There are a multitude of reasons that Stacks chose Bitcoin as the blockchain to power consensus. It is the the one of the oldest blockchain protocols having launched in 2009, and has benefited from all the industry learnings that have occurred since that time. It is far and away the most valuable blockchain network, and BTC has held the highest market cap of any cryptocurrency for the past decade.
Bitcoin champions immutability, and has stood the test of time. It has been proven that influencing or attacking the network would be infeasible or impractical for any potential hackers. It is one of the only cryptocurrencies to bridge the mainstream chasm and gain immense public attention. Bitcoin is now a household name, and is being recognized by governments, large corporations, and legacy banking institutions. Lastly, Bitcoin has been cemented as a reliable store of value, and is the perfect infrastructure to plug into the proof-of-transfer consensus mechanism.
There are a multitude of reasons that Stacks chose Bitcoin as the blockchain to power consensus. It is the the one of the oldest blockchain protocols having launched in 2009, and has benefited from all the industry learnings that have occurred since that time. It is far and away the most valuable blockchain network, and BTC has held the highest market cap of any cryptocurrency for the past decade.
<imgwidth="629"alt="Screen Shot 2021-05-17 at 3 00 20 PM"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/10453432/118653476-90215800-b7b5-11eb-805a-cd76f213a84d.png">
Bitcoin champions immutability, and has stood the test of time. It has been proven that influencing or attacking the network would be infeasible or impractical for any potential hackers. It is one of the only cryptocurrencies to bridge the mainstream chasm and gain immense public attention. Bitcoin is now a household name, and is being recognized by governments, large corporations, and legacy banking institutions. Lastly, Bitcoin has been cemented as a reliable store of value, and is the perfect infrastructure to plug into the proof-of-transfer consensus mechanism.
<imgwidth="629"alt="Screen Shot 2021-05-17 at 3 00 20 PM"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/10453432/118653476-90215800-b7b5-11eb-805a-cd76f213a84d.png">
## Blocks and Microblocks
The Stacks blockchain allows for increased transaction throughput using a mechanism called microblocks. Bitcoin and Stacks progress in lockstep, and their blocks are confirmed simultaneously. On Stacks, this is referred to as an ‘anchor block’. An entire block of Stack transactions corresponds to a single Bitcoin transaction. This significantly improves cost/byte ratio for processing Stacks transactions. In doing so, the burn chain acts as a decentralized rate-limiter for creating Stacks blocks, thereby preventing denial-of-service attacks on its peer network.
However, in between Stacks anchor blocks settling on the Bitcoin blockchain, there are also a varying number of microblocks that enable drastically more transactions to be processed by orders of magnitude. This allows Stacks transaction throughput to scale independently of Bitcoin, while still periodically establishing finality with the Bitcoin chain. The Stacks blockchain adopts a block streaming model whereby each leader can adaptively select and package transactions into their block as they arrive in the mempool. Therefore when an anchor block is confirmed, all of the transactions in the parent microblock stream are packaged and processed. This is an unprecedented method for achieving scalability without creating a totally separate protocol from Bitcoin.
However, in between Stacks anchor blocks settling on the Bitcoin blockchain, there are also a varying number of microblocks that enable drastically more transactions to be processed by orders of magnitude. This allows Stacks transaction throughput to scale independently of Bitcoin, while still periodically establishing finality with the Bitcoin chain. The Stacks blockchain adopts a block streaming model whereby each leader can adaptively select and package transactions into their block as they arrive in the mempool. Therefore when an anchor block is confirmed, all of the transactions in the parent microblock stream are packaged and processed. This is an unprecedented method for achieving scalability without creating a totally separate protocol from Bitcoin.
<imgwidth="719"alt="Screen Shot 2021-05-17 at 3 00 34 PM"src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/10453432/118653666-c65ed780-b7b5-11eb-847f-66278121b5e5.png">
## Unlocking Bitcoin Capital
Stacks also unlocks the over $1+ Trillion in capital that exists in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and gives Bitcoiners new opportunities to use and earn BTC. Bitcoin invented the art of the “HODL”, and Bitcoiners are watching and waiting for interesting applications to be built that expand BTC’s usability. Stacks made the deliberate design decision to not create a totally independent network, and instead take advantage of the preexisting network effect of Bitcoin.
Stacks also unlocks the over $1+ Trillion in capital that exists in the Bitcoin ecosystem, and gives Bitcoiners new opportunities to use and earn BTC. Bitcoin invented the art of the “HODL”, and Bitcoiners are watching and waiting for interesting applications to be built that expand BTC’s usability. Stacks made the deliberate design decision to not create a totally independent network, and instead take advantage of the preexisting network effect of Bitcoin.
In this way, Stacks is an accessible accompaniment to the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the two networks working in tandem enables totally novel ways of using BTC. The dApp and DeFi ecosystem burgeoning on Stacks will encourage less active BTC addresses to begin experimenting with interactive applications of cryptocurrency. By locking up STX on the network and participating in the Stacking mechanism, users have the opportunity to earn a familiar, native currency like BTC while also enriching the Stacks protocol.
In this way, Stacks is an accessible accompaniment to the Bitcoin ecosystem, and the two networks working in tandem enables totally novel ways of using BTC. The dApp and DeFi ecosystem burgeoning on Stacks will encourage less active BTC addresses to begin experimenting with interactive applications of cryptocurrency. By locking up STX on the network and participating in the Stacking mechanism, users have the opportunity to earn a familiar, native currency like BTC while also enriching the Stacks protocol.
## Clarity and the Bitcoin State
Clarity smart contracts also have unique visibility into the state of the Bitcoin blockchain. This means that contract logic in a Clarity file has the ability to trigger when specific Bitcoin transactions have been confirmed. Clarity smart contracts have a built in Simple Payment Verification (SPV) proofs for Bitcoin that make interacting with Bitcoin’s state much simpler for developers. Additionally, Clarity contracts will potentially fork with the original Bitcoin chain. Therefore, in an edge case where Bitcoin forks, developers wouldn’t have to worry about adjusting the deployment of their smart contracts.
Clarity smart contracts also have unique visibility into the state of the Bitcoin blockchain. This means that contract logic in a Clarity file has the ability to trigger when specific Bitcoin transactions have been confirmed. Clarity smart contracts have a built in Simple Payment Verification (SPV) proofs for Bitcoin that make interacting with Bitcoin’s state much simpler for developers. Additionally, Clarity contracts will potentially fork with the original Bitcoin chain. Therefore, in an edge case where Bitcoin forks, developers wouldn’t have to worry about adjusting the deployment of their smart contracts.
Alexander Graebe
4 years ago
Patrick Gray