We’re happy to announce that Blockstack PBC has successfully achieved Milestone 2, unlocking approximately $6.8 million, net of expenses and cryptocurrency value adjustments, in additional funding from our December 2017 token offering. We structured the 2017 Blockstack token offering such that the majority of the capital would only be unlocked when certain, specific milestones were reached.
This self-imposed requirement was our way to introduce investor protection and signal that we’re building for the long-term in a disciplined manner. The decision as to whether a Milestone is met is determined by an independent Advisory Board. On January 16th, that Advisory Board unanimously determined that Milestone 2 had been achieved, and on January 29th, we filed a Form 1-U with the SEC disclosing the achievement.
Milestone 2 was “defined as the Blockstack network succeeding in registering one million Verified Users, where a “Verified User” is defined as a user account on the Blockstack network with at least one form of Acceptable Attestation indicating that the user account is owned by a human and not owned and operated by a computer program or bot.” (see the SEC form 1-U for additional details on the definition).
We plan to generally apply the additional capital to continue engineering efforts, contribute to open-source developer libraries, and cover operational expenses.
Username registrations on the Blockstack network have been coming from a variety of different sources, including independent applications, the Blockchain.com distribution, and other marketing experiments. We’re excited to report that more than 1.9 million usernames have been registered on the Blockstack network. You can read more about the different ways we’ve observed people entering the ecosystem and potential sources of future growth here.
With both Milestone 1 for network launch and Milestone 2 for initial network growth successfully completed, the Blockstack Token Funds and the Advisory Board will now dissolve; they’ve served their purpose and are no longer needed. After these milestones, Blockstack PBC plans to focus on further decentralization, initial stable software for Stacks 2.0, and contributing to open-source developer tools for the ecosystem. Some members of the advisory board will continue to be involved in the Blockstack ecosystem as Stacks owners and friends of the project — we thank them for their work.
The closing of one chapter for the development and initial growth of the Blockstack network is also the starting of a new one. The expected Stacks 2.0 launch later this year will mark the beginning of a network operated by independent miners and full-node operators. Stacks 2.0 is our master design, the blockchain we wished existed when we were starting off.
We’re especially excited about (a) the proposal for a new consensus algorithm called Stacking that allows Stacks holders to earn Bitcoin for actively participating in the consensus algorithm, and (b) Clarity, a smart contract language that optimizes for predictability and security. Learn more about Stacks 2.0.
I’d like to congratulate the Blockstack community and the Blockstack PBC team on the successful completion of Milestone 2. A disciplined approach to shipping code, staying focused on key milestones, and staying true to our mission are cherished values of our community.
Blockstack PBC is actively hiring; you can check out the open positions here.
Important disclaimer
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has qualified the offering statement that we have filed with the SEC under Regulation A for our offering of certain of our Stacks Tokens. The information in that offering statement is more complete than the information we are providing now, and could differ in important ways. You must read the documents filed with the SEC before investing. The offering is being made only by means of its offering statement. This document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.
An indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. Any person interested in investing in any offering of Stacks Tokens should review our disclosures and the publicly filed offering statement and the final offering circular that is part of that offering statement here. Blockstack is not registered, licensed or supervised as a broker-dealer or investment adviser by the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or any other financial regulatory authority or licensed to provide any financial advice or services.
Forward-looking statements
This communication contains forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “will,” “expect,” “would,” “intend,” “believe,” or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this document include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans for developing the platform and future utility for the Stacks Token, our Clarity smart contracting language, and potential mining operations. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different. More information on the factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause or contribute to such differences is included in our filings with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion & Analysis” sections of our offering statement on Form 1-A. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.