Stacks, a popular Bitcoin Layer 2, has released its Nakamoto upgrade. The network saw considerable gains after the update, which went live on October 29. The improvement reduces block time from 10 minutes to 5-10 seconds.
This Nakamoto upgrade also provides "Bitcoin Finality," which makes Stacks transactions irreversible like those on the Bitcoin blockchain. This assures that stacks can no longer fork independently. Nakamoto establishes the foundation for sBTC, a non-custodial BTC-backed token. sBTC will start in 4-6 weeks, with growth incentives. It will let users convert BTC value to Stacks for use in smart contracts. Despite the upgrade, the STX price dropped 4.7% in 24 hours.
Stacks is fighting for a spot in the competitive Bitcoin L2 ecosystem. It currently ranks third, with $220.2 million TVL and a 12.25% market share. Core leads with $585.4 million, followed by Bitlayer with $285.8 million.
Unlike its EVM-compatible competitors, Stacks leverages Clarity for smart contracts. This novel technique creates issues for code portability. Muneeb Ali, Stacks' co-creator, wants to explore connections with non-EVM blockchains such as Solana, Aptos, and Near Protocol.
