The notion of scaling in layers around Bitcoin applies to more than just the Stacks blockchain. The strength, skill, and diversity of the ecosystem are the most important factors in Stacks’ long-term success. The Stacks Residence Program recognizes this critical truth and officially launches today to create more opportunity for experts and leaders to explore and build out key aspects of the Stacks Ecosystem.

Last week in Clarity Universe, we took a look at some of the most promising NFT and metaverse use cases within the Stacks ecosystem. To follow it up this week we then dove deep into Bitcoin DeFi as Arkadiko’s massive launch ($50M TVL) had Clarity students are wondering how they can put their skills to the test in the quickly growing DeFi world.

Stacks Korea is excited to announce that Stacks has been rated ‘Prime (AA-)’ by Xangle, a key crypto-asset disclosure platform in the country. This rating indicates Stacks is an excellent blockchain project with great reliability and strong capabilities that can help it accomplish its goal of unleashing Bitcoin's full potential.

This week, we’re excited to share that BitGo has added support for Stacks, creating the opportunity for larger token holders such as institutions to engage in Bitcoin DeFi via Stacking. BitGo clients, both small and large, will now be able to earn bitcoin yield simply by holding their STX and turning on the Stacking function, joining a growing Bitcoin DeFi user base that already has nearly $1B locked in Stacking.

Spooky greetings as we're back to one of our favorite events of the year. Stackers, get your NFTs ready for our very first Stacks Halloween NFT Contest where creators of all kinds will be minting their spookiest NFT’s on Boom.

Stackers, another epic quarter is now in the books! After each quarter, we provide visibility into the latest Stacks Foundation board meeting and our team's performance against previously shared objectives. Below, you'll find summarized sections for quicker reading, but we also opt to share all the material as part of our ongoing commitment to operating transparently and in the interest of encouraging active communication in our decentralized ecosystem.

Today, we’re excited to share that the Stacks Foundation has teamed with Brink to support a new full-time Brink Fellow, allowing for further expansion of their exceptional work supporting Bitcoin Core. The sponsorship is the first of its kind, being paid directly with the bitcoin yield generated via Stacking on the Stacks blockchain.

What might be ahead for Stacks builders in the coming weeks and months?

In spite of what clever marketing might lead you to believe, blockchains do not, in fact, scale. There will always be a tradeoff between speed and decentralization, each coming with its own set of problems and opportunities. Every protocol you can name simply offers us different tradeoffs and the same is true of Stacks. In the case of the Stacks blockchain, very specific decisions to ensure security and decentralization, so let's explore how the network can scale from here.

From DeFi to NFTs, Stacks is redefining what many previously assumed Bitcoin was capable of. This evolution is thanks to a Stacks Ecosystem that is constantly finding new ways to make the fruits of Bitcoin available and accessible to everyone. Today, that trend not only continues, but we also welcome another major player to the ecosystem as Orbit Chain will launch support for the Stacks blockchain.

NFTs are more than just digital art. ☝️ It creates opportunities for new business models that didn't exist before. Enter Boomboxes, a Fixed Income NFT minted on Stacks, secured by Bitcoin. To celebrate the growing NFT community with the Stacks ecosystem, the Stacks Foundation is proud to announce our first NFT giveaway in collaboration with the Boom Team.

Welcome to Inside Clarity Universe Volume 2, the blog series where we get a peek into the intensive 6-week coding program that is Clarity Camp. Our first cohort is currently in the midst of learning everything they need to be successful with smart contracts for Bitcoin. This week, Clarity Camp was jam packed with lessons and students dug into dapps, learned about time-locked contracts and Proof of Transfer, and even ventured on a virtual field trip to Miami, the newest Crypto Capital. If you are craving that same nostalgia from The Magic School Bus, you are going to want to stick around til' the end!

On September 1, we welcomed our very first Clarity Universe cohort, ushering in more than 100 new builders. Clarity Universe was created to provide developers everything they need to be successful with smart contracts for Bitcoin in one place. The program is made of three key parts: Clarity Talent, Clarity Starters, and Clarity Camp.

Stacks 2.1 is a proposed network upgrade to the current Stacks 2.0 mainnet released in January. The upgrade will not happen automatically, so we’ve compiled information about the origin, status, voting plans, and included upgrades to help educate ecosystem stakeholders on what comes next and how to get involved.

Today, the Stacks Korea Chapter is pleased to share that popular South Korean wallet provider, D'CENT, has added support for Stacks (STX). D'CENT allows STX holders to send, receive, or store STX as well as manage their private keys across two different crypto wallets: a biometric wallet and a software wallet. D'CENT also offers a mobile app for both Android and iOS where users can seamlessly manage their STX holdings on the go.

Much of the work the Stacks Foundation does revolves around supporting builders in the Stacks Ecosystem. We do this in many different ways, the one I want to focus on today is how we help amplify their story. Beyond the mechanics, which I’ll cover briefly, there are two less obvious aspects of these amplification efforts I’d like to cover in the interest of transparency.

Much of the work the Stacks Foundation does revolves around supporting builders in the Stacks Ecosystem. We do this in many different ways, the one I want to focus on today is how we help amplify their story. Beyond the mechanics, which I’ll cover briefly, there are two less obvious aspects of these amplification efforts I’d like to cover in the interest of transparency.

Much of the work the Stacks Foundation does revolves around supporting builders in the Stacks Ecosystem. We do this in many different ways, the one I want to focus on today is how we help amplify their story. Beyond the mechanics, which I’ll cover briefly, there are two less obvious aspects of these amplification efforts I’d like to cover in the interest of transparency.

Stackers, I'd like to share the work we've laid out and begun sprinting on for Q3. In terms of themes for the rest of the quarter, we’re heavily focused on Clarity usage & education, expanding governance efforts, and growing the global community of Stacks builders & token holders.

You can’t get any more ‘OG’ than Blockchain.com—the team has been working to bring crypto to the masses for over 10 years. Today, we’re excited to share they’ve added another dimension to that support for Stacks by listing the asset on their Exchange. The listing is now live and the initial listing includes STX-USDT, STX-USDC and STX-USD pairs.

The Stacks Foundation is pleased to kick-off limited invitations to Clarity Universe, a portal that brings together everything a developer, project, or company needs to be successful with the Clarity smart contract language.

Clarity was designed by core Stacks and Algorand engineers to open up new smart contract possibilities and to better protect developers and users from bugs and attacks. In concert with the Stacks blockchain, Clarity is enabling a better internet on Bitcoin through decentralized applications, crypto-powered business models, and trustless store and exchange of value.

Stackers, in our ongoing efforts to remain transparent and open, we're excited to share a recap of the most recent Stacks Foundation Board Meeting and the communication right before and after it. We’ve saved this post until now so we could include a complete reflection on our Q2 goals along with the board meeting summary. Going forward, board meetings will happen in the weeks following the end of a quarter, starting at the end of Q3, and include a breakdown of how we performed against our OKRs. We also plan to start including a preview of the OKRs for the quarter upcoming in each of these posts.

As one player in a decentralized ecosystem, it’s important for us to articulate what others, especially the community and other entities, can expect from us. We believe that if we each share our intentions, approaches, and goals, our ecosystem will be able to better self-organize as we pursue our mission of building a user-owned internet. This post will highlight the rationale behind what we focus on and why, using some concrete examples.

InfStones quietly launched Stacking to their clients several cycles ago, bringing the magic of Bitcoin rewards to their institutional clients and some retail holders. Beyond the Stacking service for their clients, the InfStones team was also eager to contribute to the Stacks ecosystem and will be working alongside us here at the Stacks Foundation and community to design and launch an open-source do-it-yourself Stacking pool manager.

Several common misconceptions of Stacks are that it’s a sidechain, a merge-mined chain, a proof-of-stake chain, or a layer-2 system. None of these are true. The Stacks blockchain is a layer-1 blockchain, which uses a novel and unique mining protocol called proof-of-transfer (PoX). A PoX blockchain runs in parallel to another blockchain (Bitcoin in Stacks’ case), which it uses as a reliable broadcast medium for its block headers. Stacks miners perform their own leader election using the stored metadata, and implement a variant of Nakamoto consensus independent of Bitcoin by selecting a winning block with a probability proportional to how much BTC was spent to record it on the Bitcoin chain.

DeFi for Bitcoin takes another step into the limelight today as Injective Protocol announces they’ll be integrating with Stacks to give users access to new Bitcoin-based derivatives. By integrating Stacks, Injective enables users to create both perpetual contracts and expiry futures markets for unique Bitcoin derivatives that are actually tied to the Bitcoin network itself. 

On the surface, BTC.us is really simple. It's a decentralized registrar that allows you to register what will eventually be .btc domains. Fun, right? But there's more to the message.

We've made incredible progress on our mission to build a user-owned internet and think it's time you had the chance to stake out your corner of this Bitcoin-backed internet and show others you're all in on a secure, decentralized future. Grab your .btc now and don't miss chances to win STX and BTC!

The user-owned internet is taking another step forward today thanks to Paycoin, a Korea-based subsidiary of industry heavyweight Danal Fintech. The Stacks Foundation will be supporting a deep integration of Stacks and Stacking into Paycoin's approachable crypto-powered e-commerce application. With over one million users and 70,000 merchants already onboard, Paycoin is a rapidly growing player in the Korean market with designs on further expansion.

As the Grants Program continues to grow, we recognize how important it is provide grantees with an application interface that is simple and easy to use. Over the last two quarters, we've invested in improving our backend operations, as well as enabling grant payments in STX tokens. Today, we're thrilled to debut the new Stacks Grants App, which streamlines grant payments and distribution (in both $STX and USD!).

Last quarter, we took a closer look at Ryder, Risidio, Gaideo, and the STX Mining Bot—Stacks grantees tackling key issues within the Stacks ecosystem, such as decentralized identity, decentralized video streaming, NFTs, and accessible mining. This quarter, we're excited to introduce a whole new class of grantees who are innovating on DeFi, Stacking, and even more use cases for DIDs. Read on to learn more about a few standout teams, including Arkadiko, Brownies & Lemonade, and Jolocom.

Joining Stacks MENA and Stacks Pakistan are 3 new chapters that we're proud to introduce: Stacks Turkey, Stacks Korea, and Stacks China. Each of these chapters is committed to building a better internet on Bitcoin in their own unique ways and providing new opportunities for both individuals and organizations to get further involved.

Thanks to the Stacks Grants community's cooperation and feedback over various 1:1 calls, roundtables, and webinars, we were able to make several improvements to the Stacks Grants Program. This post will break down our progress thus far, as well as provide updated policies and processes designed to make the Grants experience as fair and as seamless as possible.

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Stacks Accelerator, an intensive, three-month program aimed at supporting teams building on Bitcoin via the Stacks blockchain. The program is led by Trevor Owens (entrepreneur and author, whose startups have raised over $100M in venture funding) and backed by the Stacks Foundation, Hiro Systems, Daemon Technologies, and Freehold. The accelerator has raised an initial fund of $4M USD to support over 100 early-stage startup teams.

STX have been listed on the Upbit KRW market, a top digital asset exchange in Korea. This news comes at an opportune time with the Stacks Korea chapter also launching this week.

In just over two months, Stacking has paid out more than $8.5M in BTC via Stacking rewards. And while Stacking, at over 21%, is by far the highest Bitcoin APY we’ve been able to find, it’s about much more. Stacking helps secure the Stacks network, attracts new users to crypto, is helping people earn Bitcoin at a time when supply on exchanges is at a two-year low, and is pushing the whole Stacks Ecosystem forward.

We’re excited to continue expanding the Stacks Foundation team to work collectively towards our mission of building a user owned internet. We’re delighted to introduce Meltem Demirors, the latest addition to the Stacks Foundation Board. She joins current board directors Zavain Dar, Rodolfo Gonzalez, and Brittany Laughlin.

Over the past 2 months, Stacking has paid out more more than $1.39M in BTC as Stacking rewards. There’s been clear demand for Stacking from the broader market, driving new user adoption for Stacking providers like OKCoin, the creation of new pooling and delegation options like Staked and Friedger’s Pool, and an increase in the amount Stacked in each successive cycle. In just a few cycles, Stacking would already be ranked among the Top 20 DeFi protocols indexed at defipulse.com with over $320M locked up.

Now, with more data available we wanted to share two key reminders about how Stacking works along with best practices for Stackers, particularly those Stacking on their own, at or near the minimum threshold.

This week, we’re welcoming three new additions to the Stacks Foundation team! Say hello to: Ecosystem Development Lead, Jenny Mith, Communications Associate, Emily Patel, and Growth Lead, Louise Payawal. Our new team members come to us from a wide range of backgrounds, from linguistics and philosophy to growing developer and crypto communities.

Building a user-owned internet requires broad, reliable access to the STX asset. Today we’re excited to announce that OKEx, a top-ten exchange by trade volume that boasts almost 800 markets and a top-notch user experience, listed the Stacks cryptocurrency (STX). OKEx’s move further expands the number of locations around the world where people and institutions can easily purchase STX. In the coming months, moreover, OKEx also plans to offer Stacking support in another addition to the exchanges broad offerings of tokens and trading pairs.

In our second Stacks Grants Demo Day, we watched grantees present a range of projects, from community growth initiatives to DeFi opportunities on Stacks. We learned about Stacks Turkey’s plans to expand its rapidly growing community and Scogé, a digital fashion brand. We also learned about new governance tools (a bot for decentralized Discord moderation, a Code of Conduct for the Stacks ecosystem, and a voting mechanism for the community) as well as ‘Wish List’ grants for a fungible token standard, a DEX, and a collateralized BTC asset on Stacks. Read this blog and watch the demo below to learn more.

The Stacks Foundation is working to realize our mission of delivering a user owned internet. Through the work of the community, the support of our board, and our team, we are able to make that vision a reality. We strive to continue to share the Foundation’s work openly with the community to encourage discussion, debate, and transparency. As you’ll find below, this is an exciting time to be part of this community. We look forward to building with you for years to come.

The Stacks Foundation is pleased to announce that Upbit, the largest digital asset exchange in Korea, will be listing the STX token. We’re excited to see more STX token access worldwide, especially in Korea where this already a very active Stacks community.

Welcome to the second blog of this series, dedicated to getting to know some of the grantees from the Stacks Grant Program.

The Stacks Grant program has gotten off to a strong start with 18 grantees in over 13 countries building for the Stacks ecosystem. In this series, we’ll get to know some of these grantees and learn more about the amazing projects they’re building.

Blockchain.com is one of the most established and long running crypto companies that has helped build the foundations of crypto access since the beginning. The team has been working to bring crypto to the masses since even before Stacks (then OneName) was founded back in 2013.

Today, the Stacks 2.0 mainnet went live! This is a huge milestone for the Stacks ecosystem, which brings more blockchain functionality through Clarity smart contracts, an upgraded consensus mechanism through Stacking that rewards STX holders, and more community ownership of the blockchain, consensus, and the future of the protocol.

Stacks was one of the first blockchain projects to join the Flipside Data Cooperative - a transparency initiative for partner networks to showcase their on-chain activity publicly. A new version of the public dashboards will be launched in February 2021 to provide insights and data into Stacks 2.0’s health as a project.

We’re excited to announce the launch of Stacks Grants using Grant.io! We've upgraded our grants workflow from GitHub to offer a funding experience that aligns with our values of community access, transparency, and ownership.

We’re pleased to share the highlights from the first Stacks Foundation Meet the Board call, featuring Foundation Capital partner Rodolfo Gonzalez. On December 4th, we hosted a live chat with Rodolfo to answer questions from the community about what he sees as the vision for Stacks in the future, the role of the board, and his take on what’s next in crypto.

The Stacks Grants beta is in full swing with over $36,000 of approved funding in USD across 13 proposals!

To showcase the diversity of projects, we hosted the first Stacks Grants Demo Day, featuring grant recipients: Clarc, Gaideo, Risidio and Ryder. Throughout the hour-long presentation, the presenters dug deep into their work and wrapped it up with excited questions from the community.

Our mission is to build a user owned internet powered by the Stacks Blockchain. Today we’re excited to introduce a new visual identity that unites our work with others in the ecosystem building towards that future. Our new logo and branding now reflects a more colorful future and the foundations on the Stacks blockchain. 

The Stacks Grants Program launched in Beta on September 3rd, 2020. We will host monthly retrospectives to share updates and share progress. This it the update for September, month 1 of the program.

We're excited to welcome Ryan Arndt and Raffi Sapire as new team members at the Stacks Open Internet Foundation.

Today, we're excited to announce the launch of Stacks Grants, a new program to fund ecosystem development to build a user owned internet powered by the Stacks Blockchain.

We're excited to share our participation in the Flipside Data Cooperative, an initiative for partner networks to publicly share on-chain activity. Our community can now easily explore token flows, watch network activity, and track benchmarks to peers in the ecosystem.

The Blockstack Governance Working Group is a community-run organization developing policies for future blockchain upgrades, Stacks Foundation operations, and ecosystem governance. The Governance Working Group was formed to provide community input on Blockstack PBC's initiative to establish the Stacks Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit whose mission is to build a user owned internet.

Earlier today Flipside Crypto posted their 'Fundamental Crypto Asset Score' for the Stacks token. Essentially, these scores are designed to help people more readily understand the health of any blockchain based crypto project. The FCAS is a 'comparative-metric' that looks at User Activity, Developer Behavior, and Market Maturity. In this post, we'll take a deeper look at the score for STX.

Today, the Stacks Foundation, a Delaware nonprofit, is kicking off independent operations and announcing key team and board members. The Stacks Foundation will further the mission of building a user owned internet, focusing on R&D and education for the Stacks ecosystem as well as coordination of Stacks blockchain upgrades.