Bitcoin For Builders: "The ₿est and the ₿rightest" Will Usher In sBTC
🧡 This piece officially wraps up the Stacks Foundation’s 21 Days of Nakamoto campaign and provides a peak at the upcoming release of sBTC. Fundamentally, the fast blocks and finality Nakamoto brings to the Stacks layer sets the stage for sBTC, a programmable Bitcoin asset that will break open countless possibilities for builders, making this the perfect cap to our 21-day Nakamoto celebration.
It’s been a seminal year for Bitcoin, perhaps one of the most important in its nearly 16-year history. You can boil the 'why' down to one essential element: The return of the builders. 2024 has seen innovative energy return to the network in the form of new protocols, layers, and experiments. From OGs to new entrants, builders are bringing exciting ideas, funding, and community to Bitcoin. For those of us working on projects like Stacks, and who have been building on and for Bitcoin long before it was a popular thing to do, this is both exciting and validating. More importantly, it’s critical for Bitcoin’s long-term future — more on that later.
The Bitcoin economy is still largely untapped, with only the beginnings of DeFi and other financial use cases available to Bitcoiners via mechanisms they feel secure with. This is rapidly changing as players big and small are working to bring the best of everything to the best blockchain.
Since the end of 2023, we’ve seen a ~7x increase in the value unlocked by these builders, growing from approximately $300m to nearly $2B (1.8 - 2.25B), now accounting for about 0.17% of the BTC market cap today. Looking just at Bitcoin L2s like Stacks, Galaxy reports that Bitcoin L2s raised $94.6m in Q2 2024, a 174% QoQ increase ($34.7m Q1 2024), bringing the total to 77 Bitcoin L2s according to BTCL2.info This is exciting growth, but there is still a long way to go.
The Bitcoin economy is still largely untapped, with only the beginnings of DeFi and other financial use cases available to Bitcoiners via mechanisms they feel secure with. This is rapidly changing as players big and small are working to bring the best of everything to the best blockchain.
Since the end of 2023, we’ve seen a ~7x increase in the value unlocked by these builders, growing from approximately $300m to nearly $2B (1.8 - 2.25B), now accounting for about 0.17% of the BTC market cap today. Looking just at Bitcoin L2s like Stacks, Galaxy reports that Bitcoin L2s raised $94.6m in Q2 2024, a 174% QoQ increase ($34.7m Q1 2024), bringing the total to 77 Bitcoin L2s according to BTCL2.info This is exciting growth, but there is still a long way to go.
This opportunity alone makes it an exciting time to work in the Bitcoin ecosystem, but there is also the technical renaissance to consider as builders behind, BitVM2, Runes, Ordinals, and various layers break new ground for Bitcoin builders. Even more exciting? This is no longer a following with a few champions -- this is a full-blown movement, with the rest of the industry at full attention.
In the next couple months, Stacks will release sBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset that operates as an open-network, decentralized 2-way peg solution to bring smart contract functionality to Bitcoin with as little counterparty risk as possible. This has been a vision for years, and you’ve probably heard something about it over the past few months. This milestone is much bigger than a Stacks achievement, and we're fortunate to bring along a network of amazing partners and collaborators who recognize this as well. These leaders understand the opportunity and the vision surrounding a fully activated Bitcoin economy -- and it is through their perspectives we will usher in sBTC.
In the next couple months, Stacks will release sBTC, a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset that operates as an open-network, decentralized 2-way peg solution to bring smart contract functionality to Bitcoin with as little counterparty risk as possible. This has been a vision for years, and you’ve probably heard something about it over the past few months. This milestone is much bigger than a Stacks achievement, and we're fortunate to bring along a network of amazing partners and collaborators who recognize this as well. These leaders understand the opportunity and the vision surrounding a fully activated Bitcoin economy -- and it is through their perspectives we will usher in sBTC.
The ₿est and the ₿rightest
The ₿est and the ₿rightest will feature partnerships and collaborations with top Bitcoin-focused companies across various sectors, each a leader in their respective Bitcoin-related fields. The campaign will include organizations representing miners, wallets, exchanges, and more that are the best at what they do and will cover how they are embracing sBTC and the Bitcoin economy.
The ₿est and the ₿rightest will debut in late November and seek to educate the broader ecosystem about the ever-growing list of new possibilities for decentralized applications, financial services, and beyond built on the world's most secure blockchain. For those of you deep in the Stacks ecosystem, you’ve been getting something of a preview over the past few months with announcements covering how major players like BitGo, Aptos, Figment, Blockdaemon, Luxor, and many more have committed to support the leading Bitcoin L2. We can't wait to add more leaders to this list and highlight how they are paving the way for a flourishing Bitcoin economy.
The ₿est and the ₿rightest will debut in late November and seek to educate the broader ecosystem about the ever-growing list of new possibilities for decentralized applications, financial services, and beyond built on the world's most secure blockchain. For those of you deep in the Stacks ecosystem, you’ve been getting something of a preview over the past few months with announcements covering how major players like BitGo, Aptos, Figment, Blockdaemon, Luxor, and many more have committed to support the leading Bitcoin L2. We can't wait to add more leaders to this list and highlight how they are paving the way for a flourishing Bitcoin economy.
Securing Bitcoin's Future
“In a few decades when the reward gets too small, the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes. I'm sure that in 20 years there will either be very large transaction volume or no volume.”
- Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcointalk.org
- Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcointalk.org
Specific projects aside, a healthy ecosystem built around and for Bitcoin is what we're all working towards. Not only do we share in this vision because we believe more innovation, possibility, and choice for Bitcoiners is fundamentally ‘good’, we also know it just makes economic sense. As Satoshi notes, “the transaction fee will become the main compensation for nodes” and that transaction volume will either be large or zero. With these major players behind builders, we’re certainly heading for the former scenario — something that should be comforting to all Bitcoiners.
As we embark, let's learn together and not repeat the mistakes of others. We have the advantage of observing hard lessons other networks and projects have learned, and we have visionary people who are committed to the underlying values that make Bitcoin special. If the years ahead are anything like 2024, and we commit to building securely, with integrity, and remain collaborative, we can undoubtedly push Bitcoin, at last, to the moon.
As we embark, let's learn together and not repeat the mistakes of others. We have the advantage of observing hard lessons other networks and projects have learned, and we have visionary people who are committed to the underlying values that make Bitcoin special. If the years ahead are anything like 2024, and we commit to building securely, with integrity, and remain collaborative, we can undoubtedly push Bitcoin, at last, to the moon.
Stay Tuned
As the campaign unfolds, the Stacks Foundation and its partners will engage in various educational initiatives to inform the community about sBTC and its implications for Bitcoin's future. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements regarding specific partnerships and opportunities to get involved with "The ₿est and the ₿rightest" campaign.