Tag: Stacks

Crypto-Friendly New York City Mayor-Elect Adams Gives Blessing to ‘NYCCoin’ Rollout

by Dailyhodl

New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams is welcoming the launch of the Big Apple’s first-ever cryptocurrency, NewYorkCityCoin (NYCCoin).

Following a tweet from Adams saying that he wants New York to have its own digital asset like Miami, CityCoins announced the activation of NYCCoin mining.

The crypto development firm previously launched MiamiCoin (MIA) back in August. The project generated $4.3 million within 40 days of its initial rollout.

NYCCoin is powered by CityCoins, a project running on the Stacks Protocol, which enables smart contracts on the Bitcoin network. CityCoins says that people who want to support New York City and help grow its crypto treasury can purchase, mine, and stake the tokens, earning Stacks (STX) and Bitcoin (BTC) in the process.

“NYCCoin is also programmable, enabling builders to improve the city from their keyboard by using NYCCoin to build web3 apps, mint NFTs [non-fungible tokens], or otherwise improve the city’s digital infrastructure.”

The rollout of the digital coin comes as Adams, who will be sworn in as mayor on January 1st, pushes to make New York City the center of the cryptocurrency industry.

Adams also said that he will take his first three checks in Bitcoin after crypto veteran Anthony Pompliano asked on Twitter who would be the first American politician to accept a paycheck in BTC.

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Stacks Blows Up 57% After Bitcoin NFTs Take Off

by Decrypt

In brief

  • Stacks is up 71% in the last week.

  • The Stacks blockchain brings smart contracts to Bitcoin.

  • Several Bitcoin NFT collections enjoyed modestly successful launches on Stacks this week.

The demand for Stacks, a blockchain that combines Bitcoin with smart contracts, is soaring. Its price has risen by 58% in the last 24 hours to a price of $2.3, just as its nascent NFT market picks up.

STX’s explosive price movement caused the cryptocurrency to rise thirteen places up the global market capitalization rankings. With a market cap of $2.9 billion, it’s now the 55th largest cryptocurrency in the world, according to crypto data aggregator Nomics.   

Stacks’s latest push has been into Bitcoin NFTs. These are unconventional in crypto, particularly since Bitcoin doesn’t natively support smart contracts, and most of the NFT market runs on Ethereum, which does natively support smart contracts. 

   

The Stacks blockchain supports smart contracts, but all of its transactions are rolled up and settled on Bitcoin. Stacks founder Muneeb Ali described it to Decrypt as “Layer 1.5” last month, distinguishing it from Ethereum Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum or Polygon. 

Although Stacks’s NFT marketplace is fairly new, Bitcoin NFTs have existed for years. Before Ethereum came along, some of the first tokenized digital assets were minted and sold on Counterparty, a third-party Bitcoin protocol, as early as 2012. 

Stacks’s NFT market picks up

There are signs that Stacks’s NFT market is rising. On Monday, 12-year-old Abraham Finley sold out of a collection of about $8,000 worth of hand-drawn pixelated Bitcoin bird NFTs in under an hour on the Stacks marketplace. 

By Thursday, Bitcoin Birds became the most transacted NFT collection on Stacks, trading 16,651 STX (about $21,000) worth of tokens in 24 hours. CryptoPunks knockoff StacksPunks also performed well this week. StacksPunks has currently traded about 620,528 STX worth of tokens, or about $1.3 million.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Stacks’s NFT launches are very modest news compared with the NFT trading that happens daily on Ethereum. 

In the last 24 hours, Ethereum-based game Axie Infinity traded over $20 million worth of tokens, according to NFT data aggregator CryptoSlam. Other smart contract blockchains, like Solana, Flow and Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, have also grabbed their share of the NFT boom.

Still, STX investors are clearly excited about the prospect of more Bitcoin NFTs and Bitcoin-backed decentralized finance products. A potential foothold in the booming NFT and DeFi markets is big news for all the Bitcoin maxis out there. 

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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Monetizing Your Own Data With Bitcoin

by Bitcoin Magazine

The team at BYOD discussed their solution for helping users monetize their own data using Bitcoin.

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Payments on the internet have always been a weakness. A Frankenstein mashup of surveillance, credit card payments and walled-garden ecosystems has emerged as the main avenues for the internet and internet companies to monetize. Freemium and ad-driven models became the way that users were monetized by these companies, but if you get something for free, you are the product and in 2021, this is turning into a problem. Stephan Dodge and Ian Major, the cofounders of BYOD, think Bitcoin can fix this.

“Bitcoin Magazine Podcast” host Christian Keroles sat down with these ambitious entrepreneurs to discuss how the emerging Bitcoin ecosystem and tech stack is enabling people to take the power back over their data and to even monetize it themselves. BYOD is a solution built on top of Bitcoin and the Stack 2 blockchain to enable users to create advertising profiles and, in a cryptographically secure and distributed manner, host and sell access to their data. Dodge and Major believe that BYOD will create a better customer profile and a better experience for both advertisers and customers. Users will get paid out in bitcoin and have more granular control than ever over how their data is used.

Beyond just the application that BYOD is pioneering, Dodge and Major are both incredibly excited about how well the Bitcoin ecosystem and tech stack are developing. A few years ago, it would not have been possible for them to build a solution like BYOD using Bitcoin in a way they deemed sufficiently decentralized. Today, there are several avenues where this was possible, including through Stacks.

Learn more about BYOD at BYOD.exchange.

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Stacks Surges 12% Overnight While Bitcoin Stagnates

by Decrypt

In brief

  • Stacks has been rallying over the last week.

  • The blockchain brings smart contracts to Bitcoin.

  • Through Stacks’ PoX consensus mechanism, holders can stake their STX to earn BTC.

While the rest of the $1.4 trillion crypto market stagnates, Stacks enjoyed a 12% overnight surge to $1.39. The gains continue a weeklong rally that has inflated the price of Stacks by 61% since last Sunday, according to CoinMarketCap. 

While that’s music to the ears of Stacks holders, the coin is still halfway off its former all-time high of $2.82, set on April 5 this year. 

Created by Hiro (formerly Blockstack), the Stacks blockchain brings smart contracts to Bitcoin. It opens up a world of NFTs and decentralized applications on the ancient blockchain, which is usually reserved for payments and HODLing. 

Stacks has used a proof-of-transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism since the network launched Stacks 2.0 in January. PoX enables STX holders to lock up their tokens for a fortnight in exchange for Bitcoin rewards of up to 18% a year.

The current staking cycle on OkCoin ends in two days. Those who stake their STX now on OkCoin can suck up what’s left of the estimated 10% annual return in Bitcoin. 

On Tuesday, Boombox NFTs went live for Stacks’ twelfth stacking cycle. Owners of more than 100,000 STX ($139,000) can lock up STX using Hiro’s Stacks wallet.

Users that have stacked enough STX can mint Boombox NFTs on Friedger Pool that represent the rewards of their stacked STX. The NFT can be freely traded before payout and whoever owns it at the end of the cycle will receive the rewards, a little like a bond. 

Blockstack made history back in 2019 when it became the first blockchain company to be given the green light for an ICO by the United States Security and Exchange Commission, meaning it could sell its tokens publicly as a registered security through a regulatory framework. 

In May this year, Hiro announced that it no longer considers STX a security, but a decentralized utility token, and will no longer file annual reports with the SEC.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.

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The USDC Stablecoin Will Soon Expand Its Reach To 10 More Networks

by NEWSBTC

The second biggest stablecoin by market capitalization is already a multi-blockchain project. Soon, though, USDC will live almost everywhere. According to Coindesk, it will soon be available in, “Avalanche, Celo, Flow, Hedera, Kava, Nervos, Polkadot, Stacks, Tezos, and Tron.” That will bring the total to 14; since USDC is already functional in Ethereum, Algorand, Stellar, and Solana.

The biggest stablecoin, Tether or USDT, is only available in 8 of those. Currently, the most used stablecoin is Tron’s version of USDT. 

Related Reading | Is USDC’s Billion Dollar Growth A Sign Crypto Smart Money Is Ditching Tether?

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With that in mind, CENTRE said:

“We anticipate that USDC on these blockchain platforms and multichain protocols will further accelerate the use of the world’s fastest growing digital dollar currency.”

The consortium that runs USDC, CENTRE, is a joint venture between Coinbase and payments processor Circle. The information comes from, “a draft announcement from USDC administrator CENTRE obtained by CoinDesk.”

USDC market cap for 06/30/2016 - TradingView

USDC market cap for 06/30/2016 - TradingView


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USDC market capitalization | Source: TradingView.com

What Is USDC And How Does It Work?

For this, we have to go back to the academy. Coinzilla informs us:

USDC is one of the fastest-growing stablecoins pegged 1 to 1 to the US Dollar.

What is more remarkable is that Circle, the company that developed the stablecoin, is actually holding the amount of money required for backing the USDC in circulation. 

That’s definitely a show at USDT. Tether’s audit and legal issues have been a topic of contention in the cryptocurrencies community for a while now. Can they back all the Tether they’ve minted? A burning question that’s harder to answer than you’d think. 

For what is worth, USDC’s independent audit is on the public record and says:


  • USD Coin (“USDC”) tokens issued and outstanding less tokens allowed but not issued (218,807,037) and less blacklisted tokens = 14,697,267,257 USDC  


  • US Dollars held in custody accounts are at least equal or greater than the USDC tokens outstanding at the Report Date and Time. 

Back to Coinzilla’s academy, the stablecoin’s characteristics are:

In essence, USD Coin is an ERC-20 token that functions through the Ethereum Network. Nowadays, USDC transactions can also be settled through Algorand, Solana, and Stellar’s infrastructures.

Since the launch of USDC 2.0, the payment process is simplified, the gas fees being paid directly in USDC. 

Related Reading | Circle’s Stablecoin USDC Passes Independent Audit, Fully Backed by USD

Stablecoins Are Supposed To Rule The USA in 2021

The official love affair between the US government and USDC started last January, when Jeremy Allaire from Circle announced that, “the largest US banking regulator with new guidance allowing US banks to use public blockchains and dollar stablecoins as a settlement infrastructure in the US financial system.” According to him, “Decentralized, permissionless, open source and internet mediated software is literally becoming the foundation for not just the US financial system but for the global economy.”

Recently Randal K. Quarles, the Federal Reserve’s Vice Chair for Supervision, considerably raised the stakes:

In my judgment, we do not need to fear stablecoins. The Federal Reserve has traditionally supported responsible private-sector innovation. Consistent with this tradition, I believe that we must take strong account of the potential benefits of stablecoins, including the possibility that a U.S. dollar stablecoin might support the role of the dollar in the global economy. For example, a global U.S. dollar stablecoin network could encourage use of the dollar by making cross-border payments faster and cheaper, and it potentially could be deployed much faster and with fewer downsides than a CBDC.

Will stablecoins like USDC and USDT substitute the Digital Dollar project? Could they be an alternative to CBDCs? We’ll have to wait and see.

Featured Images by NeONBRAND on Unsplash - Charts by TradingView

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Stack 2.0 Introduces a New Way of Earning BTC

by Btcmanager

2020 is synonymous with many things. Coronavirus. Central banks going to the money presses. And growth; tremendous expansion in crypto. 

In all honesty, most didn’t expect Bitcoin to tear higher like it did in 2020. From being minnows to indisputable champion in finance in 12 short years, there is so much more that investors are looking forward to in 2021. 

While prices may expand to six-digits as hedge fund managers and banks predict, it is the merger between smart contracting, DeFi, and Bitcoin that Stacks 2.0 blockchain seeks to introduce that might once more cause a paradigm shift in the next few months.

Stacks tethers to Bitcoin for security while making Bitcoin programmable, effectively making$600 billion worth of passively held BTC available for use.

Its native currency, STX, powers the smart contracting platform. 

The Stacks 2.0 Project

Behind the project is Dr. Muneeb Ali, who also doubles as the CEO of Hiro PBC, formerly known as Blockstack PBC, a public benefit Corp that builds developer tools for the Stacks blockchain. 

Together with Ryan Shea, they co-founded the Stacks project to solve problems facing web and mobile development back in 2013. Muneeb even  made what was called  Blockstack at the time, his Ph.D. thesis. In 2015, the first design of the Blockstack was released.

The Stacks 2.0 blockchain builds on the first iteration of the Stacks, bringing dApps and smart contracting to Bitcoin. 

Their objective is to provide options to developers that want a more secure base layer and better security with an option to build on the world’s most secure blockchain in Bitcoin

DeFi on Bitcoin Begins on Jan 14 When Stacks 2.0 Launches

Stacks 2.0 is set for launch on Jan 14. 

Its activation will introduce a new way for users to earn Bitcoin (through Stacking—or locking the native STX tokens and actively supporting consensus), building on the success of the first master design (Stacks 1.0) that already has over 400 active dApps. Users eager to watch the epic transition can register here.

On Jan 14, the Bitcoin network, known for its security but limitation as a mosrlty a  transactional layer will gain .exciting new powers and ways for developers to leverage it.

A New Way of Earning Bitcoin

But, the fun isn’t reserved only for developers, through Stacking, as aforementioned, token holders get an exciting new way to earn BTC in return for periodically confirming transactions and participating in consensus. 

Notably, in this arrangement, there is a divergence away from common architectures of rewarding. Instead of earning STX coins as a reward, as one may if Stacks was more akin to a traditional Proof-of-Stake network, Stackers instead earn BTC. For users looking to earn BTC at a time when people are trying to get it more than ever, Stacking provides an option that doesn’t require  the  purchase of expensive  Bitcoin mining equipment or to trust shaky DeFi protocols to earn a new coin they then have to convert to BTC

With Stacks 2.0 launch, the over 300k existing STX holders will be able to start  earning BTC as can any new Stacks holder.

Focus on Energy Conservation

Also, Stacks 2.0 goes a long way in environmental conservation by riding on the secure Bitcoin layer. 

As of Jan 5, the Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index reveals that the world’s most valuable crypto network consumes the same amount of energy as Chile. Moreover, each Bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of energy needed to power an average U.S. household over 24 days. 

By adopting the Proof-of-Transfer consensus algorithm and riding on the underlying Bitcoin network for security, Stacks 2.0 readily unlocks, extends, and makes Bitcoin more available by eliminating redundancy—and the need of using extra energy for the second time–while concurrently introducing new tools for developers who wish to build on the network. 

Virtually anyone with Bitcoin can mine STX once Stacks 2.0 is adopted by independent miners. Here, whenever an STX miner (after condensing thousands of STX transactions forming a single hash on Bitcoin) confirms, they stand a chance to earn more STX coins. This is possible because Proof-of-Transfer is the first consensus algorithm to instantaneously see both the Stacks and Bitcoin network state, enabling miners to send BTC to the mainnet to earn STX coins. 

Because of their focus on energy efficiency by leveraging what’s available and supported by the community and launching new development tool bring smart contracting and DeFi to Bitcoin, Stacks 2.0 can be said to be among the first projects to use the Bitcoin foundation and begin the journey of taping the $600 billion largely unexplored treasure.

Smart Contracting: The Holy Grail of Crypto

Specifically, by smart contracting and introducing developer tools, Stacks 2.0 sufficiently handles the scripting limitation that has been a dealbreaker for users who want to tap the Bitcoin network. 

Stacks 2.0 combines Proof-of Transfer with a new smart contract programming language, Clarity, to bring what many developers have always wanted in Bitcoin—smart contracts and dApp development. 

Clarity allows developers to build and launch dApps from a secure, cheap, and scalable blockchain.

A new chapter is about to begin. Bitcoin will be more than just a store of value. Smart contracting and DeFi is what’s needed. 

Don’t miss out; register for the launch event on Jan 14 here.

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