RSK Launches New Testnet 'Turmeric'

Turmeric, the Rootstock (RSK) test network for smart contracts, is now released. RSK founder Diego Gutierrez and team members launched the platform at the Latin America Bitcoin & Blockchain Conference (laBITconf), on November 4 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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Powering Smart Contracts With Bitcoin

RSK is the forerunner of an open-source, general-purpose smart contract platform, secured by the Bitcoin network. The company launched Turmeric with the theme “Welcome to the Internet of Value.”

“We decided to be fully compatible with other smart contracts platforms,” affirmed Gutierrez, during his laBITconf keynote.

“Turmeric is the beginning of the RSK testnet network. It is being used by our partners to test their distributed applications and tools, and will be gradually opened to the public,” said the RSK announcement.

Several global companies and Internet providers are already testing their solutions on the Turmeric ecosystem, said RSK Lab founder & Bitcoin security consultant Sergio Lerner. These include Jaxx, Wings, Torguen, Oraclize, Koinbanx, and Blockchain Intelligent Group.

Lerner described Turmeric’s core features as follows:

Rootstockj platform: partial rewrite of Ethereumj, stable codebase, higher test coverage;

Deterministic Bitcoinj-based wallet code and consensus engine;

RSK virtual machine (RVM) now six times faster than other EVMs;

Smart-contract execution cost as low as 15% of Ethereum’s cost;

RSK testnet limited to 15 tps by gas.

Lerner indicated that at the time of Turmeric’s release, 30 percent of miners were already testing Rootstock merge-mining. Additionally, 50 percent of miners have expressed support for the project and will soon begin the process of integration into the ecosystem.

The team is innovation-driven. “Instead of creating from scratch we use Bitcoin technology and focus on innovations,” said Gutierrez.

Specifically, RSK blockchain achieves the highest level of security by enabling Bitcoin miners to simultaneously mine both blockchains. Thus, Bitcoin miners are rewarded through merge-mining.

The RSK Federation Provides Security and Other Services

To strengthen the security of the smart contracts environment, RSK created the concept of the RSK Federation, which will comprise the most important Bitcoin exchanges and wallets.

Members of the RSK Federation will deploy a hybrid security framework, or protocol, for their projects, according to a RSK press release. Besides security, the federation will also provide governance and additional services, such as “oracling.”

As of August 2016, companies willing to join the federation include: Bitcointoyou, Bitex, bitFlyer, Bitgo, Bitoasis, Bitpay, Bitso, Bits of Gold, Bitstamp, Blockchain, Blockchain Intelligence Group, Blocktrail, Bitfinex, BTCC, BitKan, Jaxx, SurBTC, CoinBR, Huobi, OKCoin, Paycase, Tether, Unocoin, and Xapo.

One at a time, these companies will start testing the integration process into the RSK network, explained Lerner.

RSK Streaming New Solutions into the Ecosystem

Gutierrez impressed the hundreds of laBITconf attendees by making additional announcements.

After launching Turmeric, RSK is planning to launch its production network, Ginger. This network will include more than 300 full nodes with reward programming in place. RSK plans to release Ginger in April 2017.

Gutierrez also indicated that RSK will soon launch the worldwide open source RSK University.

Additionally, RSK is planning, or it has at the experimental stage, the following solutions:

A new virtual machine allowing Java-based smart contract programming, using standard mature Java toolchains;

Transaction privacy using confidential transactions;

Lightning network over RSK for cheap off-chain transfers;

User-defined signature schemes for accounts;

Full-node incentives based on PoUBS.

The RSK ecosystem will also have a multi-currency and multiplatform wallet from Jaxx. Jaxx CEO Anthony Di Iorio also announced the integration of Rootstock’s token RSK “Smart Bitcoin” into Jaxx’s suite of software products at the same event.

Moreover, Gutierrez mentioned that several top financial institutions in Latin America have approached RSK to run smart contract solutions to facilitate greater financial inclusion.

The Turmeric launch is one big step forward to achieving RSK’s vision. As Lerner put it during his keynote, is an ecosystem “more secure, more extensible, more scalable, more mature, more decentralized, and less expensive.”

What are your thoughts about rewarding Bitcoin miners through merge-mining? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Rootstock Lab.

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