Resources
Known Ecosystem Resources.
Wallets, explorers, papers, and apps in wide use across Bitcoin and Stacks. Insights into the tools people actually run — not a recommendation to use them. Do your own research. Block9 is a technology team, not a financial advisor. Original papers are unaltered.
Bitcoin · StacksOriginal Papers
- Bitcoin Whitepaper
Satoshi Nakamoto, 2008. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System — how electronic cash can work without a trusted third party.
Read the paper - Stacks Whitepaper
Muneeb Ali and the sBTC working group, 2023. How Stacks runs as a Bitcoin layer for smart contracts after the Nakamoto release — Proof of Transfer, Bitcoin finality, Clarity. The same file is published at stx.is/nakamoto.
Read the paper 
sBTC WhitepaperMuneeb Ali and the sBTC working group. Design of a 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset on Stacks — a trust-minimized two-way peg, not a wrapped custodial token.
Read the paper- Bitcoin Staking Whitepaper
How BTC holders lock Bitcoin on L1, pair it with STX, and earn BTC yield through Proof of Transfer. No individual authors listed on the PDF.
Read the paper
Blockchain Resources
- Bitcoin
The original Bitcoin site, online since 2009 and community-maintained. Holds the whitepaper, an explanation of how Bitcoin works, a directory of wallets with the trade-offs of each spelled out, and guidance on choosing one. Not a company site — no product to sell you.
View site - Bitcoin Blockchain Explorer
Blockchain.com, launched in 2011 as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer. Track transactions, blocks, and addresses with real-time data. Also a wallet, fee estimation, and network analytics.
View site - Stacks
A Bitcoin Layer 2 that adds smart contracts and decentralized apps while settling with Bitcoin finality. STX pays fees and executes contracts. The ecosystem hub — docs, roadmap, sBTC, Bitcoin Staking, wallets, and apps.
View site 
Stacks Blockchain ExplorerLook up any Stacks transaction, address, or smart contract; check whether a transfer confirmed and what it cost; read deployed contract code. Includes a browser sandbox for testing contracts without deploying. Built and maintained by Hiro Systems.
View site- Stacks Bitcoin Staking
BTC holders earn yield paid in BTC without giving up custody. BTC is locked on Bitcoin L1 with a standard timelock under your own keys — not bridged, wrapped, or held by a third party — paired with STX to form a protocol bond. Yield comes from Proof of Transfer: Stacks miners commit real BTC every 10 minutes. Ratified July 2026; capacity is limited and allocated by bonding period.
View site - Stacks sBTC
A 1:1 Bitcoin-backed asset on Stacks that lets BTC move into smart contracts and dApps without handing custody to an exchange. Deposits went live in December 2024, withdrawals in April 2025. Every transfer requires 70% consensus from the signer set and settles with Bitcoin finality.
View site 
Stacks LabsCore protocol development on Stacks — consensus, sBTC, Bitcoin Staking, and developer tooling. If you want to know where the network is headed rather than what it does today: roadmap, engineering updates, and the SIPs that get ratified.
View site
USDCx BridgeMoves USDC between Ethereum and Stacks in either direction. Maintained by Stacks Labs and powered by Circle xReserve, so the underlying USDC is issued by Circle rather than a third-party wrapper. Roughly 15 minutes to confirm, 10 USDC minimum, small network fee.
View site
BTC.USRegister .btc names through the Bitcoin Name System. A readable name instead of a long wallet address, a Lightning Address, and a bridge to conventional DNS. Names are registered by a Clarity contract on Stacks and anchored to Bitcoin. BNS v2 — multiple names from one account.
View site
BNSV2A management interface for BNS-V2 names on Stacks. Register, renew, set a primary name, transfer ownership, and create a custom namespace — not just .btc. Analytics plus API and SDK docs.
View site
Lightning NetworkBitcoin's payment layer for faster, cheaper transfers that still settle to Bitcoin. Channels, invoices, and routing — the same network behind Lightning Address and many point-of-sale setups.
View site
NostrA simple, open protocol for notes and other social apps. Identity is a keypair, not an account on a company server. Relays pass messages; clients choose which relays to read. Bitcoin and Lightning often sit next to it for zaps.
View site
Bitnodes.ioA live census of reachable Bitcoin nodes worldwide — how many, where, what software, IPv4, IPv6, and Tor. Running for over a decade, with a public API.
View site
Wallets
LeatherSelf-custodial wallet for Bitcoin and Stacks. Holds BTC, STX, sBTC, Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20s, connects to Stacks apps, and works with hardware wallets. Open source, independently audited, browser extension and desktop app.
View site
XverseSelf-custodial wallet for Bitcoin and Stacks. Holds BTC, STX, sBTC, Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20s, connects to Stacks apps, and supports Ledger. iOS, Android, and a browser extension.
View site
BoomOpen-source Bitcoin wallet and payment app built on Stacks, using sBTC as its payment layer with peg-in and peg-out between layers. Supports Stacks Pay links and BNS names.
View site
AsignaMulti-signature wallets for Bitcoin and Stacks — Taproot on Bitcoin L1 and native contracts on Stacks. Set a threshold (2-of-3, 3-of-5, or other) so no single person can move funds. Holds BTC, STX, Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20s. Non-custodial. Leather and Xverse as signing wallets.
View site
LedgerHardware wallets that keep private keys on a dedicated offline device with a secure element. Transactions are signed on the device and confirmed on its screen, so a compromised computer can't move coins. Works with Leather, Xverse, and Asigna. Bitcoin and other assets through Ledger Live.
View Ledger site
RyderHardware wallet built around TapSafe recovery: back up by tapping a Recovery Tag, with Shamir Secret Sharing across tags, your phone, or trusted contacts. Fully air-gapped — no Bluetooth, no WiFi, no data over the cable. Infineon EAL6+ secure element, audited by Halborn. Seed phrase still viewable on-device if you want it.
View site
Staking Stacks
- What Is Stacking?
Lock STX for a set period and earn rewards paid in BTC. Rewards come from Stacks miners, who spend real Bitcoin to compete for block rewards; that BTC goes to Stackers. How the network reaches consensus, running since 2021.
View Stacks site - Xverse Pool
A stacking pool run by Xverse. Lock STX, earn BTC. Pooling lets you participate below the solo minimum. Your STX stays under your keys.
View site - Leather
Leather's earn interface — a directory of stacking pools and yield providers for STX and sBTC in one place. Leather doesn't run the pools or the protocols. It's a front end to other people's services.
View site 
Fast PoolAn STX stacking pool with a public ledger of every cycle, reward, and participant — check payout history before you commit. Works with Leather, Xverse, and Asigna, including multi-sig, and runs its own signer.
View site
Development Resources
- Hiro
The main developer toolchain for Stacks. Clarinet for writing and testing Clarity locally, the Hiro Platform for building in the browser, Chainhook for on-chain events, and hosted APIs for Stacks and Ordinals data so you don't have to run your own indexer.
View site - Stacks Network GitHub
The organization holding the Stacks codebase. stacks-core is the reference implementation nodes and miners run. The org also holds the sBTC contracts, signer software, and documentation.
View site - Stacks Core GitHub
Source for the Stacks blockchain — the reference implementation nodes and miners run. Every consensus change, including Nakamoto, sBTC, and PoX-5 behind Bitcoin Staking, lands here first. Open source, full commit history.
View site - Stacks Docs
Technical documentation — how the chain works, Clarity, node and miner setup, sBTC operations, and Proof of Transfer. Written for builders; the concept pages are readable if you want to know what's under a wallet or an app.
View site - Stacks SIPs
The formal process for changing the Stacks protocol. Every consensus-level change is written up, debated in public, and ratified by community vote before it ships — Nakamoto, sBTC, and Bitcoin Staking each came through here.
View site - Stacks Network Security
How Stacks secures itself: Bitcoin finality through Proof of Transfer, the signer set behind sBTC and its consensus threshold, and the third-party audits the protocol has been through.
View site - Sats Connect
A JavaScript library for connecting web apps to Bitcoin and Layer 2 wallets — Bitcoin L1, Stacks, Spark, and Starknet. Addresses, signatures, and transactions, with explicit user approval in their own wallet. Built by Secret Key Labs (Xverse). Open source.
View site - Stacks Blockchain API
Hosted, indexed API for reading and writing to Stacks — history, balances, contract calls, and broadcasting. Richer than a raw node's RPC because the data is indexed and cached. REST, WebSocket, and Socket.io. Open source.
View site - Clarinet
Local development toolkit for Clarity smart contracts. Write, test, and debug on your machine, run a private blockchain for end-to-end tests, and write tests in JavaScript through the Clarinet JS SDK. Linter and formatter. Open source.
View site - Stacks Node & Miner Installation
Official docs for running a Stacks node — Docker, DigitalOcean, and Render. Running your own node means you verify the chain directly instead of trusting a third-party API.
View site 
QuickNodeHosted RPC endpoints and APIs for Stacks — node infrastructure as a service so an application can read and write without you running a node. Free tier to start, paid by usage. SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001.
View site
Stacks Apps
AIBTCA working group building AI agents that can act on Bitcoin and Stacks — holding wallets, executing transactions, and participating in on-chain governance. Open source, with a console for connecting a wallet and experimenting directly.
View site
ZeroAuthority DAOTrustless bounties and on-chain reputation for Web3 work — contributions and payments recorded on-chain rather than held by a platform. Also runs a stacking pool that directs rewards toward funding bounties.
View site
GammaNFT marketplace and launchpad for Bitcoin Ordinals and Stacks collections. Browse and collect, or use the no-code launchpad to deploy a collection without writing a contract yourself.
View site
BlocksurveySurvey and form tool with end-to-end encryption — the platform itself can't read responses. Built on Stacks, with token-gating if you need to restrict a survey to holders of a specific asset. A privacy-first alternative to Google Forms or SurveyMonkey.
View site
SatflowA marketplace for Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes, built for active traders rather than casual collectors. Discovery, listings, and trading tools across both asset types.
View site
BTCFi
BitflowA decentralized exchange on Stacks. Swap STX, sBTC, and other Stacks assets from your own wallet without depositing to a custodian, with an aggregator that routes for better rates. Also offers liquidity pools.
View site
HermeticaIssues USDh, a synthetic dollar backed by Bitcoin rather than by dollars in a bank. The peg is maintained through a delta-neutral hedging strategy, and holders can earn yield on it.
View site
GraniteA lending protocol on Stacks. Borrow stablecoins against Bitcoin as collateral without selling it, or supply stablecoins to earn interest. Collateral stays in the protocol and isn't lent out. No fixed repayment schedule; position health is tracked by loan-to-value.
View site
ZestA lending protocol on Stacks. Supply BTC or sBTC to earn interest, or borrow against your holdings without selling. Contracts are written in Clarity and open source.
View site
ALEXDeFi on Stacks: swaps, liquidity pools, and a launchpad. Exploited twice — roughly $4.3M in May 2024 via compromised keys, and $8.3M in June 2025 via a flaw in self-listing verification. The team reimbursed users from treasury in both cases.
View site
LiquidiumPeer-to-peer Bitcoin lending on Bitcoin Layer 1, not Stacks. Borrow BTC against Ordinals, Runes, or BRC-20s, or lend BTC and earn interest. Secured with Discreet Log Contracts and PSBTs — no bridge, no wrapped assets, no smart-contract chain in between. Default transfers collateral to the lender.
View site
Analytics
LunarCrushTracks social activity around crypto assets — mentions, engagement, sentiment, and which accounts are driving conversation — scored alongside price and volume. Also an API.
View site
Tenero.ioOn-chain analytics across Bitcoin Layer 2s — Stacks, Citrea, Spark, OP_NET, and others — in one dashboard. Token data, DEX volume, wallet activity, and cross-chain comparison, with an API. Formerly stxtools.
View site
Media
House of ChimeraWeb3 research, analytics, and advisory. Data-backed reports for projects, VCs, and builders — including Stacks. Block9 appears on their November 2025 Stacks ecosystem map.
View site
DeOrganized MediaA media network covering Bitcoin, Stacks, and the surrounding ecosystem — daily shows, interviews with builders, and coverage that goes deeper on Stacks than the general crypto press.
View site
Bitcoin MagazineFounded in 2012, the longest-running Bitcoin publication. News, technical explainers, regulatory coverage, and opinion — plus the Bitcoin Conference and a print edition.
View site
Simply BitcoinA daily Bitcoin video show, primarily on YouTube. Market commentary, news, and interviews, aimed at people already convinced rather than people evaluating.
View site
Based Trading CardsAffiliate links
Disclosure: The links in this section are paid affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, Block9 may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. We only feature products we use or would recommend regardless.
Bitaxe Naja DuoDual BM1373 solo miner. About 4.4 TH/s at 42 W.
Bitaxe GammaBM1370 solo miner. About 1.2 TH/s at 15 W.
Ryder OneAir-gapped hardware wallet. Tap to back up with TapSafe.
Umbrel HomeWe'd recommend this for a Bitcoin node.
