RSK
Sidechains
A sidechain, as its name says, is a side chain, or rather, parallel to another, and that it has some form of connection with the main chain.
A sidechain is an independent blockchain whose native currency is pegged to the value of another blockchain currency. The peg can be enforced by a protocol or it can be synthetic.
A 2-way peg is a protocol-enforced system allowing two currencies to be exchanged freely, automatically, and without incurring in a price negotiation.
RSK
RSK is a Bitcoin sidechain with the ability to execute Ethereum smart contracts.
I particularly consider this the best of both worlds!
RSK's cryptocurrency is RBTC, which has its value tied to Bitcoin, pegged to Bitcoin, that is, 1: 1, 1 RBTC is worth 1 Bitcoin.
More than half of Bitcoin miners also validate RSK blocks. They use the same equipment and special software that identifies when a transaction is Bitcoin or RSK
Miners at RSK do not receive new cryptocurrencies created. The reward in the RSK network is the gas for the execution of smart contracts.
RSK MainNet network was released in early January 2018.
Live statistics about the entire RSK network is available at RSK Stats .
All the necessary source code can be found at our GitHub repository: RSKSmart .
All the project information, including a getting started guide, can be found on the RSK & RIF Developer Portal .
For latest news and updates, check out RSK Blog .
2 way peg - PowPeg
The conversion between Bitcoin (BTC) and Smart Bitcoin (R-BTC) is accomplished through a 2-way peg mechanism.
This 2-way peg was bootstrapped using a federation of nodes managing a Bitcoin multisignature. However, RSK has transitioned its federation to a PowPeg.
A PowPeg is a multi-signature management system where participants' nodes have no direct access or control over private keys. Keys are controlled by tamper-proof HSMs. These HSMs internally run lightweight RSK nodes which obey commands originating from an RSK smart-contract called the Bridge that orchestrate peg-outs. Only when such commands are confirmed by thousands of blocks produced by the mining network does the HSM proceed to sign peg-out requests.
The PowPeg is a new security protection layered on top of the previous federation. It is unique in the crypto ecosystem and radically reduces the attack surface for the most frequent security breaches. The RSK community has collectively decided on a strategy for increasing the security of the peg based on defence-in-depth: adding more security layers on top of existing ones, protecting the system from the failure of any of them. The ultimate goal is the complete decentralisation of the peg.
References
Conclusion
In this module we present some basic concepts of Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum and RSK. We also indicate several reading references to deepen your studies.