Upbit (Korea) confirmed that their Stacks network upgrade is already complete! 127 Bitcoin blocks to go. What is this upgrade and why is it imp? A rambling post … There have been two major launches in the history of Stacks. The original mainnet launch in 2021 and Nakamoto in 2024. These resulted in peak STX market of $3 billion and $5 billion respectively. Both hit limitations and fell shy of reaching their full potential. The 2021 Stacks was slow and congested (running at Bitcoin speed of 10-40 mins), and the 2024 Nakamoto still relied on a trusted group of signers. $600M of BTC capital was deposited over it but scaling it to $60 billion+ in BTC capital requires removing trust assumptions. The Stacks devs, the Princeton-MIT trained scientists, have been quietly preparing a third shot at goal. So, what is the goal? Stacks has a simple North Star of being the layer/chain with the most Bitcoin deployed. We exist to enable a thriving on-chain Bitcoin economy and be the rails on which billions of people use Bitcoin. This third shot at goal has a name and a timeline. We call it the **Satoshi Upgrades**: a series of three upgrades between now and Bitcoin halving of 2028. It’s our best work yet. Like Elon’s early rockets at SpaceX which came close to getting into orbit but didn’t make it, but then Falcon 1 Flight 4 reached orbit and the rest is history. Stacks is the most under appreciated and misunderstood, highly ambitious moonshot project in the crypto industry. The recent Binance “risk monitoring tag” earns us that honor. We’ve built some of the best tech for a $2T asset, made design decisions optimizing for decades to come, and yet failed on telling our story to the world. For this, I am responsible. I’ve been largely away from X for two years (a) dealing with some family/personal stuff which is almost under control now, (b) giving the space to other leaders and Stacks eco to handle comms in a decentralized way. I’m back now. And I’ve realized that there is no better way to tell a story than the unfiltered version straight from the founder. I will be direct. I will be unfiltered and raw. I will tell you why I’ve spent a decade of my life working on Stacks. And why a modern rails like Stacks is what will make Bitcoin the undisputed freedom money of the world. I will lay out what Bitcoin was meant to be when I joined in 2013. What Satoshi and Bitcoin OGs wanted to accomplish and where we fell short over the years. This third shot at goal is our Falcon 1 Flight 4. We are 18-19 months away from the next Bitcoin halving. 18 months is typically the runway a startup needs to truly take off. We will start with Satoshi Upgrades I, bringing native self-custodial Bitcoin staking to market. BTC on BTC yield. The single largest lever to deploy billions of dollars of BTC into a Stacks product. It’s the top of the funnel. Self-custodial BTC staking is how we start the fire. The story becomes a lot more interesting after. I’ve rambled enough for today. If you’ve been a believer and supporter for so many years. First of all, thank you. Second, we will launch this dream into orbit this time, but I will need your support. Taking Bitcoin and Stacks to billions of people will need your help. You will need to amplify our story. Very few of us currently understand what Satoshi Upgrades are, why do they matter, what is happening in 127 Bitcoin blocks, and why should they care. Let’s celebrate our small wins in the core community for now. Tomorrow the work starts to bring Stacks to the mainstream. We’ll do this together! LFG 🚀

Stacks is now live on @FireblocksHQ. 2,400+ institutional clients can now reach Bitcoin DeFi directly: lending, trading, and BTC yield using the custody infrastructure they already trust.