How to become part of the process determining which initiatives get funded
In effort to make the Grants Program funding process more decentralized, we need the help of the Stacks community to indicate which Grants will help grow the Stacks ecosystem.

How to indicate that a Grant is helpful for the whole community?
1️⃣ Like (add a 👍 emoji) & comment beneath Grant requests to indicate your interest in the initiative.
2️⃣ Click watch (👁 logo) on the Github Issue board where all new Grants will be posted.

When reviewing Grants, ask yourself: Does this Grant
❓ Accelerate a broader adoption of Stacks technology?
❓ Unlock immediate and widespread value for the Stacks community?
❓ Yield new & novel: code, technology, and/or culture on Stacks?
❓ Have a crystal-clear scope, objective, and audience?
❓ Have a crystal-clear and measurable (and verifiable) definition of success?

View the issue board to start reviewing Grants 👇

Bitcoin Layers Vs Stacks
Stacks is connected in more ways than any other Bitcoin layer 👀

Watch Stacks Founder Muneeb Ali break down the differences between Bitcoin layers, together with Gina Ambrams here 👇

Builders Spotlight: Trajan 💡
Trajan, a reputation and identity platform that’s key infrastructure for the Stacks community and Web 3.0 networks.

When Ragnar became increasingly frustrated with sites like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, he started brainstorming how professional representation could be different on Web3.

Read the full interview with Ragnar Lifthrasir 👇

🎉 Hiro Wallet users in the US can now purchase STX from Coinbase directly from our web app.
🌍 Purchases are currently limited to the United States with international support coming soon.

Enter the amount of STX to purchase and your payment details. Once purchased, the STX will arrive directly in your Hiro Wallet account for usage with the Stacks app of your choice, such as buying an NFT or investing in a DeFi protocol.

Read the full thread tutorial on how to buy $STX with this new integration 👇

A look inside Gamma's creator portal empowering NFT creators 🚀
Gamma aims to become the home for the world’s Web3 social identity, centered around NFTs. In the following article, Co-Founder of Gamma Nick Sainato will walk you through Gamma's creator launchpad, the Create Portal, which allows artists and creatives to launch NFT collections and support NFT-gated communities.

Read more 👇

The Stacks & Bitcoin Miners Relationship 🤝

"The same people that would argue that Stacks is not a Bitcoin layer, would also argue that Bitcoin miners can impact Stacks' consensus. Both of those things can't be true" - Muneeb Ali, Stacks Founder

Watch Muneeb Ali explain the relationship 👇

Stacks Improvement Proposal Community Call
The SIP Community Call is a friendly space to review recent SIP activity, share your SIP ideas with the community, and engage with the folks evaluating SIPs (e.g. consideration advisory boards, steering committee, etc).

📆 Happening today: 11 AM EST

Set a weekly reminder to your agenda 👈
Re-watch all Stacks Improvement Proposal Community calls on YouTube 👇

Defending the Freedom of Bitcoin Open Source Development ✊
In three weeks, pseudonymous Bitcoiner hodlonaut will take the stand in Oslo, Norway to defend his allegations that Australian computer scientist Craig Wright is not Satoshi. You can read a full timeline of the situation here.

Hiro Supporting Open-source Bitcoin
Although you might not expect it, this case directly impacts Bitcoin open source development. Hiro strongly believes in defending open-source Bitcoin contributors’ work related to Bitcoin, which is why Hiro is donating to the OpenSats Legal Defense Fund. Read more 👈

🚨 Grants Application: Closing 🚨

📅 Cohort 18 Grant application phase will close today (on the 11th of September).
All Grant applications submitted post September 11 will automatically be submitted for the Cohort 19 review phase (Starting October 23)

🗳 Cohort 18 review starts: 09/12
✅ Cohort 18 final decision: 09/30

Apply for a Grant ⤵️
1️⃣ Visit ➡️ https://github.com/stacksgov/Stacks-Grant-Launchpad
2️⃣ Apply ➡️ https://grants.stacks.org/

Do you want to create your own NFT project? 🤔
Gamma is excited to introduce their first series of Gamma How to Videos 📺

Watch the tutorial videos & let Gamma know which videos they should make next 👇

🚨 Grants Application Cohort 18: Closed 🚨

📅 Cohort 18 Grant application phase has officially closed (deadline: 11th of September). All Grant applications submitted post September 11 will automatically be submitted for the Cohort 19 review phase (Starting October 23*)

Cohort 18
🚫 Applications Close: September 11
👁 Review Phase: September 12
✅ Final Decision: September 30

Cohort 19
📥 Applications Open: September 11*
👁 Review Phase: October 22*
✅ Final Decision: November 11*
(*exact dates subject to change)

Apply for a Grant ⤵️
1️⃣ Visit ➡️ https://github.com/stacksgov/Stacks-Grant-Launchpad
2️⃣ Apply ➡️ https://grants.stacks.org/

ICYMI: Stacks Integrates with QuickNode, Scaling Nodes for Devs 🚀
QuickNode, the leading Web3 cloud platform for building blockchain-powered applications, has announced beta support for Stacks. QuickNode makes it easier to build blockchain applications that scale and offers a variety of tools including elastic APIs, analytics, and SDKs.

Read more 👇

📰 Stacks Unleashing Bitcoin Newsletter - August 2022
There’s so much going on in the world of Stacks that we couldn’t wait for the next quarterly update. Read about ⬇️
⭐️ An updated look at Stacks 2.1
⭐️ Subnets and a developer survey from Hiro
⭐️ Builder spotlights
⭐️ An update from the world of NFTs
⭐️ Upcoming events

The Stacks community is full of inspiring projects and ideas so we hope this update pumps you up as much as it did us 🚀

Read the newsletter 👇

🗣📢 How you can help indicate which Stacks Grants submissions should be approved 👇

✍️ Comment feedback beneath applications ➡️ Whether you think the application is valuable and want to give your approval, or you think there is room for improvement, don’t hesitate to leave a comment beneath the application.

👍 “Like” Grants that you think are valuable to the Stacks community ➡️ Liking Grants can help indicate how many people in the Stacks community will use the final deliverable of the requested grant.

👁 Add GitHub page to your watchlist ➡️ stay up-to-date with new, approved and completed Grants by adding the GitHub page to your GitHub watchlist 👇

The Weekly Stack: Gamma's NFT newsletter 🗞
The NFT community on Stacks continues to build 🏗

Back to School
It’s back to school season, and CityPacks is helping Miami-Dade County students secure school supplies. For the month of September, all CityPack proceeds will go towards helping children stock up for a successful school year.

A Deep Dive into Gamma’s Create Portal…
Gamma's creator launchpad makes it possible for artists and non-technical creators to deploy a custom NFT smart contract in less than five minutes for less than $1.

Read more 👇

Deepcoin recently announced that #STX/USDT is now available on their platform! ☄️

ℹ️ Deepcoin is a global cryptocurrency derivative trading platform, supporting leveraged trading with Perpetual and CFD contracts

Why Choose Deepcoin?
❇️Strong, Independent R&D Capabilities
❇️Top Security
❇️Fortified Risk Control Systems
❇️Global Innovative Team
❇️24/7 Multi-lingual Support

Trade today!⬇️
https://s.deepcoin.info/s8ckta6

🔉 Why Investors Are Looking to Bitcoin DeFi?
Xverse released their latest Own Your Crypto podcast episode with ALEX founder Chiente Hsu 🚀

"Bitcoin Doesn't need DeFi, but we truly believe that DeFi does need Bitcoin. Bitcoin existed years before DeFi emerged and Bitcoin will remain if DeFi ever disappears. DeFi does need Bitcoin, why? Because without the security and immutability unique to Bitcoin, DeFi will never achieve mass adoption." - Chiente Hsu

Listen to the full episode 👇

ICYMI: Megapont Newsletter 🦧
The leading NFT project on Stacks released their newsletter 🚀

⭐️ Megapont has been working on a new and much-improved website that will be more informative and provide a better user experience.
⭐️ MSA is releasing on October 26th, the day of the one-year anniversary of Megapont on Stacks.
⭐️ The Kong Fu NFT experience is now set to release in November.

Read more 👇

Join us for networking drinks during Messari Mainnet in NYC. 🤝

There's still time to grab your tickets! Use code STACKER and get 50% off 🈹

We can't wait to see you there! 👋

Get your tickets here 👇
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/building-on-btc-party-tickets-411647377387

Don't forget; tomorrow, we'll have Stacks NYC Chapter Workshop at EmpireDAO 🗽

In this meetup, the conversation will focus on the following topics:
🌟 Clarity Smart Contract Language & Stacks Updates
🌟 Hiro Developer Tooling Overview
🌟 Clarinet Updates & more!

RSVP is required, and attendance will be based on a first-come, first-served basis as limited space will be available due to capacity❗

Register below 🔽
https://www.meetup.com/stacks-newyork/events/288060985/