Unlike most blockchain 2.0 startups which are quietly courting banks and other corporate entities, Rootstock is very vocal about its interactions with The World Bank Group, for instance, with which it aims to drive financial inclusion. Perhaps this goes with the territory – Rootstock runs on the Bitcoin blockchain. Rootstock draws together the capabilities of Ethereum with the security and transparency offered by the Bitcoin network, using sidechain technology and bitcoin as the fuel to run its smart contracts. The project has been publicly backed by smart contracts expert Nick Szabo who said it combines the best of both worlds – Bitcoin and Ethereum. Diego Gutierrez Zaldivar, co-founder of Rootstock said using Bitcoin, which has had some time to mature as a technology, allowed Rootstock to focus on actual use cases such as micro lending programmes. He told IBTimes: "Our idea is to target specific needs that we detected in Latin America in different areas and also launch Rootstock with some real use cases; companies and organisations that want to start working on smart contract execution." Zaldivar said Rootstock has been in talks with The World Bank and Banco Ciudad de Buenos Aires and other development banks such as BNDES, the Brazilian development bank. He also mentioned a work group within the Latin American Bitcoin NGO called SystemaD, working specifically on financial inclusion, testing the technology with groups in the slums of Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo. To this end, Rootstock is designing the tools to run these micro-lending programmes for unbanked people, cost efficiently and with a transparency never seen before. "We think it’s key that you have a smart contracts platform that is neutral and is secure enough to run that kind of programme." He pointed out that these projects are medium term and will not be […]
