Skip to content
Back to Blog
Ecosystem

New Rootstock Upgrade: Increased decentralization, lower gas fees and faster transactions

Read Time: 1 mins
New Rootstock Upgrade:  Increased decentralization, lower gas fees and faster transactions

The Rootstock community is always working behind the scenes to try and make things even better and this month has been a busy one. A major upgrade combined with the increase of Rootstock’s hash rate to 80% and a new transaction protocol have ushered in big improvements for both users and builders…

Let’s get into it 👇

Rootstock activates Lovell 7.0.0 upgrade, which will boost SECURITY and DECENTRALIZATION

The Lovell upgrade has gone live on mainnet, which brings major benefits when it comes to security and decentralization. How does it do this? In three ways:

  • It strengthens the PowPeg, Rootstock’s native bridge and the most secure Bitcoin bridge, ensuring that changes are verified before taking effect, and guaranteeing that locked funds remain safe and accessible.
  • It also lays the groundwork for increasing the number of PowPeg members (pegnatories) from 9 to 60, making Rootstock one of the most decentralized Bitcoin sidechains.
  • In addition, the Lovell 7.0.0 upgrade improves Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility, making it even easier to build on Bitcoin.

Not bad, right? 🔒

Gas FEES are going to be 60% LOWER

Thanks to the Bitcoin miners who merge-mine Rootstock, the minimum gas price per transaction has been significantly reduced. In fact, fees are now 60% lower.

What does this mean for the Rootstock community? Users will of course enjoy lower costs to interact with dApps and smart contracts, whilst builders will benefit from reduced expenses in deploying and maintaining smart contracts. Overall, these lower fees will help encourage greater innovation and usage, strengthening Roostock as the go-to place for building on Bitcoin. 🥳

Transactions are going to be EVEN FASTER

In addition, the FASTER protocol, which is coming soon, will enable faster blocks and higher transaction throughput, reducing transaction confirmation times from 30 seconds to just 5.

These updates support Rootstock’s mission to become a more scalable, decentralized, and cost-efficient Bitcoin-based smart contract platform. Since its inception in 2017, the Rootstock network has never stopped evolving.

Join the Rootstock Discord channel here and let us know about your experience!

To get more details on the Lovell 7.0.0 update, click here: RSKIP 435 Network Upgrade: Lovell

Recommended articles

Bitcoin Bridging Just Got Faster and Safer on Rootstock

Bitcoin Bridging Just Got Faster and Safer on Rootstock

Rootstock has upgraded its Bitcoin bridging infrastructure with the release of PowPeg App v2.6 and Flyover v2.1.2, making it easier, faster, and safer to move BTC to Rootstock.  These updates strengthen Rootstock’s position as the most secure Bitcoin sidechain and the best place to put your Bitcoin to work in DeFi. Here’s What’s New Fewer […]

Ecosystem
Rootstock Blocks Getting Faster: Redefining Difficulty Adjustment

Rootstock Blocks Getting Faster: Redefining Difficulty Adjustment

By Patricio Gallardo Special thanks to research team colleagues whose contributions significantly shaped my ideas on this subject. Tl;dr Rootstock is getting faster, and that means better performance on the most secure Bitcoin DeFi layer.  Shorter block times will make transactions confirm more quickly and improve the overall experience for users and developers. But to […]

Developers
Rootstock x Solv: Guide to Minting SolvBTC & xSolvBTC

Rootstock x Solv: Guide to Minting SolvBTC & xSolvBTC

This article is part of Rootstock’s series “Building DeFi on Bitcoin” which explores different solutions and integrations on the Rootstock blockchain that enable scaling Bitcoin, bringing DeFi capabilities to the world’s most secure Bitcoin DeFi layer. Solv Protocol is a platform that offers a comprehensive set of financial services for Bitcoin holders. And now integrated […]

Users