Hiro is a software company offering blockchain development tools and services for Stacks.
Stacks is a unique platform that unlocks new possibilities for Bitcoin thanks to smart contracts. It enables developers to build scalable decentralized applications (dapps) while leveraging Bitcoin's security and network effects.
History of Hiro
Hiro has a somewhat convoluted history. The company started out under the name Blockstack, which was the same name as the blockchain platform it developed. The project underwent a rebranding in 2018 and renamed the platform Stacks to separate the evolving project ecosystem from a single company. In 2020, Blockstack changed its name to Hiro and dedicated itself to building development tools for a user-owned internet on Bitcoin.
Blockstacks (Stacks) was co-founded by computer scientist Muneeb Ali and entrepreneur and engineer Ryan Shea. While Shea moved on to other projects, Ali remained with Stacks and established Hiro, where he serves as the company’s CEO. The name Hiro was taken from the main character in the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, the same book which is also credited with coining the term “metaverse.”
Hiro’s stated mission is to “enable developers to innovate and put the future back in people’s hands” by “empowering them to create a better digital future with best-in-class tools and services.”
In 2019, the project raised $23 million in a sale event that was among the first of its kind to be qualified by the US SEC. Investors included Union Square Ventures, Hashkey Group, Arrington XRP Capital, and others.
Features of Stacks
Stacks enables developers to build and deploy apps (like DeFi ones) or issue token-based assets, including NFTs, using Bitcoin as the base layer. Conceptually, Stacks operates similarly to an Ethereum Layer 2, allowing apps to scale while leveraging the security of the underlying blockchain.
As a platform developed on Bitcoin, Stacks features several unique innovations. These include its own programming language, called Clarity, and a novel consensus mechanism known as Proof of Transfer.
How Proof of Transfer and Stacking Work
Proof of Transfer is a novel consensus mechanism that ties the Stacks network to the underlying Bitcoin blockchain. It’s based on an established model called proof of burn, where a user, but most typically a miner, burns or destroys some of an established proof of work currency in lieu of the computing resources that would be required to mine the same currency.
In the Stacks model, Proof of Transfer requires a transfer to a BTC address on the Stacks network in order to participate in Stacks block selection. If they’re selected to produce a block, they receive rewards in the native STX token. A miner can increase their chances of being selected by transferring more BTC.
The transferred BTC is then used to pay rewards on the Stacks network. Holders of STX can participate in “Stacking” (a play on the term staking) by locking their STX and providing a BTC address to earn their share of BTC rewards.
2024 Nakamoto Upgrade
In 2024, Stacks commenced a significant upgrade, dubbed the Nakamoto upgrade (named after the creator of Bitcoin) that introduces several new capabilities.
Faster blocks will reduce transaction processing times, measured from the point a user submits a transaction to the point it becomes confirmed in a block, from minutes to seconds. It achieves this by allowing a miner to produce multiple blocks on Stacks within a single block selection cycle.
Following the upgrade, once a transaction is confirmed on Stacks, it also attains Bitcoin-level finality, meaning it can never be reversed.
Finally, this proposal alters the block selection algorithm to remove a vulnerability to miner extractable value (MEV), which allows miners to selectively include transactions in a block. Following Nakamoto, Bitcoin miners will have no advantage over any other entity spending BTC to mine on the Stacks network using Proof of Transfer. This contrasts with the previous setup, which allowed Bitcoin miners to spend less thanks to transaction ordering.
Other Hiro Initiatives
Along with Stacks, Hiro also offers a suite of tools for developers. These include an explorer for Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions and Ordhook, as well as for building indexers, standards, and protocols based on Bitcoin Ordinals.
The Hiro platform is a hosted development environment for developers wanting to build on Stacks.
Hiro Essentials
- Hiro is a software development company building blockchain development tools and services for the Stacks ecosystem.
- Stacks is a Layer 2 platform built on the Bitcoin blockchain, leveraging the security and networking advantages of the underlying layer.
- Stacks introduces smart contract functionality to Bitcoin, enabling developers to build scalable apps, issue assets, and generate additional value from Bitcoin, the largest crypto-asset by market cap.