Dear Money on Chain Community,
I am Art of Tomas, the host of the “Talks with Sato” English spaces, a series dedicated to fostering insightful discussions within our community. Today, I write to address a significant topic concerning our future direction and the inclusion of guests from diverse blockchain ecosystems, particularly the Stacks community.
Recently, I have been advised by our marketing team to refrain from inviting individuals from the Stacks community to our spaces. This directive, in my opinion, overlooks the broader perspective of blockchain collaboration. Stacks, a protocol committed to enhancing Bitcoin’s value, operates differently than Rootstock, yet shares our core objective of fostering an active and resilient community, especially notable during challenging market conditions, that brings value back to the main chain.
My approach has always been to build bridges rather than moats. I believe that engaging with various ecosystems, all united in their endeavor to add value to Bitcoin, is not just beneficial but essential for our collective growth. The current stance of limiting our interactions, particularly with the Stacks community, seems counterproductive to this objective.
The essence of Money on Chain as a DAO is to reflect a diverse set of values and perspectives, not just those of the founding team or the marketing department. While I respect the guidance of MIM Labs and appreciate their support, our community’s ethos is determined by its members. As such, decisions about our collaborative strategies should ideally emerge from a collective discourse.
Looking ahead, forming alliances with other Bitcoin sidechains and Layer 2 solutions is strategically advantageous. IOV Labs’ interest in bridging with the Stacks ecosystem further validates this approach. Early communication and relationship-building with these communities can pave the way for seamless integration and mutual growth in the future.
I also urge caution when attributing specific values to Money on Chain as representative of all its stakeholders. A truly decentralized protocol thrives on the diverse voices within its community, and every member should have the opportunity to be heard.
While I am committed to my role and passionate about our mission, regardless of the small compensation involved, it’s crucial that we resolve this matter to prevent recurring disagreements.
I encourage everyone invested in this topic to share their views. Let’s openly discuss whether we should welcome participants from the Stacks community and others into our spaces. It’s vital we align on what we, as a DAO, envision for our future collaborations.
For context, below is a list of the spaces I’ve hosted, along with the topics and guests. This overview demonstrates that while Stacks has been mentioned occasionally, it has very rarely been the predominant focus. My goal has always been to establish connections across all Bitcoin ecosystems, fostering a network of builders and innovators.
1st - Max Carjuzaa and Manu Ferrari - Overview of MOC
2nd - Cordy - Building “Study Bitcoin” and going through the BTC startup labs
3rd - Alex from Bitcoin Reach - Biggest Bitcoin community in Zimbabwe
4th - Mathew Black - Atomic Finance - DLCs
5th - Jeremy Garcia from Satoshi’s Journal - Bitcoin publisher and education platform
6th - Albert CEO of BTC Startup Labs - The Bitcoin Olympics
7th - Wallace Ferreira - P2P Bot - Building the Rootstock p2p Bot
8th - Rapha BTC - CEO of UASU - Though he briefly touched on Stacks, his project works using DLCs and that was the main focus.
9th - Isaiah Jackson - Author of “Bitcoin and Black America” - Bitcoin Education
10th - Analys Falchuck - Sphinx & Stakwork - We talked about her story and her work on Lightning Network Applications
11th - Matty Tokenomics - Author of “Tokenomics for Builders” - Understanding the role of Tokenomics for Bitcoin projects, we never specified which chains these protocols are built. He did mention Stacks briefly as he had a role in the foundation and worked on the tokenomics amongst other projects he worked with, but we didn’t talk much about it.
12th - Paul Sztorc - CEO of Layer 2 Labs - Drivechains BIP 300&301
13th - James Otudor - Pro Bitcoin Politican in Nigeria - How Bitcoin can help the people in Africa and how to use politics to help with adoption.
14th - Hero Gamer - Decentralized Grants program for the Stacks ecosystem - Here their project is built on stacks, but the focus was on the decentralized grant program which I believe was an incredible feat regardless of the chain it was implemented and I really hope that Rootstock takes this model and applies it too. So Stacks wasn’t even the focus.
15th - Rena from Trust Machines - Investing in the Bitcoin space. They are chain agnostic and mentioned several protocols they have invested in, there were some from Stacks mentioned, but also from the other BTC sidechains as well.
16th - Jacob Blockchain host of the “Built on Bitcoin” podcast and from BTC Frontier Fund - We talked about uniting all the Bitcoin chains and gave overviews of all the different chains and protocols builders can choose to build. Stacks was mentioned amongst them but it was not the focus.
17th - Elizabeth Olsen CGO of the Bitcoin wallet Xverse - Xverse started as a Stacks project but now is mostly focused on Ordinals, BRC20s and looking to add Runes. Stacks was mentioned but again, it was not the focus.
Future Guests already confirmed:
1st - Jay from Liquidium - A marketplace to use Ordinals as collateral.
2nd - Hyde from Babelfish - We will talk about Balancing curves and how users can benefit from it by trading different Rootstock Stablecoins, DOC included.
3rd - Nick co Founder of Fountain the podcast player app that reward satoshis - This guest is confirmed but we are waiting for a big update on the app to be released so we can make that the focus of the talk.
As you can see, Stacks is only mentioned here and there, never even being the main point of the discussion. All I’m trying to do is plant seeds in every Bitcoin ecosystem, talk to the builders and start the process of developing relationships across the board. I hope you all can see that and let me know if you think I’m doing something wrong.
I am open to feedback and look forward to a constructive discussion on how we can best move forward as a community dedicated to innovation and inclusivity in the Bitcoin space.
Kind regards,
Art of Tomas