Union Square Ventures, a top US fund that was an early investor in Twitter, Coinbase, Twilio etc, just published their thesis for Stacks 2.0. It discusses how building smart contracts and apps on Bitcoin can be a model for future growth. USV said that "we are excited to support the launch of Stacks 2.0 through participating in the consensus algorithm." Full post: https://twitter.com/albertwenger/status/1339262016276541445?s=20

JUST IN: Blockstack PBC has officially changed its name to Hiro Systems PBC, marking an important milestone on the Stacks ecosystem’s road to decentralization.

Plans to change PBC’s name were originally announced in October, after the Stacks ecosystem branding was released.

Since then, PBC’s work on the Stacks 2.0 public infrastructure has been winding down—clearing the way for Hiro to pursue a narrowed focus on providing developer tools for the Stacks blockchain, and more broadly, the user-owned internet on Bitcoin.

https://twitter.com/blockstack/status/1341401526783373321

Exciting news for the global Stacks community: A Stacks Chapter has launched in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region!

Stacks MENA will be led by Mohamed Abdou (CEO & Founder of Pravica) and the Pravica team, all long-time app developers and community leaders within the Stacks ecosystem.

Their initial focus will be on expanding education and awareness throughout the region by educating youths, developers, start-ups and enterprises through a variety of activities including partnerships, entrepreneurial events, summits, hackathons, and other activities.

https://twitter.com/blockstack/status/1341410668428161024

We’re excited to welcome a new Asia-based Stacks entity: Secret Key Labs.

For their first launch, Secret Key Labs will be releasing a mobile STX wallet that enables users to transact STX, sign smart contract transactions from other apps, and participate in delegated stacking.

Founded by long-time Blockstack engineer, Ken Liao, Secret Key Labs will focus on mobile and desktop app solutions that enable authentication, transactions, and management of digital assets on Stacks 2.0.

https://twitter.com/blockstack/status/1341422967780036610

We're just 15 days away from mainnet! Read Diwaker's post, "Path to Stacks 2.0 Mainnet" to find out what to expect between now and January 14th.
https://twitter.com/muneeb/status/1344374557327687681

The full schedule for the Stacks 2.0 mainnet launch event has just been published and it's 🔥.

Register now: https://stacks2.com/register

We're thrilled to be around the corner from mainnet launch, but this is just the start of the journey. To that end, there are a few things we want early adopters of Stacks to keep in mind when upgrading to the 2.0 network, and we've outlined those areas below. Please see the brief summary in the blog noted here and jump to any specific topic for further details:
https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1347667712193998853

Stacks 2.0 activation reached miner threshold this morning. We're 572 Bitcoin blocks away from launch, the count down has started putting launch at Thur Jan 14th approx noon. See details: https://twitter.com/muneeb/status/1347926807765516289?s=20

As we detailed on January 9th, Stacks 2.0 reached miner activation. It is now estimated that the full blockchain state from Stacks 1.0 will automatically transfer to Stacks 2.0 sometime on Wednesday, January 13th (Eastern Time). Read the full launch details: https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1348632680179634178

UPDATE: An earlier version of the launch details post included a block timeline that was putting the launch earlier than Thur Jan 14th given faster than expected Bitcoin blocks. The block heights were adjusted to stick with the expected Thur Jan 14th launch and to allow more time for Stacks 1.0 transactions to come through, given the timelines we had projected earlier.
https://blog.stacks.co/stacks-2-launch-details

After 2+ years of development and ~8 months of testing, the Stacks 2.0 mainnet is scheduled go live later this week! The high-level launch process is similar to what was first proposed back in November and we shared a more granular plan two weeks ago. Read further details on the forum post linked here: https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1348729461127184386

Stacks 1.0 has stopped processing further transactions. All state, including accounts and balances, will be automatically included in the Stacks 2.0 genesis block.

For those wondering about exchanges and custody providers, please note that all existing STX holdings, whether on an exchange or otherwise, will convert from Stacks 1.0 to Stacks 2.0 once the Stacks 2.0 mainnet goes live. Binance and KuCoin have recently signaled their support for the Stacks 2.0 upgrade, but users with STX on other exchanges or custody providers should refer to updates from those respective exchanges and custody providers on how the network upgrade might impact them (if at all).

For what to expect on the Stacks side, please go through the guide linked here: https://twitter.com/muneeb/status/1349051291520151552?s=20

🛠 Hiro and Skynet of SiaTechHQ are teaming up on a bounty to support collaboration between the Stacks and Skynet protocols.

💰 Money bag $2,000 will be rewarded to the best tutorial that integrates Skynet with Clarity smart contracts.

✅ Check out the bounty: https://blog.stacks.co/stacks-plus-skynet#bounty

💥 JUST IN: Blockdaemon to support Stacks on road to Stacks 2.0 Mainnet.

More details here: https://blockdaemon.com/blog/blockdaemon-supports-stacks-on-road-to-stacks-2-0-mainnet/

JUST IN: Stacks 2.0 is bringing Ethereum-like features to the Bitcoin network. Here's how they plan on doing it.

https://twitter.com/Cointelegraph/status/1349746479611609088

Today, we’re thrilled to announce that Wrapped.com, a collaboration between industry stalwarts Tokensoft and Anchorage, and specialists in wrapped crypto assets, will soon offer wrapped bitcoin on Stacks, or ‘xBTC’. Wrapped bitcoin on Stacks is a huge step toward native DeFi on Bitcoin and because the Stacks 2.0 blockchain settles to Bitcoin in shared consensus already, xBTC will be the first wrapped asset actually backed by Bitcoin.

https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1349781554185306113

Another major player joins the Stacks Ecosystem as Foundry Digital LLC commits to providing STX Mining services with the launch of Stacks 2.0. Foundry, a Digital Currency Group subsidiary, is a leader in the world of Bitcoin mining and will bring expertise and capital to the Stacks ecosystem.

https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1349784920785362947

JUST IN: The mainnet build of Stacks 2.0 is now up and running! 🎉 🚀

https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1349793980465217537

Once a passing thought about decentralized naming by Satoshi, the possibility of a separate blockchain that shares CPU with Bitcoin has been realized with today’s launch of Stacks 2.0. This quote is now saved in the Stacks 2.0 genesis block forever!

https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1349795770598383616

Hiro PBC and Skynet Labs are teaming up to support more bridges between the Stacks and Skynet protocols. Together, they’ll be sponsoring a bounty for the best tutorial educating developers on how to use Skynet to create pointers in Clarity smart contracts to data that is too large to store on-chain.

https://twitter.com/Stacks/status/1349820006247366673