‍The Magnitude of Mainnet

After the dust settled, there is no doubt that Messari Mainnet has cemented itself as one of the premier events in the space for founders, developers, builders, investors, and technologists to come together. The conference exploded with excitement for crypto, and was the perfect place to make new connections, hear updates from leading projects, and maybe snag a sweet t-shirt or two.

Some would argue that NYC is the capital of crypto. The city has been a hotbed of blockchain startups, the catalyst of positive regulatory dialogue in the United States, and has historically hosted the most star-studded conferences that advocate decentralized fintech technologies right in the heart of the legacy financial world. it certainly felt that way strolling through Times Square passing sidewalk meetups of matching crypto swag and massive billboards from the hottest companies. It’s become a hub of innovation and crypto leadership, and, although we are a remote team, Hiro called the Big Apple home in the past. 2021 has been a massive year for decentralized networks, and it has never been a more important time to get the brightest minds together to swap learnings and share experience. Mainnet lived up to its name, and showed that paradigm-shifting crypto use cases are already here, live, and ready to change user’s everyday lives. 

Crypto conferences have a special place in blockchainers hearts. Everybody walks away from them empowered in their mission, focused on solving the big problems, and excited to be a part of such a vibrant industry. Messari Mainnet was the definitive conference of the summer, and it was awesome to see a buzz around Stacks and Hiro. Muneeb was ecstatic to be back out in the community, connecting with users, and sharing the goals of our decentralized mission.‍

Bitcoin in the Spotlight

Five years ago, Bitcoin innovation appeared slow and plagued by design obstacles. Fast forward to today, and it’s evident that Bitcoin is where the builders are. Developers want to utilize the most secure network to build their NFT, DeFi playground, or decentralized identity solution. 

“One thing that Bitcoiners don’t wanna do is lose their Bitcoin. That is rule number one!” - Muneeb on users jumping through risky hoops to use their Bitcoin in dapp ecosystems

Bitcoin stole the spotlight on the main stage all week. Having been in the Bitcoin community since it’s earliest days, there was nobody better than Hiro CEO and Founder, Muneeb Ali, to ideate on the impact of crypto in the future. Sharing the stage with Ria Bhutoria of Castle Island Ventures, Kia Mosayeri from BitGo, and James Preswitch of cLabs, the four of them chatted about how Bitcoin has maintained its dominance for over a decade. Bitcoin’s network effect, focus on security & simplicity, and maximal decentralization ensure its longevity and make BTC suitable as a global settlement layer.

Muneeb got the opportunity to share observations of a handful of interesting projects he’s seen being built on Stacks. In front of the entire blockchain industry, he championed the amazing community work done by Citycoins, and how they are empowering Miami to innovate using crypto. Wrapped BTC was also a hot topic of the discussion, as the Bitcoin world is eager to put their capital to work and experiment with decentralized applications. Last but not least, Muneeb teased the crowd with anticipation of the Stacks Accelerator cohort preparing to launch a fleet of new apps on Stacks. 

Right after hopping off stage, Muneeb was fortunate enough to get some time with the hard-hitting journalists over at Decrypt. Dan Roberts, Editor in Chief, and Jeff Benson, Senior Editor, inquired about all things Stacks, and the conversation was an exceptional, concise explainer of Stacks’ strengths and why it’s the perfect infrastructure for Web 3.0. 

Boots on the Ground 

Hiro Developer Advocate, Joe Bender, was also in attendance to support Stacks and champion Hiro as an ally to developers in the space. He was a mentor in the community all through testnet and the launch of Stacks 2.0, and was thrilled to have the opportunity to get out in the world and evangelize the message of a user-controlled internet! He spent the event chatting with enthused Bitcoiners, watching talks from friends-of-Stacks like Accelerator Mentor Meltem Demirors, and dodging running into other attendees from behind Bitcoin laser-eye sunglasses. Joe spent hours explaining to curious engineers why they should be building on Bitcoin, and how Hiro’s developer tools will alleviate those hair-pulling coding obstacles.

You can relive the experience by accessing the Mainnet 2021 portal, where you can watch all the sessions from over 200+ crypto leaders that took the stage during the three-day summit. To rewatch Muneeb’s session, you will have to sign up for the FREE Messari Basic subscription to get access to all videos. Already a Messari subscriber? Make sure you are logged into your account and you will automatically gain access to the Mainnet portal.

If you were unable to attend, Muneeb Magic doesn’t end here! NFTs are absolutely the most talked about tech of 2021, and Muneeb will be making sure everyone is aware of the mind-blowing Stacks Punks and Stacks Mandelbrots at the NFT.NYC conference this November 1-4 in New York City. Hope to see you there! 

If you’re curious about experimenting with Stacks, we encourage you to install the Hiro Web Wallet and begin tinkering with the host of dapps already live on Stacks. Grab your first NFT secured by Bitcoin, set up a .BTC domain name, or take part in municipal activism with MiamiCoin. A better internet, built on Bitcoin, is already here. 

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