BITCOIN RAILS EPISODE #21: A brief history of @Stacks and the case for "Fee-Market Maximalism" with @trustmachinesco COO, @renapshah 🚄 It is undeniable that Stacks has played a unique and influential role in “Bitcoin Season II.” One of the earliest “Bitcoin DeFi” focused networks, Stacks arguably paved the way for much of the “Layer 2” conversation that’s so prevalent today - not to mention funding development of what quickly became the most widely-used Ordinals infrastructure in the world. Trust Machines COO Rena Shah and I sat down to talk about Stack’s special history in the Bitcoin DeFi and Ordinals spaces - and cover what is, in my opinion, the under-recognized role Stacks has played in the crypto-regulatory landscape, the development of Bitcoin scaling solutions, and the evolution of the Bitcoin-native assets space more broadly. In this episode, Rena & I discuss: -How Stacks pulled off the first regulated token sale in crypto history - and potential impacts of this for crypto-regulation going forward -How Stacks technically works at the consensus and staking levels - and the TLDR on Stack’s “Nakamoto upgrade” -Why Stacks “early adopted” Ordinals and how their infra set the stage for the Ordinals run of 2023 and beyond -The problem with HODLing… and why Bitcoin DeFi will ultimately be a key feature of Bitcoin’s security long-term As always, this episode can be viewed on Spotify or YouTube—full episode in the comments or linktree in my bio. This episode is powered by Best In Slot—the leading API for Ordinals and BRC20 data aggregation and indexing. TIMESTAMPS: 1:17 Stacks: an OG Bitcoin Layer 3:35 STX: The first regulated token sale 6:17 How STX proved itself to the SEC 9:55 Was STX needed to keep the Stacks ecosystem funded? 11:13 Stacks consensus explained 14:20 Stacks staking, mining, and “where the yield comes from” 15:25 Bitcoin finality with the Stacks Nakamoto upgrade 17:40 Stacks before the Ordinals era 19:35 What did Satoshi want from Bitcoin? 22:06 The crypto shift from “world computer” to “decentralized finance” 24:06 Bitcoin staking products with Stacks? 25:42 Stacks as the first ecosystem to embrace Ordinals 27:10 Rena’s inscriptions of her father’s voice notes 29:05 Stacks, XVerse, and bootstrapping Ordinals infrastructure 30:45 When did the Bitcoin L2 explosion start? 32:08 When did Stacks start calling itself a “Layer 2?” 33:29 What happens if there are so few L1 transactions? 35:50 Bitcoin fees should be higher! 37:39 Will Bitcoin become a medium of exchange? 40:10 Rena doesn’t like the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve 42:30 HODLers are not securing the Bitcoin network 44:00 Trust Machines: Building out the Bitcoin economy 45:36 From Blockstack to Stacks Foundation and Hiro 48:38 Who are the validators of the Stacks network? 51:52 Stacks has more devs than Bitcoin Core - with very few grants 55:42 Is crypto all collapsing back to Bitcoin? 57:00 Granite: Aave-style lending on Stacks 58:46 Aiming for a “trustless” Stacks layer with BitVM ›