On Saturday and during the PoW Summit, Sergio Demian Lerner, Chief Scientist at RootstockLabs and Co-Founder of Rootstock blockchain, announced the collaborative efforts between RootstockLabs and Fairgate Labs to build the highly anticipated “Union Bridge.”
This new permissionless bridge will enable seamless and decentralized BTC transfers between Bitcoin and Rootstock, further empowering Bitcoin users to interact with decentralized applications and smart contracts through Rootstock’s EVM-compatible sidechain.
What is the new Union Bridge?
The Union Bridge is designed to be a permissionless bridge between Bitcoin and Rootstock blockchains. It will use BitVMX’s dispute-resolution model, enabling BTC to move seamlessly between Bitcoin and Rootstock’s ecosystem.
By locking BTC in Bitcoin and releasing equal RBTC on Rootstock, users will continue to be able to transfer and interact with decentralized applications (DeFi protocols, NFTs, etc.) on Rootstock, all while maintaining trustless and decentralized principles.
Utilizing the basics of BitVMX, this process won’t require any custodial intermediaries or collateralization in foreign tokens. Instead, it uses cryptographic proofs to ensure that every BTC transfer between chains is fully decentralized and verifiable.
Supported by RootstockLabs and Fairgate Labs
The development of Union Bridge is being supported by two research teams: RootstockLabs and Fairgate Labs. Together, these teams are driving the BitVMX proving system forward, focusing on scalability, security, and user-friendliness. Their joint research has already demonstrated the first-of-its-kind SNARK proof verification on Bitcoin mainnet, and the potential for further advancements, such as decentralized oracles and automated bug bounties running directly on Bitcoin.
As they continue to refine BitVMX’s capabilities, Union Bridge stands as a prime example of how the Bitcoin network can be extended into a robust, decentralized ecosystem without compromising its core principles.
What’s Next for Union Bridge?
The next phase for Union Bridge involves finalizing its design, ensuring flawless integration between Bitcoin and Rootstock, and undergoing rigorous testing on both testnet and mainnet environments. And, of course, the approval of this consensus change by the Rootstock community.
The whitepaper for the Union Bridge is expected to be released soon along with open-sourcing the code for BitVMX enabling anyone to build a trustless bridge between Bitcoin and other chains.
Stay in the know
To stay updated about the research and innovations regarding BitVMX, make sure to join the official BitVMX Builders telegram group to follow and contribute to the project’s progress.
Recommended reading
The first idea of Bitcoin Virtual Machine (BitVM) was brought by Robin Linus in October 2023, and has improved significantly since.
Explore the concept of BitVM and how it led to the discoveries in BitVMX in this series of research articles: