Share this article
Stacks, Prominent Bitcoin Layer-2 Project, Activates Long-Awaited 'Nakamoto' Upgrade
The Stacks project, led by Princeton-educated computer scientist Muneeb Ali, says the upgrade will make transactions faster and "as irreversible as Bitcoin's."
Updated Oct 29, 2024, 1:20 p.m. Published Oct 29, 2024, 1:17 p.m. 1 min read
Stacks, a layer-2 blockchain project atop Bitcoin, confirmed on Tuesday the activation of its Nakamoto upgrade, designed to make transactions faster.
The project's official account on X posted that "Stacks transactions once confirmed are now at least as irreversible as Bitcoin's," and that there is a "significant reduction in transaction times."
The upgrade also will provide a "technical foundation for sBTC launching later this year," according to the post.
Stacks, co-founded by Muneeb Ali, a Princeton-educated computer scientist who also serves as CEO of the Bitcoin-focused development firm Trust Machines, is seen as one of the oldest and most credible efforts building layer-2 networks atop the Bitcoin blockchain – no small claim given that more than 80 such projects have sprung up over the past couple years.
Ali told CoinDesk earlier this year that he saw Bitcoin as the "apex predator" in the blockchain industry – despite the far-greater success of so-called smart-contract blockchains like Ethereum and Solana that are designed for greater programmability, and have attracted entire ecosystems of applications devoted to things like decentralized finance (DeFi) and gaming.
The upgrade has been the centerpiece of Stack's roadmap, with initial phases of the implementation began earlier this year, and then several delays before full activation.
The Nakamoto Release brought Stacks something Satoshi Nakamoto tried to solve years ago 🟧
— stacks.btc (@Stacks) October 29, 2024
Any transaction you make on Stacks is now secured by 100% of Bitcoin's hash power.
- Stacks Founder @muneeb comments live on the Nakamoto Release. pic.twitter.com/HiY5bMALnF
More For You
A draft XRPL amendment notes that flash loan attacks are "structurally impossible" on the network because of how its transactions are built, an architectural quirk that has spared the chain from the exploit class that has cost Ethereum DeFi billions.
What to know:
- Recent DeFi exploits on protocols like Thorchain, Drift and KelpDAO have relied on flash loans, a mechanism that does not exist on the XRP Ledger.
- Because XRPL transactions are atomic and cannot include composable intra-transaction calls, flash loan attacks are structurally impossible on the network.
- As XRPL pursues AMM upgrades...
Top Stories
