Stacks' smart contracts reach record high ahead of Nakamoto upgrade

Stacks reached a new all-time high in smart contract deployment just days before the much-anticipated Nakamoto upgrade was activated. 

Stacks, the Bitcoin network’s smart contract layer, reached a new all-time high of over 1,400 monthly smart contracts deployed.

Stacks announced the record high in a Sept. 7 X post:

“A new high and 30% increase [month-over-month] MoM for smart contract deployments on the leading Bitcoin L2, Stacks.”

Stacks smart contracts deployed per month. Source: Stacks

The new record high comes ahead of the full activation of the Nakamoto upgrade , which started rolling out at the Bitcoin block 840,360 on Aug. 28.

The upgrade is expected to revolutionize Bitcoin-based decentralized finance (DeFi) , also known as BTCFi, a new technological paradigm that aims to bring DeFi capabilities to the world’s first blockchain network.

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Nakamoto is a huge upgrade for Bitcoin DeFi and L2 scalability

The much-awaited Nakamoto upgrade could be a “huge leap” for Bitcoin DeFi and layer-2 (L2) scalability, according to Diego Mey, the co-founder of Bitflow Finance.

He wrote in a Sept. 7 X post :

“With Nakamoto, Stacks shifts to a "Bitcoin-native" model, enhancing performance and security for Stacks projects by relying more on Bitcoin’s infrastructure.”

Mithil Thakore, the co-founder and CEO of Velar Bitcoin liquidity protocol, noted in a Sept. 7 X  post that the upgrade will also reduce Stacks’ block time to five seconds and create 100% Bitcoin finality.

Stacks Nakamoto breakdown. Source: Rainfire (Mithil Thakore)

Stacks is known as Bitcoin’s smart contract layer, as it enables the deployment of smart contracts on the world’s first blockchain network.

Related: El Salvador marks 3 years of Bitcoin adoption with $31M profit

Nakamoto upgrade just days away

The final hard fork block to deliver the full activation of the Nakamoto upgrade is just days away.

Nakamoto Activation Sequence. Source: docs.Stacks.co

The Nakamoto upgrade’s activation window opened on Aug. 28, but the exact date of the full activation is yet to be determined by core developers.

This is because developers opted to see at least two full “Stacking cycles” to make sure that the network remains stable ahead of the full activation.

Stacks’s upcoming Bitcoin-backed ( BTC ) token, sBTC, will roll out four weeks after the Nakamoto upgrade was finalized and is currently “on track to meet this schedule,” according to Stacks .

The upgrade was named after the Bitcoin network’s pseudonymous creator, known as Satoshi Nakamoto .

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