The Stacks (STX) network, a layer-2 solution for Bitcoin, has initiated its highly anticipated Nakamoto upgrade, marking a major milestone for the platform. This upgrade, which began on Wednesday, promises to significantly enhance the network’s transaction speeds and overhaul its underlying architecture.
A key feature of the upgrade is the separation of Stacks’ block production from the Bitcoin blockchain. This critical change is expected to increase block production speed by an impressive 120 times, reducing transaction confirmation times from Bitcoin’s usual 10 minutes to just seconds.
In addition to speed improvements, the upgrade lays the groundwork for the introduction of sBTC, a “programmable Bitcoin asset.” This new asset will allow users to bridge their Bitcoin to the Stacks network in a relatively decentralized manner, potentially unlocking a range of new applications and use cases.
Looking forward, the Stacks Foundation has outlined several key objectives for the network’s development. These include promoting the adoption of sBTC, enhancing interoperability with other blockchains, and supporting the growth of decentralized applications on the upgraded platform. The foundation also plans to explore research on BitVM, a computational framework that has renewed interest in Bitcoin-based innovation.
Despite these technological strides, the market reacted negatively to the news, with the price of STX, the native token of Stacks, dropping nearly 11% within 24 hours of the announcement. STX is currently trading at $1.60, giving back most of the gains it had made over the past week.
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