Stacks 2.1 Upgrade is Approaching — Enhanced Connection between Stacks & Bitcoin | Written by GM Chung Just as the Ethereum ecosystem has grown through this year's the merge, various innovations & changes are taking place on Bitcoin as well. In particular, Stacks is injecting new utility into Bitcoin by introducing a smart contract layer without modifying Bitcoin. Expected to be at the end of this year, the Stacks 2.1 upgrade is the biggest update since the launch of the Stacks 2.0 mainnet, and will provide the foundation for a stronger relationship between Stacks chain and Bitcoin chain. In the article below, you can find the major changes and improvements the upcoming upgrade will bring and how it will affect.

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Stacks 2.1: Your Guide to Voting 🚀 With this upgrade, expect more efficient Bitcoin yield via Stacking, more robust bridges to other networks, more simplicity with how developers can link and trigger interactions between Stacks and Bitcoin, and helpful groundwork for Subnets - which will bring additional speed and scalability to the network once launched. Voting Voting will take place during Stacking rewards cycles 46 and 47, estimated to begin around November 10, 2022 and end around December 8, 2022. Check out the full guide 👇

📺 Why Stacks? A Robust Architecture for Building Why not just Bitcoin? Why not just Ethereum? Why no Solana? What makes Stacks so great? 🤔 If you ever had one of the questions listed above, this video from Stacks Foundation developer advocate Kenny Rogers will provide you with the answers 👈

🚨 Grant Cohort 19: Applications closing... Just one week left until the Grant application process for Cohort 19 closes. If you want to apply for funding to help grow the Stacks ecosystem, do it now! Checkout the Grants launchpad for more information 👇

📺 This Week's Stacks Events 📺 An exciting week of live events ahead! Let's take a look 👇 👁 Starting in 30 minutes: Hiro is hosting a Discord NFTs on Bitcoin, event together with many special guests 👁 Wednesday: Let's talk Non-custodial Bitcoin on Stacks (Twitter spaces) 👁 Thursday: What's next in web3 with Stacks Foundation Exec. Dir. Brittany Laughlin (Twitter spaces) 👁 Friday: SIP Community Call (Stacks 2.1) (Zoom) 👁 End of November: Stacks Degens announced their technical session on integrating NFTs into games (Register) We'll see you there 🚀

🚨 Community Call: in 10 minutes 🚨 Join all the #Stacks builders during this month's community call 🚀 ⏰ Starting in 10 minutes ⏰ 👇 Come join here👇

🚨 Live in 10 minutes: Gaming on Stacks 🚨 The future of gaming on #Stacks looks bright 🚀 Join StacksDegens @BowTiedSirJonat together with @0ZeroAuthority Stacks Force 's @KozlovAnatoly & @NRedkie discussing the future of on-chain gaming with #Stacks 👇 Join us 👇

🚨 State of #Stacks Q3 2022 🚨 ICYMI: Messari released their Q3 State of Stacks report 🚀 💡 Highlights: 📈 QoQ 60% growth in smart contract deployment 📈 Stackers holding for the long term 📈 2022 average Stacking yield of 9% in #Bitcoin Read the full report by Messari 👈

⭐️ Stacks Startup Lab: Bootcamp 📆 The deadline for the Stacks Startup Lab bootcamp ➡️ November 5th 🚀 Jumpstart your Web3 startup with a supportive and fast growing Web3 community. 📈 Stacks Startup Lab Cohort 1 - Stacks Force launched 3 games - BitFlow Finance launched their Beta - Liquidium (formerly NFT2Loan) launched testnet - Much more startups will launch soon Are you the next builder that starts a company on Stacks 👀? Help onboard the next generation of Stacks builders 👉 Share & Apply here 👈

ALEX: Pioneering Bitcoin DeFi Non-custodial #Bitcoin on Stacks is the key to: ▶️ Billions Bitcoin capital flowing into Stacks ▶️ The ultimate use case for Bitcoin #DeFi ▶️ Bitcoin -> productive asset Ethereum Bridge: ALEX is also building "Bridge", connecting USDC on Ethereum with xUSD on Stacks. Bridge is a wrapped bridge, with Tokensoft as the tech partner. 👇 Watch the full video 👇

👤 Community Call: Next week 👤 ✅ 11 new Grantees have been onboarded ✅ Residents onboarding builders ✅ Chapters introducing #Stacks locally Let's recap what happened in October ⭐️ 📅 Nov 3. 11AM (ET) 👇 Save a spot for the event 👇

Oh wow do we have a treat this week for all you hackers out there. The Hiro Monthly Developer Call is back in action! Tune in this Thursday, October 27th @ 16:00 UTC (12:00pm EST). ⚠️ This month we have a jam-packed agenda with a rockstar guest list. You’ll be hearing the latest and greatest Stacks ecosystem updates straight from the source. 🚰 📊 Brian Franklin will be coming on to spill the tea on results from Hiro’s latest Developer Survey! Come hear all the interesting takeaways from the Stacks dev community. 🔮 Maxim Efremov will be looking into the crystal ball, and giving us a sneak peek of upcoming Clarity upgrades with the launch of Stacks 2.1. 💰I know Thanksgiving isn’t until next month, but this month it’s Grantsgiving! Our friend from the Stacks Foundation, Will Corcoran, will be joining the meeting to give a rundown of the multitude of improvements to the Stacks Grants process. 🍊 For those who are still dealing with FOMO from missing all the festivities in Bitcoin Amsterdam, the Zest Protocol team will be on the call (fresh off their testnet launch!) to share a brief recap on all the happenings from Stacks’ Eurotrip. Cannot wait to see all you diehard devs this week, and discuss the latest hot topics from around web3 🌎3️⃣ You can get all registered for the session here:

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✅ SIP (Stacks Improvement Proposal) Call 🔎 Let's discuss #Stacks 2.1 👇 💬 What: Steering Committee October Update 📅 When: Friday 28th October - 11am ET 📍Add the SIP call to your calendar 👈 Grow #Stacks Together ✊💜

🚨 The Future of Gaming Lies On-chain 🚨 With the likes of Stacks Degens and Stacks Force, the future of on-chain gaming with Stacks looks bright! But what are the use cases? How do we accelerate the growth of on-chain gaming? How can you become part of the on-chain game builders community? Join this exciting session to find out! During this event, Stacks Degens Founder BowTiedSirJonathan.btc (@BowTiedSirJonat) will go over everything that you need to know about gaming on Stacks, secured by Bitcoin. Jonathan will be joined by moderator Zero (@0ZeroAuthority), Wannabe.games Founder norbertredkie.btc (@NRedkie), and many more! 👇 Save your spot 👇

💡 Spolight - Stacks: A Deeper Understanding (by @Jackbinswitch) "Stacks has a lot of moving parts, and for the longest time I wasn't familiar with them. I am used to buying a coin, joining some project Discords/Telegrams, staring at charts, and degening to my heart's content. If words such as SIP and CAB don't currently hold any meaning for you, that's ok we are going to remedy that in this piece." Read more 👈

Too much excitement in the #Stacks community 💜 ⭐️ StacksDegens NFT customization ⭐️ ALEXLabBTC Bridge Testnet started ⭐️ web3startuplab's next cohort ⭐️ ZestProtocol launched testnet ⭐️ Hirosystems adding #Bitcoin support We cannot choose what we're most excited about. You? 🤔👇

🚨 Hiro Stackathon 🚨 It's time to sharpen your skills in this October's Stackathon. All month long we're bringing you remixable challenges to push your imagination to the limits—with opportunities to win great swag along the way. Between now and october 31st, you’ll have the chance to create an application, or to remix, repackage, and recode existing projects, adding your personal touch to each one. Read more 👈

👁‍🗨 Why You Should Be Excited About Stacks 2.1 Watch Stacks Founder Muneeb Ali, Stacks Foundation Executive Director Brittany Laughlin, and Trust Machine's Gina Abrams discuss everything that Stacks 2.1 will deliver 🗣 👇 Available here 👇

🚨 Stacks listed on Kraken 🚨 A huge win for the Stacks community 💜 Funding is live, and trading will begin on October 21 at approximately 14:30 UTC. View the announcement here 👇

🚨 Stacks Grants Program Approved Funding Requests - Cohort 18 (Part I/2) 11 Grant funding requests have been approved by the Stacks Grants committee. The first 5 Grants are displayed below. Be sure to comment & star your favourite Grants to show support for future initiatives. ⭐️ Trajan creates crypto endorsements to build a comprehensive reputation of merit, which becomes a decentralized identity that generates crypto assets. More here 👈 ⭐️ Metastackdata.com proudly presents the first legally compliant Stacking pool with Lightning payouts. For the first time, Stackers will be able to stack STX and earn BTC at zero-commission with the lowest possible BTC tx fees. More here 👈 ⭐️ Creating an “Advanced mobile games toolset for F2P and P2E merger” will create a bridge between Free to Play Web 2.0 gaming and Play to Earn Web3 gaming allowing non-crypto game dev studios and publishers to easily implement Stacks blockchain to their games. More here 👈 ⭐️ Stacks Commerce (STX-C) is a smart contract system enabling independent buyers, sellers & value add parties to contribute & be rewarded for the exchange of goods & services. More here 👈 ⭐️ This project aims to make the WalletConnect protocol compatible with Stacks apps and wallets. More here 👈 Watch the full workflow of all cohort Grant submissions on the GitHub Repo. Add the GitHub page to your Watchlist & Star the page to get continuous updates on what's going on.

🚨 Priorities from the 2022 Ecosystem Offsite On September 19, 2022 the Stacks Foundation held the first Stacks Offsite with builders from the ecosystem to talk through technical priorities, share opportunities, and discuss the known challenges within the roadmap. The goal was to bring together a diverse group of builders to outline common priorities, and build working groups and a public roadmap to share with the community. As a community, we identified three priorities: ⭐️ Speed and Scalability Improvements ⭐️ Bitcoin Write ⭐️ Bitcoin NFTs Read more about the results 👇

🚨 Live in 10 minutes: ReFi 🚨 There needs to be a holistic approach to sustainability in the blockchain industry. And, finally, the focus seems to be converging on that cross chain collaboration for bolstering ReFi. We talk to builders and advocates across blockchain communities all working towards a better future on Join the conversation Join Host: Kyle Ellicott (@Kyleellicott). Panelists: Brittany Laughlin (@br_ttany), Kevin Owocki (@owocki), Jeanne Bloch (@JeanneBloch) talking about ReFi 👇 Join live here 👇

ICYMI: Codeacademy just launched a free and beginner-friendly course in partner with the Stacks Foundation! 📚 Explore the tech behind Web3, Metaverse, and cryptocurrency with their new intro course and learn about 📙 ⭐ Web2 and Web3 architecture differences ⭐ Decentralization's pros and cons ⭐ What smart contracts are, their uses, and the programming languages behind them ⭐ Metaverse and how to design your own -- and more! Check it out below 👇

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Here's another Builder Spotlight with BlockSurvey ☄️ We sat down with Wilson Bright, the co-founder of BlockSurvey, to learn more about their mission, project, and so much more! 💬 They provide users with a stack of tools and audiences for data collection with ownership, privacy, and security at an affordable cost. 🔏 Read the full feature below 🔻

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Did you know that Second Cohort applications are now open for the pre-accelerator? ℹ️ A 2-month step-by-step Bootcamp for startups with one-on-one mentorship offering everything founders need to build their team and solid Web3 startup core to get fast-tracked to Stacks Ventures for growth and raising funds. What You Get ⏬ ✨ Mentorship ✨ Community ✨ Knowledge ✨ Workshops Application Deadline: Nov 9th, 2022! We're building the best startup community in the crypto space, join us and accelerate your success! 🚀 Apply here 👇

web3startuplab.io

Hey everyone, it’s time for Zesty Giveaway📢🍊 To juice things up for the coming Testnet, we are giving away a total of $1,000 in $BTC + $STX to 50 winners! Do this to win: ✅Complete this👉

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✅Follow @ZestProtocol + RT this tweet (

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) + Join Discord ✅Tag 3 friends on Twitter on that tweet

We'd like to congratulate Unbanked 🎉 They recently won the Start Engine pitch competition and $25,000 from Kevin O'Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful 🏆 Unbanked is a global fintech solution built on blockchain, and they support our network enabling Stacks holders to use $STX in real-time while also earning 8 to 10% bitcoin yield on their balance by Stacking! 🌐 Check out their pitch here 📺

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Zesty Announcement 📢🍊 After months of development, Zest Protocol is soon to be ready for the world. Participate in our Official Testnet on Oct 20th to be an OG. Learn more by: ✅Follow @ZestProtocol on Twitter + RT this ✅Join our Discord:

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🔥Introducing: STXDX & its token $XDX STXDX (Stacks-DEX) is the first order book DEX built on Bitcoin via Stacks. STXDX will be powered by $XDX token. ALEX & atALEX holders will be airdropped $XDX and participate in revenue share subject to governance. Read more⬇️

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Tune in on our monthly webinar as we tackle Regenerative Finance 💱 We'll talk to builders and advocates across blockchain communities, all working towards a better future on blockchain. ⚒️ 🗓️ October 18 🕰️ 11:00 AM PT 📍 Hopin We'll hear from: ⚬ Brittany Laughlin, Executive Director, Stacks Foundation ⚬ Kyle Ellicott, Partner, Stacks Ventures ⚬ Kevin Owocki, Founder, Gitcoin ⚬ Jeanne Bloch, Seed Gardener, DEB for innovative Value Flow Register below 👇

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📺 Watch Back: Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders 📺 Muneeb Ali (Stacks Founder), Dan Held, Brittany Laughlin, Trevor Owen, Hadan Esperidiao (ALEX Lab), Tycho Onnasch (Zest Protocol), Ken Liao (Xverse), Mark Mckenzie (Megapont Founder) and many more amazing builders discussed Stacks growth during last week's event 🚀 Watch back all talks on YouTube (timestamps available in the comments) 👇

We've all heard the buzz for Stacks 2.1 -- an exciting major network upgrade for the Stacks Blockchain ⚡ And the developers might be wondering how it will affect their experience and Hiro developer tooling. 🤔 Hiro got us covered! 🧡 They created a guide, and you check it out here 🔽

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In the past year, DeFi has exploded in popularity. Developers are expanding its possibilities to new use cases and ecosystems, including bringing DeFi to the original blockchain itself: Bitcoin. 📈 Let's dive deeply into DeFi on Bitcoin; learn the challenges it faces and how Stacks help address them. 🔑 Read the full article below ⬇️

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🚨 1 more day to vote 🚨 Support over friends over at frens as they're up for a Smoothie Award! 🏆 ℹ️ They're the first growth platform made just for web3 communities! Helping everyone turn on the community on day one and engage the network effect to grow your community quickly. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑👭 Cast your vote here 🗳️

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Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition Starting NOW! We're live with the 1-day Stacks builders event 🚀 Kicking things off with Stacks Founder Muneeb Ali talking about the new exciting update: Stacks 2.1 🌐 Come join us 👈 See schedule 👈

At Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition, we'll explore new frontiers on making NFTs more than digital collectibles! 🖼️ We've got an exciting panel that consists of Brian Laughlan of Satoshibles, Jamil Dhanani of Gamma.io, Jessica Greenwalt of Unum, Louise Ivan of Ryder, and Mark McKenzie of Megapont 👥 You don't want to miss this! Tune in tomorrow ☄️ There's still time, sign-up below 🔽

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🚨 Happening now 🚨 👇 Join us live now👇 Check out what all the amazing Stacks community builders have been building 🏗 🗣 Join the Stacks Community Call 👇

Curious to know what continuous stacking is? What projects can you build, and how are existing infrastructure and wallet providers plan to support users and builders? 💭 Come and join Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition to learn more! 💥 We'll have a discussion on this topic with Alex Chizhik of Okcoin, Dan Held of Trust Machines, Ken Liao of Xverse, and Tycho Onnasch of Zest Protocol 🔓 Get your passes today ⏬

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How do you choose the right Smart Contract Language? 🤔 Let's figure it out with an eclectic bunch of builders to talk about the pros and cons of their respective ecosystems—and whether they might one day unseat Solidity. 🌐 Join Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition!🚀 Hear from Francesco Kadena, CEO of Kadena, Gina Abrams, Chief of Staff of Trust Machines, Maxim Efremov, Developer Evangelist at Hiro, and Sami Kassab, Research Analyst at Messari 👥 Register here 👇

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Get insights from industry leaders and excellent Builders in the Stacks Ecosystem! Join Bitcoin Unleashed: Builders Edition! 🏗️ ℹ️ A premier virtual event bringing together founders and developers for all things building on Bitcoin. Here's a sneak peek of the speakers we'll have at the event! 👀 Save your spot 👇

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🚨 Tomorrow 🚨 Got Stacks-related questions? We got you! 🤔 What: Stacks Q&A 🗨️ Where: Twitter Spaces 📅 When:October 5 | 5PM EDT 👥 Who: Muneeb Ali, Stacks Founder with Brittany Laughlin from the Stacks Foundation, Patrick Stanley of Citycoins, and Kyle Ellicott from Stacks Ventures 👇 Set a reminder 👇

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In less than two weeks, Bitcoin 2022 is happening in Amsterdam! 🇳🇱 Join the most brilliant minds in Bitcoin from Europe and beyond for three days of learning, teaching, and inspiring the community. 🚀 Together with Zest Protocol, we have an exhibitor booth at the conference. Don't forget to stop by and say hello! 👋 🚨 Get 10% off your tickets use Code STACKS 🚨 Secure your spots below 👇

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I see the number of transaction in the mempool is increasing. It may require increasing the fees on your transactions to get them processed. It can also mean processing times become a bit longer. Note that normal processing times vary between 2 and 60 minutes and average about 10 minutes. BNS transactions (domains pre-orders and registrations) are relatively cheap as well as STX transfers, it is easy for miners to fit many in a block. However when there are a lot of transactions in the mempool it is possible not all miners have a full view or are unable to process all of them all the time. There have been improvements to the network since the last congestion so it will be good to see how the network fares. Keep an eye on important stats in times of increased network activity or congestion using these: Mempool graph:

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Mempool explorer:

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Average fees being payed:

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Curious to know how you can create an NFT Smart contract on Stacks and Clarity? 🤔 Look no further! Kenny Rogers, the Developer Advocate at Stacks Foundation, published an extensive guide on this particular topic 🖼️ Check the complete guide below 👇

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Let's take a peek inside Gamma's Create Portal and learn how it empowers NFT Creators 👀 Nick Sainato, Co-Founder and COO of Gamma.io, walks us through their creator launchpad, the Create Portal, which allows artists and creatives to launch NFT collections and support NFT-gated communities. 🚀 Read the full article below 👇

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We're excited to see Brittany Laughlin, Executive Director of the Stacks Foundation, speak at this year's SmartCon! 🚀 ℹ️ Brought to us by Chainlink, SmartCon is a full week of learning from industry luminaries, building alongside the best developers in the space, and connecting with fellow community members from across the globe. More about the event below 👇

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ICYMI: We announced the winners of the recently concluded third Clarity Universe hackathon 🏆 Congratulations 1️⃣Helping Hands 2️⃣Paydii 3️⃣Stacks Guild We'd also like to thank everyone who participated 🙏 Learn more about the projects here 👇

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We have an exciting Twitter Spaces Session Tomorrow! We'll hear from different builders in the ecosystem. Learn how they're contributing towards a user-owned internet and more! 🎙️ We have Kyle Ellicott of Stacks Ventures, John Ennis of NeoSwap, Orlando Cosme of StackerDAO Labs, Dr. Chiente Hsu of alexGo.btc, and Ragnar Lifthrasir of Trajan 🚀 Save the details below 👇 📍

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🗓️ Monday, September 26 ⌚ 5:00 PM EDT See you there! 👋

Did you know that QuickNode released a guide on How to Mint NFTs on the Stacks Blockchain 🖼️ In this guide, you will take things a step further and learn the following: ❇️ how to create and deploy a SIP-009 compliant NFT contract to the Stacks Testnet 🔒 ❇️ how to mint the NFTs through the Stacks Sandbox Check it below ⏬

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Alex Miller, CEO of Hiro, recently discussed why Bitcoin is the perfect settlement layer to build apps on top of with Brayden Lindrea of Cointelegraph 🔐 Per the article, Alex Miller mentioned that this is what Satoshi Nakomoto envisioned⤵️ “Satoshi himself wrote back in like 2010, 2011, that he foresaw additional layers [and] additional chains will get built on top of this, to provide all of that kind of programmability.” Read the full article below 👇

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