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- sBTC Developer Release is Here
Gm Bitcoiners,
Hello from London! This week, I’m excited to share that the sBTC Developer Release has been deployed on Stacks devnet. This week’s issue will go over the main things you need to know to get up to speed on this milestone.
💻 What is the sBTC Developer Release?
The sBTC Developer Release is a minimum-viable testnet deployment of sBTC. It will allow the sBTC working group to test deposits and withdrawals, without the complexity of a decentralized set of signers. Instead, this release uses a central coordinator, which has two primary functions: (1) mint and burn sBTC (2) fulfill peg-out requests.
👩💻 Who is this release for?
As its named, this release is primarily for Bitcoin developers to begin building applications that will utilize sBTC. Over the past few weeks, the testing group has onboarded 150 qualified developers for the testing program. We’re seeking contributors to help catch bugs and provide invaluable feedback to the working group.
🔎 What is included in this release?
End-to-end deposit and withdrawal flows
SDK and CLI to interact with the protocol
Bridge API and Web Application
To get started, here is a tutorial of a demo application that uses the Bridge API. Kudos to Kenny Rogers for creating this overview guide! For more detailed documentation, check out this developer guide.
-Andre
Tweets of the Week
Copper becomes the first major custodian and digital asset infrastructure provider to signal their intent to support the expected Nakamoto and sBTC upgrades. Their announcement is a must-read for any Bitcoin builder (especially those of you keen on sBTC) and covers their integration with the Stacks, bringing Stacking, custody, and SIP-010 support to the network.
We’re thrilled to announce our integration with @Stacks – the leading Bitcoin layer for dApps and smart contracts.
This integration allows institutional clients to safely custody, trade, and leverage Stacking with all existing and future SIP-010 tokens on the Stacks blockchain.… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— Copper.co (@CopperHQ)
4:18 PM • Oct 18, 2023
(Shameless plug) The Bitcoin Layer 2 thesis is gaining speed. This is one of the most exciting things to be working on in the industry and I’ve summarized a few of my thoughts on the opportunity below.
The Bitcoin Layer 2 Thesis
1. Bitcoin is the most reliable, secure foundation to build decentralized applications. At $500B market cap, it is also a large and mostly untapped market.
2. Institutional adoption will result in significant capital inflows to BTC. As Bitcoin ETFs… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— andre.btc (@andrerserrano)
8:15 PM • Oct 11, 2023
The BitVM whitepaper got a lot of coverage last week and it has the potential to bring more expressivity to Bitcoin. Check out this take from Muneeb on how it impacts Stacks. (Hint: it’s a good thing)
How does BitVM impact Stacks? BitVM can contribute to growing the market size of Bitcoin DeFi and apps. We're not in a zero-sum game but a positive-sum game. Ethereum L2s are already a $50-$60B market, whereas Bitcoin L2s and related projects are barely a $1-$2B market (depending… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
— muneeb.btc (@muneeb)
3:35 PM • Oct 13, 2023
Bitcoin Unleashed London - Day 2
Day 2 of Bitcoin Unleashed is here. Doors open at 9am and programming will run from 10am - 2:30pm. For those not able to attend in person, check out the full livestream.
If you see me around, be sure to let me know what you would like to see built on sBTC 💪