One of the oldest Bitcoin ecosystem projects is to move to the next step by enabling developers to build Layer-2 networks using its calculation layer.

Rootstock is one of many projects that are currently promoting the goal of bringing greater utility and interoperability to Bitcoin, as it does using “BitVMX”, a modified version of BitVM programming language.

Rootstock’s project is weeks away from releasing software development kits (SDKs), allowing developers to start producing their own Bitcoin Layer-2S using BitVMX, founder Sergio Lerner told Coindesk.

SDKs are set tools that allow third parties to build applications using a particular platform or frame.

“We are very close to having all the pieces ready for people to start building their own solutions on top of BitVMX,” Lerner said in an interview.

Rootstock’s BitVMX project utilizes the BitVM paradigm introduced by Robin Linus in 2023 as a design for how Ethereum style Smart contracts could be built on Bitcoin. This could then improve Bitcoin’s scalability greatly by enabling the construction of faster, LAG-2 networks with programmability similar to what is possible in Ethereum and other blockchains.

BitVMX platform

Alongside BitVMX contributors Fairgate, RootStockLab’s last year made a breakthrough using BitVMX to verify a zero-knowledge zero (concise non-interactive knowledge argument), an integrated aspect of cryptography in many blockchain systems.

The availability of tools for other developers to explore these capabilities will further run competition and thus increase the adoption, according to Lerner.

“There is a difference between a product and a platform: A product is closed, but a platform is something you can easily connect to and develop your own ideas on top,” he said.

“BitVMX is becoming a platform, which means there will be much more competition: Rollups and Sidekains competing against each other and those who can find use for people to run their tools will win.”

Lerner, Aa Buenos Aires-based programmer, is best known for his research at Bitcoin in the first years and his later contribution to the development at Ethereum.

He told Coindesk that he fears Bitcoin will not fulfill the purpose he says it was created – to become a “money to the people” – if it remains just a value of value.

“If all BTC just ends up in ETFs, they will all be controlled by financial institutions and there will be no more bitcoin as we know it,” he said.

“So we all need to make Bitcoin payments and keep our own BTC in self -preservation. That’s why we thought that creating layers for Bitcoin is the right approach and I think the key to this is BitVM protocols, especially BitVMX.”

Bitvmx Force

RootStockLabs and Fairgate have formed an alliance to expand Bitcoin’s utility using BitVMX, which also involves blockchain -infrastructure engineering input | Output (IO).

“BitVMX Force” will focus on standardization and protocol improvements to help smooth out future Bitcoin-Soft TVs and infrastructure improvements as they occur, according to an email message shared with Coindesk on Tuesday.

“Rootstock and IO both have their own initiatives: Rootstock builds Union, which is a bridge between Bitcoin and Rootstock based on BitVMX, and IO is working on a project to move assets from Bitcoin to Cardano and back again,” Fairgate CEO Jonatan Altszul said in an interview.

“Fairgate is also pushing this technology, and we thought that together we will have more firepower, more strength, more capacity to create a larger community.”