More Validation for Bitcoin Builders: Industry Leaders to Integrate Stacks, the Leading Bitcoin L2

Summary:
• Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer.

As the Nakamoto upgrade approaches, a critical piece of the network’s new functionality continues to be strengthened with the participation of the industry’s staking and infrastructure leaders. Six new organizations have committed to supporting the Stacks network as Signers: Blockdaemon, NEAR Foundation, DeSpread, Luxor, Chorus One, Kiln, Restake, and Alum Labs, bolstering Stacks’ position as the leading layer-2 solution for Bitcoin. These Signers join a group that already includes Copper, Figment, Luganodes, Xverse, Ryder, community Stacking pools, and individuals currently Stacking. 

These high-reputation participants collectively represent billions of dollars in AUM and include many of the most highly-rated staking providers in the industry. The open and decentralized Signer set they will join will be responsible for validating new Stacks blocks. These participants will eventually be responsible for signing deposit and withdrawal transactions for BTC/sBTC transactions. 

The addition of these leaders to the Stacks network is a significant step forward for Bitcoin’s ecosystem. Their willingness to bring their industry-leading infrastructure and communities means more support for builders eager to activate the Bitcoin economy through various scaling solutions popping up on Bitcoin, including Bitcoin L2s like Stacks. 

Enhancing Network Security

Importantly, Stacks is not a federated network. The Signer set is open and will include the thousands of Stackers currently locking over $1B in STX in Stacks consensus. After the Nakamoto upgrade, Stackers, who currently earn a BTC yield for helping secure the network, will take on the additional role of validating Stacks blocks. 

Adding ‘high-reputation’ Signers to the mix means that the network benefits from parties who have a vested interest and track record for behaving honestly. These Signers are publicly and transparently participating and further, have infrastructure and tools in place that may help spot any bad actors if necessary. This completely open network of Signers also ensures the highest level of decentralization possible in alignment with the values of those interested in new use cases for their Bitcoin.

Meet the New Signers

Let’s introduce the latest signers:

• Blockdaemon: Blockdaemon is an industry-leading infrastructure solutions provider and ISO-27001 certified partner with extensive protocol coverage, offering technical depth, industry-leading SLAs, 70+ global points of presence through 10+ cloud and bare metal providers, and 24/7 support for an unmatched institutional-grade experience.
• NEAR Foundation: NEAR Protocol is a fully sharded, proof-of-stake blockchain built for mainstream adoption. Performant, scalable, and secure, NEAR is designed to scale the Open Web to a billion users.
• DeSpread: DeSpread, the leading blockchain consulting firm based in South Korea, provides GTM strategy for web3 initiatives seeking into the APAC market. And its dev arm, DeSpread Labs, operates PoS validators to secure the network and participate in on-chain governance.
• Luxor: Luxor is a US-based compute power company focused on Proof-of-Work Bitcoin mining and compute. We believe that compute power will become an increasingly valuable commodity and are building traditional markets & derivatives to support it.
• Chorus One: Chorus One is one of the biggest institutional staking providers globally operating infrastructure for 50+ Proof-of-Stake networks and managing over $3B in staked assets. Since 2018, they have been at the forefront of the PoS industry and now offer easy enterprise-grade staking solutions, industry-leading research, and also invest in some of the most cutting-edge protocols through Chorus Ventures.
• Kiln: Kiln, the leading enterprise-grade staking platform, facilitates asset staking and white-label staking integration for institutional clients. With over $5 billion in crypto assets being programmatically staked, Kiln boasts a particularly strong track record on Ethereum, managing approximately 4% of the network as its largest independent node operator
• Restake: Restake stands as the institutional architect for blockchain ecosystems, driving project growth through robust infrastructure and impactful partnerships.
• Alum Labs: ALUM LABS represents a group of seasoned blockchain professionals and institutions that have partnered up to help secure and scale innovative blockchain networks. Having built several blockchains from scratch, ALUM LABS confidently commits to the highest level of node performance, openly shares their expertise with the community and grants engineering resources to further strengthen the ecosystem.

“These Signers add yet another layer of decentralization and bring industry leading infrastructure to the leading Bitcoin L2 as the ecosystem seeks to unlock the Bitcoin economy and bring Bitcoin to billions of users,” says Andre Serrano, sBTC Resident at The Stacks Foundation. “Together, we are poised to unlock exciting new use cases for Bitcoin.”

The integration of these new organizations as Signers into the Stacks network marks a significant advancement as the Nakamoto upgrade approaches. Alongside the existing community, bringing these industry leaders on board further enhances network security and fosters greater decentralization, solidifying Stacks as a leading layer 2 solution with the needs of Bitcoin builders front and center. 

About Stacks

Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer. The 2024 Nakamoto and sBTC releases will bring faster speeds and transactions backed by 100% Bitcoin finality. ‍Stacks is the current leading Bitcoin L2 by developer traction and market cap and is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $500B in passive capital as a fully programmable, productive asset.

The Stacks (STX) token, used as gas on the L2, was the first to undergo an SEC-qualified sale in the United States. The project explicitly decentralized with the mainnet launch in 2021. In the Stacks ecosystem, there are currently 30+ contributing entities including a non-profit Stacks Foundation, a developer tooling company Hiro, Xverse, Trust Machines, Mechanism, Bitcoin L2 Labs, ALEX, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, and more.