Rootstock's native token RBTC is known as "Smart Bitcoin” and lets users use their BTC to interact with a range of services on the Rootstock Bitcoin layer 2.
Rootstock is a Bitcoin sidechain that provides EVM-compatible smart contract functionality using bitcoin as the native asset. Rootstock is the most permissionless and censorship-resistant Bitcoin sidechain.
RBTC is an exact 1:1 peg with BTC. (1 RBTC = 1 BTC) When you transfer bitcoin into Rootstock, your bitcoin is locked and the equivalent amount released as RBTC.
Rootstock is permissionless, and its consensus mechanism is merge-mined proof of work (PoW) with over 50% of Bitcoin's hash power currently mining Rootstock. This means that Rootstock is mined by more hashpower than any other chain, except Bitcoin itself.
RBTC is used as gas to pay for smart contract execution on the network, such as the transaction fee for trading Rootstock ecosystem tokens, the same way as ETH is used as gas for Ethereum. Unlike other blockchain native tokens, Rootstock is non-custodial and maintains the censorship resistance of Bitcoin.v