Key Points:

• Foundry, recognized as the largest Bitcoin mining pool globally, is enhancing the security of Rootstock to 740 exahashes per second (EH/s).
• Miners engaged in merge mining with Rootstock can earn 79% of transaction fees in rBTC.

Foundry has announced plans to diversify its mining operations to boost security for the Bitcoin layer-2 network, Rootstock, through a technique known as merge mining. This strategy allows miners to mine multiple cryptocurrencies at once without sacrificing efficiency.

The integration involves contributing 200 EH/s, raising Rootstock’s total security capacity to 740 EH/s, equivalent to approximately 80% of the computing power securing the Bitcoin network.

This approach provides Foundry with a new revenue stream, as those merging their mining efforts will collect a significant portion of Rootstock’s transaction fees.

By implementing merge mining, Foundry not only reinforces Rootstock’s defenses without consuming extra energy but also fosters a more resilient and innovative Bitcoin ecosystem. Rootstock leverages Bitcoin’s security while offering smart contract capabilities and compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Correction (Feb. 6, 16:10 UTC): The originally stated amount injected by Foundry was corrected to 200 EH/s.