Bitcoin’s layer 2 “Stacks” is doing well | coindesk JAPAN | Coindesk Japan

Stacks (STX) — the native token of the Stacks Network — saw its price rise in March amid the Bitcoin Ordinals boom, which enables Bitcoin NFTs, and the protocol’s Total Value Locked (TVL) growth. rose. The project will also be upgraded this year to increase speed and scalability.

STX, the first-ever U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-sanctioned token offering in 2019, surged 23% in March to a one-year high of $1.25. The pace of its rise slowed towards the end of March, but it still rose 350% in the past three months, with a market capitalization of $1.5 billion (approximately 195 billion yen, equivalent to 130 yen to the dollar).

Among crypto assets with a market capitalization of more than $1 billion, STX was the No. 2 performer in March, behind XRP, according to Messari data.

Stacks is a Layer 2 protocol for smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain that aims to extend Bitcoin’s functionality from a well-known “payment system” to a more versatile programmable platform. there is

Both price and TVL increase

STX started its rally last month amid growing interest in Ordinal’s Bitcoin NFT. Stax has NFT issuance capabilities, and according to co-founder Muneeb Ali, users have already issued 650,000 bitcoin NFTs on Stax.

TVL has also risen in recent months, rising from $8 million in February to $35 million in mid-March (now down to $25 million), according to DeFiLlama data.

Stax TVL
Source: DeFiLlama

“Stax’s momentum is undoubtedly thanks to Ordinals, but it will sustain itself if the developers stay where they are,” DeFi analyst Michael Nadeau said. “We need projects like this for Bitcoin to survive in the long term,” he continued.

Stacks has a ledger for storing data outside of Bitcoin’s Layer 1, allowing apps to be developed on the platform, much like Ethereum and Solana.

Stax aims to make Bitcoin more programmable. Programmability is a feature often associated with blockchains such as the Ethereum and Solana blockchains, where the majority of DeFi transactions currently occur.

Plan to upgrade

Stax’s Ali said the recent surge in interest in the STX may be partly due to expectations for the upcoming upgrade “Nakamoto” this year.

Market capitalization of STX
Source: CoinMarketCap

According to Ali, the upgrade will allow users to access smart contracts entirely on the Layer 2 chain, allowing Layer 2 transactions to be exchanged in Bitcoin (BTC) while being secured by the Bitcoin network. become able to.

Unlike Ethereum and Aritrum, currently users cannot easily transfer BTC to Stax, Ali said. That is its greatest weakness.

The upgrade will increase the liquidity and capacity of the network.

Ali added that unlike many other blockchains that require high-performance hardware to run nodes, with Stacks users can use less powerful hardware such as a Raspberry Pi or a regular laptop. ware can also run a node, he said.

So unlike Solana and ICP, Stax doesn’t need a data center to run its nodes. Data centers are typically used to run high-performance hardware.

positive report

“Despite the constraints of building a crypto economy on the Bitcoin blockchain, Stax sees a ‘tremendous opportunity,’” said NorthRock Digital, a hedge fund that invests in crypto assets, in a report. … because the crypto economy currently being built on the Bitcoin blockchain is relatively small.”

Northrock has identified three major Layer 2 networks on the Bitcoin blockchain: Lightning, RSK, and Stax.

Each “have complementary and different goals, but Stax is the most advanced of the three when it comes to developing an ecosystem for traditional cryptocurrency applications (NFT, DeFi, name services, etc.).”

Northrock also noted that the next Bitcoin halving is likely to be positive for Stax. “The halving cuts Bitcoin’s security budget and further increases the need to build a much larger fee pool through a more productive Bitcoin ecosystem. will be strong,” he said.

｜Translation and editing: Akiko Yamaguchi, Takayuki Masuda
｜Image: Shutterstock
｜Original: Bitcoin Layer 2 Stacks’ Token a Top Performer in March