New York, New York, October 22nd, 2024,
Chainwire
Today, the Stacks Foundation announced that leading security
firm Asymmetric Research has joined the Stacks
ecosystem as a security contributor to the leading Bitcoin L2. The
team is already making significant contributions to the ecosystem,
acting as an embedded security team during their audit of the
upcoming sBTC asset and joining the Stacks signer network
through our delegation program.
Asymmetric has a proven track record of securing some of the
industry's most prominent protocols. It is the security partner for
leading bridge Wormhole, Jump Crypto, several top DeFi projects,
and leading protocols such as Solana, Cosmos, Berachain, and
others. Asymmetric is also a core contributor to Solana’s highly
anticipated new validator client, Firedancer.
Signers play a critical role in the Stacks network, securing the
deposit and withdrawal process between BTC and sBTC, ensuring a
seamless and secure transfer of BTC to the Bitcoin L2 ecosystem.
Asymmetric will join other industry leaders in supporting the
network and overall security of sBTC, including BitGo, Blockdaemon,
Copper, Figment, Kiln, Luganodes, Chorus One, and more than 30
other institutional node operators, making the Stacks Signer
network the most robust in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
The release of sBTC, expected in Q4 of this year, will offer
developers a trust-minimized, decentralized, programmable Bitcoin
asset. The asset is 1:1 Bitcoin-backed and will allow developers to
leverage the security, network effects, and 1.2T in latent capital
of the Bitcoin network. Among other use cases, sBTC will enable
more secure forms of Bitcoin DeFi which is expected to be a major
catalyst in activating the Bitcoin economy.
For any project, layers of security are crucial, and Asymmetric
Research represents one more major addition to Stacks’ overall
security program. This program already includes sBTC’s
decentralized network of validators/signers (removing the need to
entrust a single entity and mitigating counterparty risk) and
sBTC’s design to include 100% Bitcoin finality, securing sBTC at
the consensus level of a $2.5 billion network.
In addition to numerous audits, including Asymmetric Research's
audit efforts, other initiatives this year have added to a
well-rounded approach to Stacks security. This includes direct and
ongoing testing with the aforementioned leading Signers, the
onboarding of
Hypernative, the emergence of a dedicated whitehat security program,
a consultation agreement with the Staking Defense League, an
ongoing Immunefi bug bounty
program, and dedicated Stacks Foundation Residents focused
exclusively on fuzz and penetration testing throughout 2024.
“The value of building on Bitcoin comes down to security. It's
not enough to simply build on Bitcoin— ecosystems must prioritize
securing activity at all layers as we collectively look to unlock
the Bitcoin economy. With Asymmetric Research, the Stacks ecosystem
is adding yet another high-caliber entity to the mix of industry
leaders collaborating to make sBTC the best version of programmable
sBTC available. Stacks core developers and Asymmetric share a
commitment to protecting users and developers, and in addition to
being a match in technical pedigree, are culturally aligned groups
that will enhance each other’s thoughtful and rigorous approaches.”
Mitchell Cuevas, Executive Director at The Stacks Foundation
said.
Jonathan Claudius, Chief Executive Officer at Asymmetric
Research added, “Asymmetric Research is proud to participate in the
Stacks ecosystem as it pioneers trust-minimized, decentralized
assets like sBTC."
Please join us in welcoming the Asymmetric Research team to the
Stacks Ecosystem, and look out for more information in the coming
weeks about how you can engage with the work they will be
doing.
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 and sBTC releases will bring faster speeds and
transactions backed by 100% Bitcoin finality. Stacks is the
current leading Bitcoin L2 by developer traction and market cap and
is poised to help unlock Bitcoin and its $500B 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.
Contact
Dasi
Kaplan
pr@marketacross.com