Stacks, the leading layer-2 solution for Bitcoin, has announced the addition of eight new organizations as Signers, further strengthening the network’s security and decentralization in the lead-up to the Nakamoto upgrade. Nakamoto upgrade, promises faster transaction speeds and enhanced functionality for Bitcoin.
The new Signers include industry heavyweights like 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 esteemed Signers will be responsible for validating new Stacks blocks and eventually signing deposit and withdrawal transactions for BTC/sBTC transactions.
These organizations collectively manage billions of dollars in assets and bring extensive experience in blockchain infrastructure and security. Their participation signifies a strong vote of confidence in Stacks’ vision of unlocking the potential of Bitcoin for a broader audience.
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 Security and Decentralization
Unlike a federated network, the Stacks Signer set is open and inclusive, incorporating the thousands of existing Stackers who currently secure the network. Following the Nakamoto upgrade, these Stackers, who already earn a BTC yield for their contributions, will take on the additional responsibility of validating blocks.
The addition of these reputable Signers bolsters the network’s security by introducing entities with a vested interest in maintaining network integrity.
Their public participation and established infrastructure further enhance the network’s ability to identify and address potential malicious actors. This completely open signer system aligns perfectly with the values of those seeking to explore new use cases for their Bitcoin holdings.
Here’s a brief overview of the new 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.
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