Why the new Stacks brand?
It’s important to have a single brand that brings together the ecosystem of projects, entities, and community members working to build a user-owned internet on Bitcoin. At the moment, the Blockstack PBC brand is often used as the brand for the entire ecosystem, when in reality, it represents just one company within the larger ecosystem. By implementing the overarching Stacks brand, we hope to accomplish the following:
- Provide a clear way to represent and recognize the Stacks Ecosystem, which is the global community of projects and entities that have contributed to/grown out of the original Blockstack open-source project.
- Separate the ecosystem and open source project from Blockstack PBC, a single company in the ecosystem that built the original protocols.
- Unite the community. As the name of both the blockchain and cryptocurrency at the heart of this ecosystem, Stacks is already a brand that our community can easily understand and adopt.
- Eliminate general confusion and simplify the onboarding experience for new users and developers. Regardless of whether their first encounter with Stacks is through the Stacks 2.0 blockchain, the Stacks (STX) token, or any one of the various related entities (Daemon, Freehold, Stacks Foundation), they’ll know that they are all part of the larger Stacks Ecosystem.
What about the Blockstack brand and logo?
While we expect that the Blockstack name and logo may remain in many places (especially as we make the transition to using the Stacks Ecosystem brand), over time it will eventually transition completely to other entities in the ecosystem, like Stacks .
Blockstack PBC itself is becoming Hiro Systems PBC (Hiro). As Blockstack PBC’s work on the Stacks 2.0 public infrastructure winds down and the Stacks ecosystem continues to grow and decentralize, we will shift gears to focus more on developers and the developer experience on Stacks 2.0. Hiro will work exclusively on providing developer tools for a user-owned internet on Bitcoin.
How will Hiro work with the Stacks community?
As an entity committed to developers, Hiro will serve as a hub for all developers and developer activity across the Stacks ecosystem. This includes any work related Clarity smart contracts, Blockstack applications, and any other existing dev tools for Stacks 2.0.
What will happen to Blockstack digital properties such as blockstack.org and @blockstack on Twitter?
Over the next few weeks, the content on blockstack.org will gradually be distributed across the Hiro site, stacks.org, and others. In general, any developer-related content will go on Hiro and any ecosystem-related content will go on stacks.org.
Properties like @blockstack on Twitter, the Blockstack Discord server, and Telegram groups will rebrand to Stacks by 10/28/20 . Reminders about these changes will be sent regularly on each of these platforms.
How will this affect Blockstack apps?
Functionality of Blockstack applications will be unaffected by this rebrand. Application branding/design, on the other hand, can be updated to reflect the new Stacks brand.
App developers who want to utilize the Stacks brand can refer to the brand kit. We encourage you to update designs and logos to reflect the Stacks brand by 10/28/20 .
What does this mean for the Blockstack community? What role do we play in this “rebrand”?
The Stacks brand is designed to bring together the global community of independent entities, app developers, projects, and initiatives that make up the Stacks Ecosystem. We ask that the community update their projects with Stacks branding, widely share the new logo, and generally spread the word about Stacks when and wherever possible. Doing so will help us accelerate the adoption of the Stacks brand, and by extension, the mission to build a user-owned internet on Bitcoin.
As you can see, this will be a gradual transition rather than an overnight change. We’re excited to see where this new brand takes us but also understand that we’re covering a lot of ground. Any ideas or feedback as we roll out the Stacks brand would be highly appreciated!
If you have questions or concerns that aren’t addressed here, please share them in the comments here or join the discussion on Discord.