The Latest Developments in the Stacks Ecosystem and the Prospects for the Satoshi Nakamoto Upgrade

Since the proposal of the Stacks theory, a series of key developments have made it increasingly clear. The solid growth in demand for Bitcoin block space has further driven the demand for Stacks products. Stacks is building a platform to explore more complex and refined Bitcoin valuation tools, with the ultimate goal of transitioning to a true Bitcoin second layer when technical conditions allow. This vision is gradually being realized, and the development team plans to complete the Satoshi Nakamoto upgrade before the Bitcoin halving in April next year.

Despite the encouraging development trends, the recent attention on Stacks has decreased due to the market's focus on other immediate factors. This presents a unique opportunity - as key milestones are about to be achieved, the theoretical strength of Stacks is increasing, yet public attention is waning.

The average gas fee on the Bitcoin network has soared 50 times this year, far exceeding Ethereum's 2 times, indicating that the demand for Bitcoin block space remains strong. The ongoing development of Ordinals suggests that people want to use Bitcoin for more than just holding. The position of Bitcoin as a global macro asset is strengthening, with an increasing market demand for alternative stores of value, further solidifying Bitcoin's dominance.

The demand for Bitcoin primarily stems from its stable performance as a store of value and the regulatory clarity expected from the approval of a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF. These external factors collectively increase the demand for Stacks products: an efficient, flexible, and secure BTC-priced environment for exploring complex BTC applications and completing the transition to a true second layer of Bitcoin.

At the same time, despite the significant resources consumed by Satoshi Nakamoto's upgrade development, Stacks has been neglected in recent months. The development team has completed Mockamoto, which will be used to enable the online functionality of Satoshi Nakamoto nodes and RPC endpoints. This is a key milestone that allows the team to launch the Satoshi Nakamoto mainnet as planned in April next year, coinciding with the Bitcoin halving.

This upgrade will be one of the most important catalysts. Currently, the Stacks network is cumbersome to use, the block time is the same as Bitcoin's first layer, and it does not support bridging BTC. After the upgrade, Stacks will significantly speed up, with the block time shortened to 5 seconds, and it will support sBTC—a secure and efficient wrapped Bitcoin that is natively integrated with the Stacks consensus mechanism. Despite technical limitations, the Stacks ecosystem remains resilient, with multiple strong teams continuously building. After the upgrade, Stacks will be secured by 100% of Bitcoin's hash rate, bringing it closer to Bitcoin's second layer.

Several major events in the near future will greatly attract attention to STX. It is expected that the Bitcoin spot ETF will be approved in January next year, triggering widespread discussions centered around Bitcoin and large financial institutions' promotions, which may impact STX. Stacks is expanding its global footprint through partnerships with Singapore's Spartan Group and Korea's DeSpread. They will launch marketing activities in the first quarter of next year to raise awareness of Bitcoin's second layer, focusing on Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai. Stacks will announce key milestones before the upgrade, which is expected to gain more attention in the coming weeks. New Bitcoin first-layer tools like BitVM will enable minimal trust transfer between the first and second layers, bringing Stacks closer to a true Bitcoin second layer.

The relative valuation of STX against BTC and other first and second layer ecosystems has reached an impressive level. It is expected that by April next year, Stacks may complete the Satoshi Nakamoto upgrade, providing the first fully operational BTC-priced ecosystem. By then, it will be close to the BTC halving, and the Stacks ecosystem will be in the mid-stage of marketing activities, providing a favorable environment for STX to narrow the valuation discount. Currently, STX is trading at 0.15% of BTC's fully diluted market cap, while the total of Ethereum's second layer is 10% of ETH. Although the discount is reasonable, the current scale indicates that STX has significant potential for upward growth.

After the upgrade of Satoshi Nakamoto, Stacks will be able to provide a high-performance Bitcoin-priced NFT market for efficient Ordinals trading and unique Layer 2 NFT series. With sBTC, Ordinals can be locked on Layer 1 Bitcoin and traded on Layer 2 Stacks, achieving faster, lower-cost, and more flexible transactions. sBTC can also explore traditional DeFi applications, such as lending developed by the Zest team on Stacks. A token exchange market based on sBTC will also be launched, with ALEX laying the groundwork for this. These applications not only explore new functionalities but also generate yields automatically, and are expected to gradually occupy the market, providing an innovative and practical ecosystem.