Devs Deliver A Bitcoin Layer Boost

December 06, 2022

It’s beginning to look a lot like Stacksmas.

Once again, the Stacks community is headed toward a big upgrade around this time of year. Stacks 2.1 is nearly here, and the community has already smashed voter turnout numbers from the previous upgrade. If you voted, thank you. If you haven’t yet, check out our guide here for options on how to cast your vote.

If Stacks 2.1 is voted in by the community and adopted by miners, we expect it to go live before the end of the year.

Can devs do something?

Crypto winter is cold enough, so Stacks Core Devs said you know what? Who needs a cooldown cycle? And boom, better BTC yields from Stacking come with 2.1. But they weren’t done. They added a bevvy of Bitcoin layer goodies, including other Stacking improvements, new Clarity functions, better bridge options, opened the door for decentralized mining pools, made it possible for miners to use SegWit and Taproot, bringing fees down by 25%, and last but definitely not least, unlocked the ability to directly send Stacks assets to Bitcoin addresses.

Say no to doomscrolling.

Let’s be real, folks are angsty right now. Between Luna, FTX, and everything else going on in our world over the past year, it's understandable to feel worn out, frustrated, and just a bit grinchy. But, bear markets are where winners build and the Stacks community embodies that approach. We’ll trade you doomscrolling for boomscrolling.

Stacks entities came out unscathed from FTX. Boom. A new cohort of the Web3 Founders Lab is starting up. Boom. New artists are launching via Gamma and the Mintery. Boom. New developers are learning Clarity through the new self-guided option. Boom. The Stackies are back again on December 15th. Boom. And so much more below. Boom. Isn't boomscrolling so much better than doomscrolling?

This newsletter is your sign to take a minute to step back and appreciate wins like these, celebrate progress together, have each other’s back, and gear up for even more improvements and growth in 2023.

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🚀 Stacks 2.1

🙌 Featured News

🏗️ Stacks Builders

🥳 Events, Conferences, & Parties

Try decentralized apps built on Stacks, secured by Bitcoin. There are apps for finance, collectibles, blogging and many more.

🚀 Stacks 2.1 Updates

The Stacks layer for Bitcoin is about to get stronger. Your vote is the next step and you can cast it in one of a few ways. If Stacks 2.1 is voted in by the community, we expect it to go live before the end of the year as Core Developers are currently already testing!

Stacks 2.1 is an important network upgrade version that has been prepared for the past two years since the mainnet rollout. This upgrade is prepared to significantly improve connection with Bitcoin, PoX mechanism, and Clarity smart contracts.

Here are 5 ways Stacks 2.1 will improve the Xverse user experience and mobilize the Bitcoin economy.

Need help with something related to Stacks 2.1 or just looking for key docs and resources? Check out the Stacks Foundation's '2.1 Helpdesk' as a great starting point for ALL things Stacks 2.1 and even human help if you need it.

🙌 Featured News

During the first week of November 2022, the surge in transaction volume for domain names with .btc reportedly shot up to 260%. Why? Think .com, but for Web3. In the same way that DNS made the Internet more user-friendly, Bitcoin Name System (BNS aka .btc) stands to do the same for the world of Web3.

If you’re at all familiar with crypto then you know that this week’s FTX meltdown led to billions of dollars in crypto funds being frozen and drained from millions of retail customer accounts. Some call it the Lehman moment of crypto, others see it as the sign of the times.

“Super Excited to see Web3 Startup Lab Cohort 2 Bootcamp open and cannot wait to see the amazing things built by founders on @Stacks!”

Clarity Camp is a 6-week guided cohort where you'll learn smart contract fundamentals and the skills you need to work with Clarity, the native smart contract language of the Stacks blockchain that enables smart contracts on Bitcoin

Hiro’s Diwaker Gupta explains how the complexities of smart contracts create novel problems and why Clarity, a new programming language, excels at solving them.

🏗️ Stacks Builders

Get access to one of the first-ever Ryder devices: mint a Ryder digital collectible on December 10th 2022, at 2 PM EST.

Ryder Digital Twin Tags merge digital collectables with physical items through a scan-to-own feature.

We are happy to announce, that we are giving away 300 STX collectively to 3 testers 🤟 To participate, take out a loan on Liquidium's Testnet version.

Brice Dobry is a Senior Software Engineer at Hiro Systems. Today, he's 1 year in with the team at Hiro and at the forefront of building on Stacks. In our discussion, he talks about how he got started and how you can too.

An update on ALEX's vote around a new staking system which will implement the changes discussed in their new tokenomics proposal. For the full proposal description please see here.

🥳 Events, Conferences, & Parties

Tune in to The 2022 Stackies to honor and celebrate your fellow Stacks community members! We'll be presenting awards to folks nominated by the community. Winners will receive awards in the form of Stacks NFTs, swag, and more. If you haven't already, submit your Stackie nominations here: https://stx.is/P4yvIu 

Join us for a Smart Contract Challenge that lets you experiment and get familiar with Clarity's developer environment.

Tune in to this monthly call to hear updates from:

  • Stacks Foundation team

  • Stacks Grantees

  • Stacks Residents

  • Stacks Chapter Leads

Join us as we discuss why building in a bear market is the best time to build - from strategy, to building on bitcoin, hiring, job opps, and what builders are focused on next.

During the three-day in-person event, industry leaders in venture capital, digital assets, financial services, and government will gather to discuss "Going Beyond Crypto to Embrace Web3" and associated emerging trends driving the industry forward.

Stacks Foundation’s Brittany Laughlin spoke on ‘Unlocking Bitcoin Layers with Gina Abrams (Trust Machines) and Sean Butterfield (Messari) as well as a panel on ‘Can Crypto Save The World? Crypto For Good’ on Nov 30th. Trevor Owens (Stacks Ventures), Rena Shah (Trust Machines) and David Leiberman (Console) also spoke at this conference Co-hosted by Kyle Ellicott (Stacks Ventures & Fundamental Labs).

Stacks Foundation also hosted a series of events in Miami, recapped below.

🌴 Stacks in Miami

Miami web3 Conference hosted a sit-down brunch with an amazing group of female investors, creators, builders and founders. Brittany Laughlin and Shannon Voight (Stacks Foundation) along with Rena Shah and Gina Abrams (Trust Machines) attended.

Stacks Foundation activated a booth at Venture Miami’s Tech Career Fair to connect with local tech talent and inform them of the amazing opportunities that exist in the Stacks ecosystem, seen here.

Connecting the Web3, Crypto & Art community through festive programming and entertainment. Join Stacks and CrashPunks at Nolche! If you cant be there, pick up a CrashPunks NFT on Gamma using STX tokens and the Xverse Bitcoin wallet.

Gamma + Stacks sponsored an NFT gallery at Disrupt3rs - a digital and IRL mixed-media event that will bring together trailblazing creatives in the entertainment, sports and media industries.

Gamma + Stacks activated an NFT gallery at Artemis.

Find conferences, hackathons, recurring meetings, and more from throughout the Stacks Ecosystem. You can also submit events on behalf of your organization or local community!

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Disclaimer: The information shared in this email is strictly for informational purposes. You should not take its content, opinions, and/or descriptions provided as technical advice, legal advice, financial advice, or investment advice. See full disclaimer at stacks.org/terms.