bitcoin is obviously the foundation of the entire space and sets the standard for digital finance. Connecting Rootstock to over 100 chains via LayerZero is fantastic: I like to see the entire cryptocurrency sector come together”.
The use of Bitcoin in the DeFi world is growing
The integration of Rootstock into LayerZero also sees the inclusion in Bitcoin’s layer-2 of the first dApp that supports the aforementioned cross-chain transfer technology. In particular, we observe how Stargate has landed on Rootstock, facilitating the transfer of assets to and from a myriad of different chains. Consider that Stargate is one of the most well-known and appreciated interoperability applications in the DeFi world, boasting a TVL of 1.39 billion dollars.
This solution implies that users will be able to connect ETH and stablecoins like USDC and USDT to some native Rootstock assets, such as rBTC and RIF. This advantage can be applied to over 20 leading blockchains including Base, Ethereum, and Arbitrum, while simultaneously leveraging Stargate’s unified liquidity pools. Transfers occur in a few minutes and have a commission cost ranging from 1.10 dollars to 2.69 dollars depending on the speed of request finalization.
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Thanks to the connection with the LayerZero protocol, Bitcoin effectively enters the heart of DeFi, allowing the asset to interact with a wide range of decentralized applications on different chains. This synergy eliminates the technical barriers that have traditionally limited Bitcoin, enabling BTC to be used in activities such as lending, NFTs, and yield farming, thus increasing efficiency and liquidity of the entire ecosystem. Developers can now create cross-chain solutions leveraging Bitcoin’s security, while new earning and interoperability opportunities open up for users.
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The evolution of the Bitcoin layer-2 ecosystem
Rootstock (RSK) is a Bitcoin sidechain designed to enable the execution of smart contracts without compromising the security of the main Bitcoin network. Unlike other Layer-2 solutions, Rootstock is closely tied to the Bitcoin blockchain, using a consensus mechanism based on Proof-of-Work (PoW) that leverages over 60% of Bitcoin’s hashing power, ensuring high security. This feature sets it apart from many other Layer-2 solutions, which use independent consensus mechanisms and may not benefit from the same robustness and stability as Bitcoin.
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Another peculiarity of Rootstock is its compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which allows developers to program dApps in Solidity. This facilitates the integration of Rootstock into the existing DeFi ecosystem, enabling the migration of existing projects from Ethereum to Bitcoin without having to start from scratch. Furthermore, Rootstock supports “Bitcoin-backed tokens” like rBTC, which directly represent Bitcoin on the sidechain, allowing transactions and smart contract applications without having to use wrapped versions of the token. rBTC also represents the “fee token” of the chain.
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Rootstock presents a number of Bitcoin deposited in the network equal to 3.102 BTC, for an equivalent value of about 300 million dollars. According to the “Bitcoin Layers” dashboard, there are currently 37 layer-2 blockchains that use BTC and its wrapped token versions, divided among native chains, sidechains, and L1. Among the sidechains, Rootstock ranks 6th, behind solutions like Liquid, Bitlayer, Bsquared Network, Core, and Merlin.
