Stacks in August ’22: Builders Win, Stacks 2.1, Clarity, & More

September 08, 2022

There’s so much going on in the world of Stacks that we couldn’t wait for the next quarterly update. Below you'll find stories from August covering things like:

  • An updated look at Stacks 2.1

  • Subnets and a developer survey from Hiro

  • Builder spotlights 

  • An update from the world of NFTs

  • Upcoming events

  • And much more

The Stacks community is full of inspiring projects and ideas so we hope this update pumps you up as much as it did us. Please feel free to share any links we might have missed by replying to this email and definitely keep your eye on stacks.co/blog for posts like the ones below coming to you in real-time.

To Unleashing Bitcoin,

The Stacks Foundation team

Quick Hits

Take a short survey to tell us about your experience developing on Stacks. In return, we’ll send you some special swag as a thank you.

SIP 016: Ratified! 🎉

Thanks to Friedger Müffke and Dan Trevino, the Stacks ecosystem will benefit from smoother flow and improved standards for metadata.

These SIP Authors are long-term loyal community members who also helped to create the NFT standard (SIP-009) and many other standards. You can follow their work on Github here:

⚡Hiro x Coinbase ⚡

Funding your Hiro wallet just got easier thanks to Hiro's latest integration with Coinbase Pay!

Here’s a quick overview for how to get $STX in your wallet faster than you can say “web3 on #bitcoin."

  1. Select “Buy” from the Hiro Wallet home screen and then “Coinbase.” Please note, this integration is currently limited to purchases in the United States. International support is coming soon.

  2. Enter the amount of $STX to purchase and your payment details.

  3. Once purchased, the STX will arrive directly in your Hiro Wallet account for usage with the Stacks app of your choice, such as buying an #NFT or investing in a #DeFi protocol.

Meet 3 different projects building on Bitcoin.

Bitcoin was invented with inherent security qualities to provide financial freedom to individuals. The blockchain’s principles of cryptography, decentralization and consensus provide trustless transactions and a financial system that’s almost impossible to hack. 

Ahead of the Orbit bridge launch following the Stacks 2.1 upgrade later this year, the time has come to onboard Validators to help process and record transactions generated by the Stacks chain.

🏗 Stacks Builder Spotlights

This month we wanted to celebrate our Builders! From grantees to residents to super Stacks fan, we interviewed a handful of builders to learn more about their contributions to the Stacks ecosystem.

We'll be hosting a Twitter Spaces with each of the spotlighted builders at the beginning of September to open up the conversation to the Stacks community so keep an eye out!

Know a builder that you want spotlighted? Reach out to [email protected] for consideration and tell us a little bit about what they are building and why it's amazing!

Albert Liang is the Founder of the Stacks Web3 Startup Lab, a venture that includes a 2-month “bootcamp-style” pre-accelerator for Web3 startups. In our discussion below, we talk about Albert’s vision for the pre-accelerator program, hear about his observations coming off of the first cohort’s 9-week immersion (and upcoming Demo Day), starting a company as a Web3 founder versus a Web2 founder, and more.

In our discussion with Aki, we learn more about how Discreet Log Contracts work and why they’re so important in bringing crypto into the mainstream, how he and his team got started working on this project, their vision, what they’ve learned, and what’s coming up next.

John Ennis is a PhD Mathematician, former founder of an AI services company, and current founder/CEO of NeoSwap. In the below discussion with John, we learn about his vision for NeoSwap, an NFT liquidity platform that hosts "parties" enabling NFT trades and sales.

Dan Trevino is the Founder of Boom, a Stacks Residents Program project that became the first NFT platform on Stacks. In our discussion with Dan, we learn more about what inspired him to create Boom, what's coming soon for their team, and his journey as a leader and builder in the Stacks ecosystem.

Orlando Cosme is the Founder of StackerDAO Labs and part of the 2nd Stacks Accelerator Cohort. StackerDAO Labs is a one-stop shop to create and manages DAOs secured by Bitcoin. In the below conversation, we learn more about his vision for the project, his experience in the Accelerator, and what's next for StackerDAO Labs.

Ragnar Lifthrasir is the Founder of Trajan, a professional community for Web3. When Ragnar was increasingly frustrated with professional sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, he started brainstorming how professional representation could be different on Web3. In our conversation below, we talk about the vision and philosophy behind Trajan, the different problems that the project aims to solve, and the future of social capital and identity.

Clarity Universe Camp III Hackathon

Clarity Universe just wrapped up its third cohort and several students put their newfound knowledge to the test in the third Clarity Universe hackathon. It is amazing to see just exactly how far everyone has come along, with some having had their first introduction to smart contracts during the camp. We are pleased to announce the winning projects and invite you to check them out:

Helping Hands is a project which allows users to ask for donations by giving proper description to prove that they are really in need. People can view the list of all the people in need, read their descriptions, upvote or downvote them with a sound comment that why or why not should here be money donated.

Paydii created a set of smart contracts designed to facilitate decentralized buying and selling of digital goods. With some more building and refinement, Paydii has the potential to become a pioneer in the world of decentralized digital marketplaces.

Stacks Guild is a platform designed to reduce financial barriers to entry. Guilds buy assets and then loan those assets to incoming players in exchange for a percentage of the new players' "earnings"'.

Clarity Camp IRL

Stacks Must Reads: Subnets + 2.1 Upgrade

Faster transactions coming to a subnet near you.

We see the incredible potential of Bitcoin and are committed to building the best tools to make it more useful. Stacks is the top Web3 project on Bitcoin today, and this is just the beginning. We’re excited to introduce the latest tools and upgrades coming to the network in the Stacks 2.1 upgrade — updates that will strengthen the Stacks connection to Bitcoin.

We're working to raise the data the Stacks Ecosystem needs to prioritize upgrades and features in the near future.

The Stacks Web3 Startup Lab is a venture that includes a 2-month “bootcamp-style” pre-accelerator for Web3 startups. On Sunday, July 31st, 9 teams finally presented their learnings and work at the pre-accelerator's Demo Day. Meet the 9 teams below and learn a bit about each of their projects.

The ALEX Lab Foundation is launching the Orderbook Testnet imminantly. Our goal is always to build together. With your test and feedback, we will create a better protocol.

Xverse, the most advanced web3 Bitcoin wallet, is thrilled to announce that users can now purchase Bitcoin (BTC) and STX, the native token of the Stacks blockchain, directly in the app.

Defending the Freedom of Bitcoin Open Source Development

In three weeks, pseudonymous Bitcoiner hodlonaut will take the stand in Oslo, Norway to defend his allegations that Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is not Satoshi. You can read a full timeline of the situation here. Although you might not expect it, this case directly impacts Bitcoin open source development.

What's New In NFTs?

Gamma was inspired to host a fun community-wide event—everyone is invited: Proof of Work Celebration! Let’s celebrate and educate community members on the value of proof of work.

Twitter has been roasting Mojang’s NFT ban on Minecraft. The announcement shocked the blockchain community: partly for the ban itself, but perhaps moreso for defining NFTs as ‘often purchased with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.’ 

IPFS stands for the InterPlanetary File System (believe it or not). In their own words it is: A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol designed to preserve and grow humanity’s knowledge by making the web upgradeable, resilient, and more open.

Arkadiko is excited to announce the next phase of the Arkadroids project! This blog post will shed some more light on what the Arkadroids are and how you can get hold of one!

Gamma’s Co-Founder walks through the code of the Create Portal.

Upcoming Community Sessions and Events

All of us at Stacks and Hiro are excited to be celebrating how far crypto has come since the last bear market! Despite the current price volatility, the future looks bright for us builders and we can't wait to connect with you at one of NYC's best spaces, Lavan 541. We'll have DJ Marc Wolf, arcade games, a claw machine, an NFT gallery projection room with Gamma, and lots of fun swag!

Use code: STACKER for 50% off.

Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition is a premier virtual event bringing together founders and developers for all things building on Bitcoin.

You’ll learn from industry luminaries, build alongside the best developers in the space, and connect with fellow Bitcoiners from across the globe. The event will be followed by a hackathon hosted in conjunction with Gitcoin and Stacks entities.

Virtual Event Recaps

More Bitcoin Building News

The school was built in collaboration with Paxful and Zamzam, a humanitarian organization dedicated to eradicating poverty by providing clean, sustainable water and access to quality education to villages around the world.

Bitcoin’s dominant scaling system continues to grow despite a formidable bear market.

The bitcoin price may be down from its all-time highs, but off-chain uses for bitcoin assets are in their own bull market.

Understanding how the internet protocol was built using layers can help paint a picture of the Bitcoin network and how it can develop in a similar fashion.