What's Happening in Stacks?!
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What’s Happening in Stacks?!
A weekly update for all things Stacks. While not exhaustive, this list best covers Proof of Research’s top signals for the week. Each tweet is the thread origin and worth a deeper dive.
This week was absolutely loaded with important developments in the Stacks ecosystem! In fact, there was so much information that Substack has informed us that the post is too long for email (will be truncated). If you want the full update please visit Substack! If you think we missed anything you can always reach our DMs! Please enjoy this week’s What’s Happening in Stacks?!
THE ASCENSION: STACKS 2.1 NETWORK UPGRADE—STRENGHTENING THE CONNECTION TO BITCOIN
Stacks 2.1 can enable more efficient Bitcoin yield via Stacking, make bridges to other networks more robust, simplify the ways developers can link and trigger interactions between Stacks and Bitcoin, and lay some helpful groundwork for Subnets which can bring additional speed and scalability to the network when launched. Click the tweet above to learn more about each Key Update.
The Key Updates to Look for in the Stacks 2.1 Upgrade:
· Stacking Improvements
· New Clarity Functions for Parsing & Validating Data
· Better Bridges
· Decentralizing Mining Pools
· Pay-to-Anyone Coinbase
· Mining with Segwit & Taproot
· Bitcoin-native Assets & Smart Contract Control
MUST-LISTEN TWITTER SPACES: SUBNETS FOR STACKS – SCALING SOLUTIONS FOR 10X GROWTH
Listen to this 54-minute conversation with Stacks core devs + Muneeb. Subnets are one of the final hurdles before Stacks can begin scaling. Listen to this conversation to better understand Subnets, meet the Stacks core devs, and when we can expect Subnets to go live! This Spaces is obligatory listening for anyone learning about Stacks (especially investors).
TYCHO ON HOW STACKS COULD PROVIDE ITS SMART CONTRACTS WRITE ACCESS TO BITCOIN
If you saw this tweet, you knew it was going to be included in this week’s What’s Happening in Stacks?! Tycho has discovered a way for Stacks smart contracts to write to Bitcoin. Additionally, this development can work with DLCs acting as an intermediary layer. PoR is excited to see who moves this idea forward!
Decentralized networks adjacent to Bitcoin can economically motivate Bitcoin holders to transfer funds to addresses that are specified programmatically. The best way to write to Bitcoin is to have a separate network where the nodes are signers of a massive multisig that facilitates peg-in/peg-outs of BTC to a tokenized BTC that’s backed 1-to-1 by the BTC in the multisig. The tokenized BTC lives on a network that has fully expressive smart contracts, so that the BTC can be used as programmable internet money.
OLD TWEET, BUT EVERYONE NEEDS A FRIEDNLY REMINDER
TLDR; the brilliant minds in Stacks have likely solved the Bitcoin write problem! Is Tycho’s above tweet the answer to this cryptic tweet? We shall see! Stacks currently reads Bitcoin state. With this new development Stacks will likely write to Bitcoin state. If true, then Stacks is playing in a class of its own within the Bitcoin ecosystem! This is the golden goose!
Q3 2022 HIRO DEVELOPER SURVEY
Hiro Systems CEO, Alex Miller, posted the Q3 2022 Hiro Developer Survey. This survey, administered by Hiro, is designed to gather feedback about products used to build applications on the Stacks network. If you’re a dev on Stacks go ahead and fill out this survey to help the team at Hiro better calibrate their next initiative(s). The more honest the feedback, the better as Hiro has the resources to develop tools that 10x or 100x developer effectiveness. The survey takes 10 minutes to complete. The first 300 to do so will earn a limited edition NFT.
PROPOSAL: SHARED API & LIQUIDITY POOLS
Brad Baker proposed an interesting thought. What if ALEX, Arkadiko, & Trust Machines created a “shared” API and liquidity pools? This would empower app devs to focus on UI’s and use-cases. The goal is to become “the Cisco of Crypto.”
Phillip De Smedt really liked this idea and proposed everything roll up into ALEX. Build the “Serum” of Stacks (Serum is a Solana project).
MUNEEB: CRYPTO DEVS WILL NEED FULL ANONYMITY IN THE NEAR FUTURE
This Tweet prompted an interesting discussion regarding the potential opportunities and pitfalls for full dev anonymity.
HOT TAKE: ETH WILL FLIP BTC
Another week another provocative Jake Blockchain hot take re: the flippening. PoR’s own opinion is the ETH-BTC flippening would be massively bullish Bitcoin layers medium and long-term. Religious dogma and lazy support would no longer take precedent over innovation and building in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
In response, Castig.btc provided an image showing that Growth happens on specific layers. Very interesting! The bull case for Stacks continues to grow.
HOT TAKE: PROOF OF RESEARCH’S OWN THEADVISOR.BTC FUDDING STACKS KICKED OFF A GREAT CONVERSATION…NEVER REST ON YOUR LAURELS
The Advisor provided three reasons why he would leave Stacks. This FUD helped stir productive conversation. See the tweets below that resulted from the initial Tweet.
Will proposed a great idea! A series of Tweets covering a ~3 month plan with baby steps for each of The Advisor’s issues at hand.
A good sub thread about developer turnover and how to fix this was proposed.
More issues to address.
Great sub thread started by investor Vikram Ashoka on areas for improvement. Marketing and Investor Relations! PoR is working to address this specific concern.
POR MISSED THIS LAST WEEK: DARTMOUTH PROVIDED A FULL IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS OF STACKS
How many of the elite universities are actively teaching/applying Stacks, Clarity language, and building on Bitcoin?
HACKREAD IS CATCHING ON…IF BITCOINERS WANT BITCOIN TO MAKE IT BIG, THEY NEED DEFI
Great to see publications grok what everyone in the Stacks ecosystem has been working towards!
MORE DAVID MARCUS NEWS: MIT’S TADGE DRYJA JOINS MARCUS FIRM LIGHTSPARK!
Talk about an absolutely massive pickup in the free agent market! David Marcus hired Lightning Network co-founder & Discreet Log Contracts (DLC) inventor, Tadge Dryja of MIT, to help Marcus build on bitcoin. PoR is super excited to learn how Stacks plans to collaborate with this future Bitcoin juggernaught!
ALFA DROP: A NEW WEEK A NEW DEVELOPMENT – ALEX NEVER STOPS SHIPPING!
Are we about to see an EVM compatible subnet for ALEX? Metamask + Stacks = Ethereum Liquidity & ALEX best-in-class DEX. Can’t wait to learn more!
NEOSWAP OFFERING SELF-HOSTING PARTIES WHERE HOSTS EARN 50% OF THE REVENUE SPLIT
Don’t sleep on NeoSwap. Revenue splitting is an interesting strategy to grow NeoSwap into the Facebook Marketplace of NFTs.
BORED ELON & LEEOR.BTC HOST A FIRESIDE CHAT WITH THEOPETRA FOUNDER MEL ANCIC
This was a great conversation hosted by Bored Elon & Leeor.btc concerning Theopetra and their upcoming launch. Real Yield and Real World Assets “on-chain” will be one of the driving narratives in the next bull market. Keep an eye out!