Bitcoin Blockchain smart contracts startup RSK Labs Ltd. has raised $1 million in seed funding in a round that included Bitmain Technology, Coinsilium, and Digital Currency Group.

Based in Buenos Aires, RSK is developing Rootstock, an open-source smart contract platform with a 2-way peg to Bitcoin that also rewards Bitcoin miners via merge-mining, allowing them to actively participate in the Smart Contract revolution.

The company’s platform is said to add value and functionality to Bitcoin while at the same time creating what they claim is the most robust and secure smart contract platform in the ecosystem; the platform also connects Bitcoin and Ethereum to enable new smart contracting capabilities and has as its goal to enable not only smart-contracts but near instant payments and higher scalability as well.

In terms of scalability the numbers look impressive, with the platform said to be able to scale to 100 transactions per second, the same level as PayPal, without sacrificing decentralization and reducing storage and bandwidth usage using probabilistic verification and fraud proofs, as well as Blockchain sharding techniques.

Bitmain Chief Executive Officer Wu Jihan believes what RSK is doing will be a serious driver of future growth in smart contract development, saying in a statement that “Rootstock is the most exciting opportunity for me among the startups in the bitcoin ecosystem. The tidal wave of startups developing smart contract solutions based on RSK will bring countless miracles.”

Bitcoin miners

RSK added that they are continuing to strengthen theirs relationships with Bitcoin miners, who are a fundamental pillar of the project; the platform gives miners the opportunity to use all their installed capacity to run decentralized smart contracts while merge-mining RSK, creating an additional revenue stream in their current business model.

Rootstock, which is still being developed, will open for private testing in April, with the following months seeing the addition of wallets, block explorers and additional features added before launching with a full public beta test in September this year.

The company said it would use the funds to expand its current presence in Latin America to Asia, Europe and the United States, while securing the funding needed to ensure the complete execution of its roadmap.

Image credit: RSK Labs.