Muneeb from Stacks says that Bitcoin ecosystem development is lacking.
https://twitter.com/muneeb/status/1631672600085577729
Obviously this contrasts with the fact that, during the recent episode of Bitcoin Review with NVK and others, they had to go long for the episode and also had to cut out a lot of content due to too much bitcoin ecosystem development happening to cover it all. And with my work at ego death capital, we have no shortage of new bitcoin development to invest in; it's merely a matter of prioritization.
I met Muneeb at Princeton back in November when Princeton launched their new center for decentralized tech and power, which does have some serious bitcoiners in the mix amid the altcoin noise. And I might meet these folks again in upcoming Princeton events, since I'm based near them in NJ and want to keep a bitcoiner perspective there. They have some good people involved.
If you had questions or discussion points for Muneeb, what would you ask or bring up (kindly)?
My impression is that the Stacks ecosystem is too focused on financialization platforms, similar to the altcoin ecosystems. It's all about financial leveraging, NFTs, etc. In other words, rails on which fiat currency operates. Whereas there is massive development in bitcoin being better money at the root layer, which doesn't necessarily vibe with their ecosystem. Throwing shade at that, or ignoring that, seems disingenuous.
For me, the best development is about wallets, infrastructure, and protocols that make bitcoin easier to use as global root layer money from a payments and savings perspective, and more censorship-resistant in general. Often, it's the small details that matter. This includes lightning, nostr, fedimint, certain sidechains, etc. Anything else is secondary.
Spent weeks studying the Stacks code base.
I wouldn’t put any money in there.
Tbf that’s not different from most projects I study — I hunt and report bugs for a living so I tend to focus on things that I think have issues or are broken.
On the other hand there’s basically no money in hunting bugs in most Bitcoin projects — yet there are few hacks or serious vulnerabilities. I spent a long time on the Bitcoin Core code base and a some early LN code few years ago and I’m still betting on these.
I never put money on stuff I’m actively investigating for bugs. I think it can cloud your judgement as you might start hoping not to find anything.
Never thought of getting any BTC before I had spent months studying the code, and gave up ever finding vulnerabilities there.
Many researchers take the opposite approach and focus on stuff the are invested in, as protecting their own stash can be a motivation.
I think that’s a bad idea.
