PRESS

With the Wasabi 1.0.0 upgrade, Bitcoin sidechain RSK leaves Beta

Gibraltar — Aug 1, 2019

The release brings significant improvements in performance, interoperability, storage and security, laying the foundation for RSK’s secure and scalable blockchain solutions mass adoption.

IOV Labs, the organization behind the RSK tech stack and RIF exchange ecosystem, announced today that its node upgrade, Wasabi 1.0.0, is up and running within the RSK infrastructure, formally taking the platform out of beta. The upgrade includes several advancements, including the introduction of Unitrie and Armadillo, Virtual Machine opcodes, transactions tracing methods, and new RSK native contracts.

Diego Zaldivar, CEO of IOV Labs and Co-founder of RSK Labs, said of the release:
“With Wasabi, we’ve successfully launched out of beta into a stable product providing seamless integration between Bitcoin and RSK and laying the foundation for our sustainable scalability roadmap.”

A highlight of the upgrade is RSK’s unique scaling solution Unitrie, an evolution of the data structure within RSK’s blockchain that reduces required storage enabling further scalability.

Another key feature of the release is the improved compatibility with Ethereum through additional VM opcodes, notably CREATE2’s off-chain business logic validation,, while the introduction of native contracts that allow smart contracts to verify Bitcoin transaction confirmations, more seamlessly integrate RSK with the Bitcoin blockchain. Both updates are in line with RSK’s vision of enabling an interoperable blockchain ecosystem.

The upgrade introduces the first phase of RSK’s innovative double-spend protection program Armadillo, which leverages the security of RSK’s merge-mining model to protect against overt attacks and significantly de-incentivize covered attacks.

Nodes now also require much less storage to run, improving on already high incentives for for merge mining on the network.

Adrian Eidelman, RSK’s Chief Technical Officer, commented: “Wasabi release 1.0.0 is a significant step forward for RSK Smart Contracts as it tackles improvements in key areas such as storage, scalability, security and interoperability addressing that will be key to accelerate the platform adoption”

The RSK team reports that all critical nodes on the network - including mining pools, exchanges, and wallets - have been successfully upgraded. As Wasabi 1.0.0 is not compatible with previous versions, the team encourages anyone running a client node to visit the Github repository and complete the upgrade.

RSK has maintained its title as ‘the world’s most secure Smart Contract platform’ since it surpassed 45% of the hashing power of the Bitcoin network in February. RSK brings smart contract capabilities to the Bitcoin blockchain powered by a two-way 1:1 Bitcoin peg.

IOV Labs recently opened its Innovation Studio in San Francisco. Offering technologies, community building, and educational resources, the Innovation Studio’s mission is to empower developers and startups looking to compete and innovate in the Decentralized Finance ecosystem. The Innovation tech team is currently focused on building an easy to use DeFi software environment for non-blockchain developers.

For more information about the Wasabi upgrade:

Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, IOV Labs CEOLabs and Adrian Eidelman IOV Labs CTO and RSK Smart Contracts Lead are available for interview.

About IOV Labs

IOV Labs is a purpose driven organization focused on developing the platforms needed for a new blockchain-based financial system that will enable worldwide financial inclusion and bridge the gap between these nascent technologies and mass adoption.

The organization currently develops the most popular implementations of the RSK Smart Contract Network and RIF OS platforms.

With more than 40% total Bitcoin hash rate merge-mining, the RSK Network is the most secure Smart Contract platform in the world.

RIF OS protocols is a suite of open and decentralized infrastructure protocols that enable faster, easier and scalable development of distributed applications (dApps) within a unified environment to enable mass adoption of Bitcoin and RSK. RIF OS Protocols include RIF Directory (a naming service protocol), RIF Payments (an offchain payment protocol), RIF Storage (a data storage and distribution protocol), RIF Communications (a secure routing, session and encrypted communications protocol) and RIF Gateways (an interoperability protocol that includes cross chain transfers and oracling services).

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