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Mar 6 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
On Bitcoin rollups and the Stacks layer:
Rollups are an exciting development for scaling decentralized apps. On chains with full execution like Ethereum, the validity of rollups can be determined by the underlying L1.

Recent ‘sovereign rollups' only rely on underlying L1 for data availability (DA) and not consensus.
Rollkit (@RollkitDev) announced that they're releasing research tools to enable such sovereign rollups that benefit from Bitcoin L1 for DA. I'm excited about this development!

See this from @lightcoin:
With the Nakamoto release, the Stacks layer is similar to sovereign rollups with some important differences.

The technically challenging part for both the Stacks layer and sovereign rollups is moving BTC in and out of the layer.

The decentralized BTC peg is the most imp part.
Without modifying Bitcoin L1, an sBTC-like design with a decentralized open-membership group of signers is the most trust-minimized way to move BTC in and out. Details: stacks.co/sbtc.pdf

Until Bitcoin L1 can change, sBTC-like systems are the best you can do.
Both Stacks & SR can give you Bitcoin-grade reorg resistance. After Stacks Nakamoto, Bitcoin finality kicks in after 150 blocks (although it can be reduced) and with SR after 1 block.

Stacks allows short-term forks to keep MEV on Stacks and not have MEV battles at Bitcoin L1.
Stacks layer publishes only hashes at Bitcoin L1 every block instead of the full data. This enables data validity using Bitcoin L1 without putting too much data at Bitcoin L1. Sovereign rollups (SR) publish the full data, and the hope is that this data can be kept small.
Sovereign rollups & Stacks are complimentary. There is already some R&D work to use Stacks contracts as an execution layer for sovereign rollups. The trust-minimized sBTC can then be easily used in such sovereign rollups with DA coming from Bitcoin L1, e.g., by using Ordinals.
Devs doing experiments in Bitcoin is extremely healthy for Bitcoin! With enough usage, we can have more demand for Bitcoin L1 upgrades for validity rollups. If and when that happens, Stacks layer can upgrade to benefit from direct Bitcoin L1 security for moving BTC in and out.
More details on sovereign rollups and the Stacks layer here: github.com/stacks-network…

I'm excited to see more experimentation on Bitcoin layers. The revival of Bitcoin builders culture is gaining momentum!

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More from @muneeb

muneeb.btc Profile picture
Feb 20
A mega thread on Stacks, a Bitcoin L2. 

What is Stacks L2? Details and links👇
1/ Stacks is an open-source project started by a bunch of Bitcoin builders. The devs behind it have extensive experience in building apps & protocols on Bitcoin L1.

In 2017, after the block size wars, it was abundantly clear that the only way to scale transactions or new use… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
2/ Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 for smart contracts. It has a separate ledger to store data outside Bitcoin L1, and developers can build any app on it.

Whatever you can build on Ethereum, Solana, you can build on Stacks L2s.

Read the latest paper: stacks.co/stacks.pdf
Read 13 tweets
muneeb.btc Profile picture
Dec 14, 2022
NEW: we’re releasing two papers that enable trustless movement of BTC in/out of Bitcoin layers; unlocking the full potential of Bitcoin in DeFi & web apps.

A trustless two-way Bitcoin peg has been a holy grail problem for a decade.

More details👇
The papers are by 3 working groups (with some anonymous contributors!) and have no listed authors.

First paper proposes sBTC a trustless two-way Bitcoin peg. Think WBTC (Ethereum) or L-BTC (Liquid) but no custodian or federation!

Read the sBTC paper: stacks.co/sbtc.pdf
2nd paper proposes the Nakamoto release of Stacks layer that brings (a) Bitcoin finality, (b) fast speeds, and (c) a trustless Bitcoin peg to Stacks.

Stacks layer will do Bitcoin writes & tx will get secured by 100% of BTC hash power.

New Stacks paper: stacks.co/stacks.pdf
Read 5 tweets
muneeb.btc Profile picture
Jul 13, 2022
There are discussions in the Bitcoin community that “Ethereum is a security.” This theory is flawed; I say this as a Bitcoiner who holds no ETH.

People who believe this have likely not studied the state of the Ethereum network from a Howey Test lens.
1/ Ethereum may not be as decentralized as Bitcoin, but on the spectrum it is on the decentralized side vs. being run by a company.

You can shut down entities like the Ethereum Foundation or ConsenSys and the Ethereum network will continue to operate and function.
2/ Ethereum currently uses PoW, and the mining distribution is fairly similar to Bitcoin (with a longer tail of unique miners/pools).

PoS can have more centralizing forces (e.g., rich getting richer) than PoW, but that does not mean that after the PoS switch it’ll be a security.
Read 5 tweets
muneeb.btc Profile picture
Jun 10, 2022
Early thoughts on the web5 initiative by @jack and the TBD team.

You might think that it's “Ethereum on Bitcoin,” it’s not. In fact, there are no smart contracts at all and no new blockchains/sidechains. So what is it?
The web5 initiative has roots in the decentralized identifiers (DID) ideas that date back to the mid 2010s or earlier. I worked on similar ideas in 2015-2016 and learned several lessons.

(Anyone interested should search IIW archives for community discussions.)
The core idea revolves around a decentralized identifier (DID) which is a non-human readable identifier (think a really long hash). A DID is often saved at a blockchain, and this is where the Bitcoin blockchain comes in.

Only DIDs at Bitcoin layer.
Read 10 tweets
muneeb.btc Profile picture
Feb 3, 2022
Major news: we’ve raised $150M for a new entity to build the largest ecosystem of Bitcoin applications.

Bitcoin can be a productive asset and final settlement layer for web3 apps.

Say hello to Trust Machines: trustmachines.co/blog/hello-tru…
1/ I’m doubling down on Bitcoin and Stacks.

Recent success of Stacks has shown how powerful smart contracts for Bitcoin can be. There is a tremendous opportunity to use BTC as a trillion dollar productive asset and grow the Bitcoin economy. We’ve barely scratched the surface.
2/ Along with JP Singh, a Princeton CS Professor, I’ve started Trust Machines to unlock the next chapter of Bitcoin apps.

Building upon the success of Stacks, Trust Machines will build the apps and underlying tech to unleash the true potential of Bitcoin as a settlement layer.
Read 9 tweets
muneeb.btc Profile picture
Feb 1, 2022
Bitcoin folks can have two reactions to BTC vs. ETH gas fees comparison:

a) Keep denying that ETH is gaining more users and developers, OR

b) Grow the Bitcoin apps economy.

I’m in camp (b) with @Stacks. Image
Gas fee is a measure of how valuable block space is. I believe that Bitcoin is the best settlement layer and, therefore, will be the most valuable block space.

However, currently, the economy of apps using Bitcoin for final settlement is relatively small right now.
Gas fees are extremely important for the long-term security of the Bitcoin network as coinbase rewards keep decreasing in the coming years.

A thriving economy of apps that lead to settlements and direct transactions can offset the reduction in mining rewards.
Read 4 tweets

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