Crypto has been around us for quite some time now and since its initial years, the industry has managed to lure in potential investors from all across the globe, which resulted in a surge in its growth and popularity recently, and that too at a rate that was never anticipated. Having said that, I sincerely believe, seeing its success over the past couple of years, a majority of you are already familiar with the basics of the industry but, if for some reason that is not the case, let us talk about that first.
Cryptocurrency as the name suggests is nothing but a form of virtual currency that can be used for several purposes including the trade and exchange of currencies over crypto exchanges online as well as for the purpose of buying and selling goods and services over the internet of course.
In other words, crypto is nothing but a blockchain-based platform that is decentralized to its very core and being so, it is more than capable of stepping outside the overall control and jurisdiction of central authorities and can work freely without any unnecessary government interference.
When the crypto world was first introduced, there were not many currencies to choose from back then and frankly, not many investors were interested to be a part of it either. On the contrary, looking around today, it feels almost unreal to witness the fact that, new currencies are coming up every day and several new investors are joining in with every passing hour.
Though this has been mostly because of the unexplored world of virtual currencies, some of the major contributing factors for this success include its portability, the convince it offers to its users, its ease of use, intuitive nature, volatility, and high-profit margins of course.
Speaking of a lot of currencies available today in the marketplace, some of the most popular ones that you can invest in right now include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin, EverGrow Coin as well as Dogecoin to name just a few of course.
However, it is worth noting that, if the industry is providing investors with an opportunity to earn huge profits, if not done right, you could also end up having significant losses as well. On a similar note, as mentioned, being volatile, the fluctuations in the prices of the currencies are almost immediate, thus making it very difficult to predict. So, it is advised that you should be vigilant while investing in virtual currencies in order to avoid losses.
Also, in accordance with the chatter amongst global experts on the field, crypto is set out to be an industry looking forward to completely revolutionizing the global payment system and from where I stand, I believe that this assumption is not entirely baseless as according to some recent reports, many businesses, merchants and vendors have started accepting cryptocurrencies as an official mode of payment from their customers, for instance when a McDonalds in Ell Salvatore started doing the same, which gives it even more credibility.
Now that you have a brief backstory about the crypto world, you will be able to have a much better understanding of what we have with us today, Stacks. To know more, I suggest you read further!
Everything to know about Stacks Network (STX)
Stacks or as commonly referred to as STX is nothing but a network that is focused on unleashing the true potential of Bitcoin as a programmable base layer. As a majority of us are already aware, Bitcoin is known to be the largest and most popular cryptocurrency in the marketplace but, as a matter of fact, it too has some downsides as well, which is where Stacks come in.
According to the platform’s official website, STX is one such currency that is capable of solving some of the biggest challenges that are faced by Bitcoin and are currently working on developing a blockchain project involving smart contracts, which is said to solve Bitcoin’s problem of not letting decentralized applications (DApps) to be created using its technology.
In simpler words, Stack is a Layer-1 blockchain solution that is designed such that it is able to bring decentralized applications as well as smart contracts to Bitcoin or commonly referred to as BTC. Not just that, this programmable second layer builds on and extends the overall scalability and functionality of the legendary cryptocurrency without even alerting any of its core codes.
Similarly, as mentioned, developers on the platform can now use Stacks to easily create smart contracts, DApps as well as virtual assets that are said to share Bitcoin’s decentralization and security. Also, it is worth noting that, Stacks operates as a separate entity of Bitcoin but is known to leverage the token for its core process.
Before moving any further, it is vital for you to know that STX is nothing but the native utility token of the platform, which can indeed be used for a variety of purposes on the platform itself. Some of the popular use cases of the currency include it being used for fueling the execution of smart contracts, processing transactions, rewarding miners on the open Stacks network, allowing token holders to earn Bitcoin by Staking as well as registering new virtual assets on the Stacks 2.0 blockchain of course.
In addition to this, it is probably worth mentioning that, being one of the largest supporters of Bitcoin at the moment, the value of STX is likely to keep increasing as and when Bitcoin keeps growing in market cap. Also, STX value has recently been increased after a twelve-year-old sold a Bitcoin bird non-fungible token (NFT) for nearly 8000 US dollars within just mere hours of creating.
Having said that, Stacks is said to be now competing with market giants such as Ethereum, which is said to dominate the NFT industry. Speaking of decentralized applications, you should know that, these DApps are modular and open, which means that developers can create on top of each other’s applications in order to produce features that are simply not possible in any of the regular applications.
Furthermore, the said platform was formerly known as Blockstack but was recently rebranded to Stacks in the fourth quarter of 2020 in order to segregate the open-source project as well as the ecosystem from Blockstack PBC, the company that is said to build the original protocols. Also, the mainnet for the said platform was launched in January 2021. Additionally, Bitcoin is said to operate as the reserve asset for Stacks.
What makes Stacks special?
Stacks look forward to taking what actually makes Bitcoin so powerful and manages to extend it with functionality, that too without needing to make any changes to the original Bitcoin blockchain. Speaking of which, it is worth noting that, the platform manages to do all this and more by directly connecting with the Bitcoin blockchain with the help of its Proof-of-Transfer (PoX) consensus mechanism, where miners on the platform pay in BTC to mint new STX tokens.
Also, you should be aware of the fact that token holders are allowed to stake their STX tokens in order to earn rewards in the form of Bitcoin. Apart from this, Stacks is said to introduce a completely new smart contracts programming language referred to as Clarity, which is designed to be both easy to build as well as secure, all thanks to its unambiguous syntax. However, this smart contract-centric programming language is also used by a popular and commonly known Algorand (ALGO) blockchain.
Lastly, Stacks is said to be the very first cryptocurrency to have received SEC qualifications for a sale in the US, thus allowing it to launch a twenty-eight million dollar Reg A+ sale cash offering for its STX tokens back in July 2019.
Now that we have talked much about Stacks, some of you must be wondering, whether or not it is a good idea to invest in the platform? If that’s the case, then let’s find out, shall we?
Investing in Stacks (STX)
As of today, the price of Stacks is about 2.88 US dollars with a twenty-four-hour trading volume of 1,240,545,664 dollars. Not just that, in just the past twenty-four hours, the value of Stacks has gone up by 14.86 percent, and with the current market cap of 3,709,387,190 US dollars, STX is currently placed at #52 position as per the CoinMarketCap rankings.
Also, it is worth mentioning that, the current circulating supply of Stacks is nearly 1,286,614,993 STX coins with a maximum lifetime supply of about 1,818,000,000 STX coins. In just the past week alone, the price of the platform has gone uphill by 35.25 percent.
Reading so far, you must have gotten a fair understanding of the platform and by now, you should be able to figure out on your own whether or not investing in Stacks is the right thing for you to do. Seeing what it has to offer when combined with its performance in the recent past as well as its plans for the near future, I certainly believe that Stacks can prove to be a profitable investment in the near future, which is likely to provide you with higher returns and it is a possibility that your current investment may increase in value. But again, nothing can be said for sure!
If still not convinced, see it this way that, if say you buy Stacks worth a hundred dollars today, you will receive nearly 35.871 STX. According to the analysis done by experts on the field, after five years of your investment, the return is expected to be about +203.66 percent and thus, your current hundred dollar investment will be nearly 303.66 US dollars in 2026.
As mentioned at the very beginning, crypto is a highly volatile marketplace and is extremely uncertain. Thus, It is very important for you to understand the fact that just like any other currency in the crypto marketplace, Stacks does have its own risks as well and you should invest only if you are willing to take those risks and bear any and all losses if at all necessary.
If you are wondering, where can you buy Stacks? Let me help you with that. Currently, Stacks is available on all major crypto exchanges but, some of the popular exchanges that have STX listed on them include Binance, Mandala Exchange, OKEx, KuCoin as well as Upbit to name a few.Â
In conclusion, what are your thoughts on Stacks? Do let us know in the comments below. To know more about various cryptocurrencies, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
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