Stacks, formerly Blockstack, is a blockchain platform for smart contracts, decentralized finance ("DeFi"), NFTs, and decentralized apps ("DApps"). Stacks blockchain is a layer for bitcoin similar to the Lightning Network.
Design
Concerns around internet privacy, security, and data breaches brought attention to the Stacks project. Software developers have used the Stacks software to build decentralized alternatives to popular services. Stacks (STX) token is the native cryptocurrency of the Stacks blockchain, which is used as gas fee for executing smart contracts and processing transactions.
History
Stacks project was originally started by Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea as Blockstack. STX became the first SEC qualified token offering in 2019. Blockstack PBC, a company working on the Stacks technology, raised around $75 million through a mix of venture capital and token sales. The main Stacks blockchain launched in Jan 2021.
Applications
Blockchain Naming System (BNS) The Blockchain Naming System is an application used to register human-readable, globally unique names with accounts on the Stacks blockchain. A BNS name consists of a namespace, the name and optionally a subdomain. Examples are muneeb.id, muneeb.btc and muneeb.id.blockstack.
CityCoins
In 2021, the CityCoins project launched fungible tokens for the cities of Miami and New York City. In September 2021, Miami's city commissioners voted to accept the protocol treasury, valued at $21 million at the time. MiamiCoin's value crashed, and so Stacks donated $5.25M to the City of Miami.
As of March 2023, Bloomberg was reporting that CityCoin was facing a "quiet demise" as liquidity issues and a lack of interest caused both the New York City and Miami coins to be delisted from the OkCoin cryptocurrency exchange.