Q1 2022 | Stacks Foundation Board Meeting and Performance Report
by Mitchell Cuevas on May 2, 2021
Stackers, we’re back with another release of the Stacks Foundation quarterly board report and a review of our performance against last quarter's goals. We do this in the month or so after each quarter to provide visibility into our operations and to make it easy for other players in the ecosystem to understand our current objectives.
Stacks Foundation Board Meeting
The Stacks Foundation board assists in corporate governance, provides support on navigating priorities and challenges, and serves the nonprofit’s mission which serves the larger ecosystem and community. The Q1 2022 board meeting took place in Miami on Tuesday, April 5th at 3:30pm ET and included the following attendees:
- Brittany Laughlin - Executive Director, Stacks Foundation [Board Member]
- Mitchell Cuevas - Head of Growth, Stacks Foundation
- Rodolfo Gonzalez - Partner, Foundation Capital [Board Member]
- Zavain Dar - Partner, Lux Capital [Board Member]
- Meltem Demirors - Chief Strategy Officer, CoinShares [Board Member]
- Jenny Mith - Ecosystem Development Lead, Stacks Foundation
- Nick Cooper - Finance & Operations, Stacks Foundation
Takeaways:
The Foundation’s mission is to enable a user-owned internet. Building on top of bitcoin, the most secure and largest chain by market cap, creates an incredible opportunity to deliver on that promise. We’re here to fuel education, research, and infrastructure to build that future, and given the ecosystem’s current growth, we are off to a great start.
Organic, community-led growth can be hard to find in the tech industry, especially crypto, but we’re seeing it in Stacks. The board is excited to see so many community-led programs--CityCoins, DeFi, NFTs—and original initiatives to support our mission: Mintery for creative builders, Stacking for Causes, Grants for builders, Blockchain Governance, Blockchain technical upgrades, Clarity education, and public awareness through press. They encouraged continued support of these key programs and efforts and not to focus on other protocols progress or worry about duplicating louder strategies. We’re here for our mission, and our growth will be a different path than others, by design.
The Foundation’s mission is to enable a user-owned internet. Building on top of bitcoin, the most secure and largest chain by market cap, creates an incredible opportunity to deliver on that promise. We’re here to fuel education, research, and infrastructure to build that future, and given the ecosystem’s current growth, we are off to a great start.
Organic, community-led growth can be hard to find in the tech industry, especially crypto, but we’re seeing it in Stacks. The board is excited to see so many community-led programs--CityCoins, DeFi, NFTs—and original initiatives to support our mission: Mintery for creative builders, Stacking for Causes, Grants for builders, Blockchain Governance, Blockchain technical upgrades, Clarity education, and public awareness through press. They encouraged continued support of these key programs and efforts and not to focus on other protocols progress or worry about duplicating louder strategies. We’re here for our mission, and our growth will be a different path than others, by design.
Q1 2022 Summary of Objectives and Key Results
The Stacks Foundation works off the OKR model (Objectives and Key Results). These are meant to be ambitious and difficult to achieve in the time allotted; completing ~75% of the total work is considered successful in this model.
This quarter we've simplified this report to highlights related to each objective. As our team grows, we're finding this a much more scalable way to report on our work.
This quarter we've simplified this report to highlights related to each objective. As our team grows, we're finding this a much more scalable way to report on our work.
⚡ Objective
❤️ Result
Accelerate broader adoption of core Stacks technology
The Stacks Foundation oversaw several major efforts to promote building on Stacks, with a clear focus on building up educational programs with repeatable models:
Education will remain of high importance in Q2 as blockchain development-related content is created for Codeacademy, Stacks Residents expand the footprint of Clarity Universe/Camp to CityCoins and other local communities and universities, Web 3 Founders Lab ramps up, and education-focused organizations launch Stacks-related tutorials with Foundation support.
Further, work was done to:
- Clarity Camp completed another cohort
- The Mintery supported new artists making their way into Bitcoin NFTs
- Partnership support and behind-the-scenes work were done to allow for the launch of several new learning experiences later in 2022.
Education will remain of high importance in Q2 as blockchain development-related content is created for Codeacademy, Stacks Residents expand the footprint of Clarity Universe/Camp to CityCoins and other local communities and universities, Web 3 Founders Lab ramps up, and education-focused organizations launch Stacks-related tutorials with Foundation support.
Further, work was done to:
Accelerate broader access to and holding of the STX asset
It was another strong quarter for improving Stacks access headlined by Coinbase's listing of STX. This will inevitably open the door for even more listings, so we'll continue to support exchanges on this front. In addition, Stacking went live on Binance, the world's largest exchange. Last but not least, we supported the MoonPay team in offering Stacks on the #1 fiat onramp for crypto in the world.
On the other side of our efforts, we sought to bring more liquidity and funding to teams building on Stacks. These efforts were headlined by the launch of Bitcoin Odyssey, a $165m pledge for Bitcoin builders we put together with Okcoin and Stacks Ventures.
On the other side of our efforts, we sought to bring more liquidity and funding to teams building on Stacks. These efforts were headlined by the launch of Bitcoin Odyssey, a $165m pledge for Bitcoin builders we put together with Okcoin and Stacks Ventures.
Empower global community to operate autonomously
Highlighted by Bitcoin Odyssey
Ensure the Stacks Blockchain and key adjacent systems are reliable and able to serve key builders
While some work was sidetracked to hustle on Stacks 2.05 to address network congestion, the blockchain was reliable during the quarter. API options beyond are sorely needed and it is likely an area we'll apply resources in Q1 2022.
Strengthen and amplify the Stacks narrative
A major reboot of the stacks.co website was launched with major support from Hiro Systems, while media mentions were increased by 47%. Incredible social growth was led by Twitter, seeing a 237% increase from Q3.
Accelerate broader adoption of core Stacks technology
Several projects contributed to broader adoption including Clarity Universe' second cohort for smart contract developers, as well as heavy lifting on bridge integrations and improvements to network performance.
Accelerate broader access to and holding of the STX asset
Stacking TVL grew by almost 100M Stacks while support with exchanges and integrations resulted in the first listings for Stacks-based assets like Arkadiko, CityCoins, and xBTC. In addition, we were able to pull new liquidity into the ecosystem to support builders.
Empower global community to operate autonomously
Q4 saw the hire of a new Grants Program Lead, ratification of SIP-12, introduction of our initial Stacks Residents, and the launch of 3 new chapters.
Ensure the Stacks Blockchain and key adjacent systems are reliable and able to serve key builders
While some work was sidetracked to hustle on Stacks 2.05 to address network congestion, the blockchain was reliable during the quarter. API options beyond are sorely needed and it is likely an area we'll apply resources in Q1 2022.
Strengthen and amplify the Stacks narrative
A major reboot of the stacks.co website was launched with major support from Hiro Systems, while media mentions were increased by 47%. Incredible social growth was led by Twitter, seeing a 237% increase from Q3.
Q1 2022 Summary of Objectives and Key Results
The Stacks Foundation works off the OKR model (Objectives and Key Results). These are meant to be ambitious and difficult to achieve in the time allotted; completing ~75% of the total work is considered successful in this model.
Thank you
Thank you to all the folks that make this possible, we’re honored to be working to support you and this mission. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have questions about these updates, want to get involved, or just want to say hello.
Related Reading:
Mitchell Cuevas leads growth and marketing efforts at Stacks Foundation. He's spent the last decade working in community-driven high-growth startups.
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