We're thrilled to announce that we are live on the Stacks layer and have been selected as part of the Stacks Foundation’s validator (signer) program. We're honoured to be a part of this project to shape the future of Bitcoin innovation.
The Nakamoto upgrade is a groundbreaking development for the Stacks layer. Stacks already enables smart contracts and dApps that are secured by Bitcoin. The Nakamoto upgrade not only dramatically increases the speed and throughput of the network, but also sets the stage for sBTC by bringing transactions to 100% Bitcoin finality. In other words, after this upgrade, transactions on the Stacks network will be as irreversible as Bitcoin’s. This finality is key to sBTC, which will enable ‘programmable Bitcoin’, by allowing the smooth movement of BTC between layers, allowing developers to build new cases for Bitcoin.
As a validator, Kiln plays a critical role in signing new blocks on the network and validating the deposit and withdrawal of sBTC when it launches. This means we actively contribute to the network's security and integrity, ensuring a smooth and reliable experience for users and developers alike.
What is Stacks?
Bitcoin is known as the leading cryptocurrency, renowned for its security and decentralization. However, its core protocol is limited when building complex applications. Stacks solves this by acting as a complementary layer 2 scaling solution.
Stacks leverages the security of the Bitcoin blockchain as its base layer, allowing developers to build smart contracts and decentralized applications on top of it. This opens the door to a whole new world of possibilities while keeping the core functionality of Bitcoin untouched.
Learn more through Stack's documentation.
Why has Kiln been selected as part of the Stacks Foundation’s validator program?
The Kiln team has been selected for its track record and technical excellence. As the leading enterprise-grade staking provider in the European market and the world's largest independent Ethereum node operator, with $7B assets staked through our technology, our team continuously looks for new innovations.
The Bitcoin staking space is one such area of innovation, which we have written a deep-dive on here.
'We are enthusiastic about our role as a signer for Stacks. By harnessing the power of the BTC network, Stacks enhances its programmability and utility for BTC holders. We are proud to be part of this innovative protocol and contribute to its success.'
— Ernest Oppetit, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Kiln.
If you are interested in stacking STX, Kiln offers a range of services designed to provide safe and reliable staking rewards for your assets. Contact our team to know more.
About Stacks
Stacks is a Bitcoin L2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to use Bitcoin as a secure base layer. The 2024 Nakamoto release will bring faster speeds as well as transactions that are as irreversible as Bitcoin’s once confirmed, setting the stage for a programmable Bitcoin asset called sBTC later in the year. Stacks is the current leading Bitcoin L2 by developer traction and market cap and is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $1T in passive capital as a fully programmable, productive asset. The Stacks (STX) token, used as gas on the L2, was the first to undergo an SEC-qualified sale in the United States. The project explicitly decentralized with the mainnet launch in 2021. In the Stacks ecosystem, there are currently 30+ contributing entities including a non-profit Stacks Foundation, a developer tooling company Hiro, Xverse, Trust Machines, Mechanism, Bitcoin L2 Labs, ALEX, Bitcoin Frontier Fund, and more.
About Kiln
Kiln is the leading enterprise-grade staking platform, enabling institutional customers to stake assets and whitelabel staking functionality in their offerings. Kiln runs validators on all major PoS blockchains, with over $8.6 billion in crypto assets being programmatically staked and running over 4% of the Ethereum network on a multi-client, multi-cloud, and multi-region infrastructure. Kiln also provides a validator-agnostic suite of products for fully automated deployment of validators and reporting and commission management, enabling custodians, wallets, and exchanges to streamline staking operations across providers. Kiln is SOC2 Type 2 certified.
