What is Stacks?
If you have wandered around to this page, you might be wondering about what Stacks actually is. Is it a company, is it a currency, what’s the difference between Stacks and Stacks Pakistan; so many brimming questions, so let’s clear it out today!
It was back in 2014 when Dr. Muneeb Ali and Ryan Shea met at Princeton University and began this project, which then went on to become the basis of Blockstacks. In 2017 Dr. Muneeb finished his Ph.D. thesis on Blockstacks, and in the same year, it became a Public Beneficiary Corporation as well. In 2018, Stacks 1.0 blockchain testnet and Stacks 1.0 wallet was finally released. In 2020 Blockstack PBC became Hiro Systems PBC, with the primary focus of the company narrowing down to providing developers the tools they need to build this new internet on Bitcoin. Clarity, the language for building smart contracts, was developed with the same intent. And finally, in 2021, Stacks 2.0 was released.
Stacks is an ecosystem, but more specifically it’s an open-source network of decentralized apps and smart contracts built on Bitcoin, with the main aim of building a user-owned internet. It houses many companies, services and so much more all related to blockchain. The latest map to document the growth of the Stacks ecosystem was released and it can be seen below.
Stacks Pakistan is another part of the huge Stacks ecosystem. To be more precise, it is a part of the Stacks Chapter. This chapter was one of the firsts to start and it has been expanding ever since. Run by a community that includes dedicated and passionate university students, Stacks Pakistan has been working tirelessly to impart to people, especially students, the knowledge and skills required for the study of Blockchain.
As of now, Stacks Pakistan has hosted 2 hackathons and a conference on Blockchain, XPLORE 1.0. Apart from these events, in order to equip students with skills to work with the Blockchain technology themselves and build smart contracts, they held a Summer school and had a Clarity Cohort. By making use of these amazing opportunities, many students managed to land internships at amazing tech companies.
In a short amount of time, Stacks Pakistan has managed to make a huge impact. We have selected 44 student Ambassadors and carried out 13 campaigns. Currently, we deal in 7 cities of Pakistan and have reached out to 22 universities. We have had more than 15 industry partners as of now and only plan on growing from here. Through our Clarity Bootcamp, we have managed to produce 16 Clarity developers, of which a few have started producing Smart Contracts. Not only this but in a span of a few months, Stacks Pakistan’s dedicated Core team has managed to gather a following of over 3K+ audience on all their social media platforms.
Stacks aims to decentralize the internet, and Stacks Pakistan is playing its part as a part of the Stacks chapter to help Stacks expand its aim and mission in Pakistan. We eagerly await the day where Pakistan comes to the forefront of this technology and can help in the development of a user-owned internet. Join hands with us today and let’s change the world for the better!
