Stacks: Welcome to the Future

There has been an influx of new people visiting our corner of Crypto Twitter here in the Stacks community. If you are one of them, glad you see you made it, welcome!

Stacks is a fantastic project, a Layer 1 blockchain that uses a consensus algorithm called Proof of Transfer to connect Stacks to Bitcoin (literally the first of its kind). In the interest of brevity, Stacks brings smart contracts and decentralized apps to Bitcoin. To get the big picture check out the Stacks 2.0 whitepaper here and read about the Stacks 2.1 update here.

Aside from the tech, the other outstanding feature about Stacks is the community. This isn't hyperbole, its fact. I noticed the quality of the community almost instantly upon my entry into the ecosystem in March of 2022. I have written extensively about it in this blog, and interviewed numerous builders in the space. Time and time again, I hear people say the same thing: They love the community.

With that in mind, I want to construct this piece as a useful primer of sorts for our new community members. This won't be an exhaustive list by any means, and this is due to several factors:

• This is a busy ecosystem, even as someone who attends many of the Twitter Spaces, and community calls there are just too many updates with too many projects to adequately keep track of everything going on. Everyone has been working during the bear market. This isn't an ETH side chain full of forked projects and clones. People here are working to bring the next iteration of the internet to fruition...otherwise known as Web3.

• There are several other community members who produce Stacks related content, and they will be a great resource to find information as well: mrwagmi.btc , The Airdrop Show, Jrny into Web3, Jake Blockchain, DonJonBlaze.btc, The Advisor, Zero Authority, Hero Gamer and others. Follow these folks, and before long you will find yourself hooked into an unrivaled network of content.

NFTs and DeFi

Stacks has a great NFT market. There are 3 primary NFT marketplaces for Stacks: Gamma , TradePort (formerly Byzantion), and HeyLayer. These marketplaces all have different niches, so to speak, and it would be worth your while to go check them out. Gamma has a strong social component, and has done a great job attracting artist into the ecosystem (check out an interview with jamil , the founder and creator of Gamma here). You can't really talk about NFTs in Stacks without bringing up NeoSwap. You can read about NeoSwap here, an interview with their founder here, and check out a NeoSwap party here.

In terms of DeFi the OG, and biggest project on Stacks is ALEX, the CEO and Co-founder is Chiente Hsu, PhD. There is also Stackswap , Arkadiko Protocol, and several more in various stages of development such as Bitflow Finance (beta testing begins on 10/01/2022).

In terms of NFT projects, this is rich subject matter indeed. Like I said, there are a ton of amazing artist in this space. If you like photography the Stacks Photography Guild is a must follow, as is thedoc.btc, and Longstreet.btc (who also happens to be quite the musician, just like 3hunnatheartist ). Our resident not-a-doctor is the beating heart of the memes in this space, as well as an amazing photographer.

Sigle is the Stacks project responsible for your reading this blog post right now, and the Explorer guild is not only one of the first NFT collections used to finance a Web3 project, but is also my pfp on Twitter. Satoshibles is another NFT project that combines great art and utility. The dev created a bridge that allows for transfers of Satoshibles from Ethereum to Stacks, read more about that here. Megapont is the premiere NFT collection on Stacks, and they are constantly pushing out new updates for their community. Stacks Parrots is a great community, with amazing perks for their members such as their NFT gallery for holders, and frequent custom NFT raffles. The Guest, Spaghetti Punks, Nonnish, Crash Punks, This is #1, Grace Hye, The Untold, I could easily go on for another 1,500 words and I still couldn't fit everyone in.

Building Web3

This is what its all about. Even through the worst parts of the bear market builders, creators, and community have kept their eyes on the prize. The understanding that the work that is being done now is creating the foundation for growth that will propel not just Stacks but Web3 into the future is almost palpable. The goal is ultimately to provide a better future for everyone. We believe in the Bitcoin economy, and that we are in an advantageous position as being ahead of the curve in terms of unlocking the potential of Bitcoin through Stacks. The failure of fiat and centralization is apparent, just look at your Twitter feed for evidence of this.

There are no barriers here, there is room and opportunity for all. For those of you who want to do more in the crypto space this is the perfect opportunity. From technical, to content creators, community managers, etc. Your talent and work ethic will take you as far as you want to go in this space.

We are very happy to have you here, glad you made it. Follow the people and projects in this article. Give me a follow on Twitter, and Sigle if you enjoyed this read and want to catch the next piece! I don't have anything else to say for now, thanks for reading. Until next time, Jack.

*The easiest way to DCA your Stacks here