Rootstock Infrastructure Framework (RIF) — Project Update

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Biggest Stories of 2025

• Rootstock Research: 2025 in Review — A year-in-review piece recapping Rootstock's progress and milestones across 2025, serving as a consolidated reference for the ecosystem's trajectory over the year (December 28, 2025) 4.
• Rootstock Core Devs Weekly — A recurring developer update covering ongoing core protocol work and technical coordination within the Rootstock ecosystem (December 15, 2025) 5.
• Bridging Without Blind Trust: How PowPeg Inherits Bitcoin's Security Model — An explainer on how PowPeg, Rootstock's Bitcoin bridge, extends Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work security to the network via a lock-and-mint mechanism, with BTC locked in a multi-signature wallet and rBTC minted 1:1, and withdrawals authorized by Bitcoin miners through merged mining (December 5, 2025) 67.
• RSKj Reed 8.1.0 Release — The release of the RSKj client version 8.1.0 introduced consensus changes and node optimizations, primarily activating on Testnet (November 11, 2025) 8.
• Build the Future. On Bitcoin. With Rootstock. (Builder Rootcamp) — Rootstock launched applications for its inaugural 10-week "Builder Rootcamp," a free hybrid program limited to 30 developers to train them in building EVM-compatible dApps on Bitcoin via Rootstock, with applications closing December 1, 2025 and the first cohort beginning in late January 2026 (November 18, 2025) 9.
• Rootstock x Bitcoin: Merged Mining Insights Report Q3 2025 — The report detailed that the Rootstock/Bitcoin hashrate ratio stood at 83.27%, with a quarterly average Rootstock hashrate of 795.00 EH/s, and leading mining pools Foundry USA (34.46%), AntPool (21.22%), and ViaBTC (14.07%) (October 21, 2025) 10.
• Announcing The Upcoming PowPeg Composition Change — Rootstock announced a PowPeg Composition Change scheduled for activation at block 8,147,322, anticipated on October 28, 2025, enabling the Segwit-supported PowPeg to reduce peg-out fees and improve bridge scalability, and requiring a change in the Bitcoin deposit address (October 20, 2025) 11.
• Rootstock Explorer v3.5.0 Is Live — A release of the Rootstock Explorer offering upgrades to contract verification, search, and transaction insights for a faster, clearer, more developer-friendly experience (October 19, 2025) 12.
• Institutional Bitcoin DeFi initiative launched on Rootstock — RootstockLabs launched Rootstock Institutional to expand access to Bitcoin-native DeFi for professional investors, enabling BTC-backed lending, stablecoin issuance, and yield strategies with partners like LayerBank, Midas, and Solv, with a second phase to introduce regulated vaults after December (October 14, 2025) 13.
• Rootstock Roadmap 2025 — The team outlined its 2025 roadmap spanning core upgrades and cross-chain interoperability, BTC yield and liquid staking, scaling access and bridging, and a Q4 mainnet launch of Union and BTC yield vaults (July 22, 2025) 14.
• Support for Rootstock (The Graph) — The Graph announced that Rootstock completed its Chain Integration Process, with indexing rewards now available (April 3, 2025) 15.
• Rootstock Deployment (LayerZero) — LayerZero went live on Rootstock, with Rootstock integrating the OFT Standard for RIF and rBTC to enable asset transfers across chains (February 21, 2025) 16.