Blockstack Archives - Random.Musings

Stacks Ecosystem Map

September 4, 2021 No Comments

Stacks 2.0 went live on mainnet in January 2021, and in less than 9 months the Stacks Ecosystem has grown tremendously with diverse sets of communities aggregating across different niche areas. Developers from around the world started building on Stacks Protocol, secured by the Bitcoin Network, with applications from DeFi to Supply Chain Management, Art, Utility Tools and more.

I’m creating this post to document the growth of the Stacks Ecosystem, with quarterly Ecosystem Map updates, so stick around for the latest Stacks Ecosystem updates!

1st Version of Stacks Ecosystem Map, as of September 2021:

Blockchain, Blockstack, Stacks

Stacks Blockchain materials

February 20, 2021 No Comments

I’ve created some Stacks education materials that addresses some of the common questions that end users may ask when they first come across Stacks and/or using dApps built on Stacks blockchain. I’ve kept it in a very basic modular format, with the aim of allowing creators and developers to freely use them and build on top of it for their own need.

Each folder contains: Video with narration, Video without narration, Audio-only, Text only

Blockstack, Community, Proof of Transfer

A Beginner’s Guide to setting up a testnet STX miner

November 7, 2020 No Comments

If you’re a complete beginner, with the intention of setting up a testnet STX miner for the first time using a Windows PC, you’re at the right place. Follow these easy step-by-step walkthroughs to get your STX miner set up and running!

Before you begin, check that you have the necessary software installed on your PC:

Rust, Microsoft C++ Build Tools 2019(C++ build tools), Git , node.js, curl and Python

Tutorials that I’ve relied upon while writing this walkthrough

Blockstack – Running a Testnet node – direct link
Blockstack – Mine Stacks Token – direct link

Once you have all software installed, power up your command prompt and insert your first command:

git clone https://github.com/blockstack/stacks-blockchain.git

#This is to download stacks blockchain files on to your computer

Blockchain, Blockstack, Chainlink

Clarity Language x Chainlink Oracle

October 21, 2020 No Comments

Clarity x Chainlink Oracle integration

For non-technical folks like myself, the term smart contracts, oracles, data feeds and how they come together are like foreign languages, yet these are critical components for the developer communities.

The recent news release from Blockstack(soon to be known as Hiro Systems), highlighted the integration of Chainlink Oracle Technology with Stacks 2.0. In an attempt to learn more about Stacks Protocol, I’ll deep dive into the technical details, digest the information and roam the web for non-technical explanations. The write up below will be my attempt to have a concise explanation and break down of the technical terms and also explore what it means for Stacks ecosystem to have Chainlink oracles onboard.

Bitcoin, Blockstack, Community, Freehold

Freehold

October 10, 2020 No Comments

The release of the Bitcoin white paper by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008, gave rise to a new technology(Blockchain), and initiated a movement towards greater decentralization.

Bitcoin started off within a niche community of cryptographers and computer scientists, but gradually expanded across the globe to individuals from all walks of life. The beauty of decentralization is the inclusiveness that the community offers to everyone, where anyone who believes in the project is welcome to be part of it, through hodling(misspelling for hold) the token and/or contributing to the project in other ways.

Bitcoin, Blockstack, DeFi, Proof of Transfer

DeFi on the Bitcoin Network

October 8, 2020 8 Comments

What is DeFi?

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has been in the spotlight in recent months, with several DeFi projects gaining traction and their tokens soaring in prices have attracted a lot more attention. But what exactly is decentralized finance and what can it do that traditional finance couldn’t?

DeFi represents an ecosystem of financial applications that are built ontop of blockchain networks. Financial applications ranging from borrowing/lending, to owning fractional assets through tokenization and peer-to-peer transactions.

Blockstack, Proof of Transfer

A beginners guide to Proof-of-Transfer, Stacks blockchain and Stacking.

September 29, 2020 11 Comments

Bitcoin protocol, the world’s most secured blockchain network and the highest profile cryptocurrency(bitcoin) is where most people first learnt about blockchain technology. I’m certainly one of them, having stumbled upon bitcoin in 2016 and went down the rabbit hold to learn more about the mechanism powering the Bitcoin protocol. Blockchain technology which powers the Bitcoin protocol stretches across multiple domains such as cryptography, computer science, economics, finance and more. What makes the Bitcon protocol the most secured blockchain network is the underlying Proof-of-Work(PoW) consensus algorithm, which have the most nodes(miners) running the network in the industry. Miners compete against each other(by solving mathematical puzzles through computing power) to complete transactions on the Bitcoin network and be rewarded with bitcoin. The complexity of the puzzle increases as 1) users on the network increases, 2) increase in computing power as more miners decides to run the network, 3) and the increase in network load. The hash of each block contains the hash of the previous block, which increases security and prevents any block violation, thus the term blockchain. A quick look at Bitcoin protocol’s 2 main security metrics 1) Total Hashrate and 2) Network Difficulty, shows that they are at an all time high.