Thanks to many Evangelists, ambassadors, and community managers, we’ve long seen the power in people stepping up to very intentionally build their community through local events, content, and networking. Now, we’re excited to introduce the Stacks Chapter program. Stacks Chapters, starting with this pilot in Pakistan, will take community growth and development efforts even further, serving as a vehicle for local leaders to bring the user-owned internet on Bitcoin to more people and places.
The Pakistan team is being led by Nabeel Qadeer. He is among the pioneers who shaped the local entrepreneurship and freelancing sector by setting up the first government-backed technology incubator, Plan9 and accelerator, PlanX. The movement was furthered by setting up eRozgaar centers to teach freelancing across the country. Nabeel also drove the effort of drafting the first-ever IT Policy of Punjab. He is widely known for conceptualizing Pakistan’s first business reality show ‘Idea Croron Ka’, a local version of Shark Tank.
In general, the program is geographically focused around a city or region and is designed to be very flexible from chapter to chapter; the idea is that local leaders ultimately know best about how to share the mission of the Stacks, to educate locals on why it’s important, and surface ways they can get involved. The chapters will focus on the needs and interests of the community they serve and will set and share progress against goals with the broader Stacks community as they go.
In Pakistan’s case, the team will start by focusing on awareness and advocacy of the technology and its applications. Nabeel and his team believe in the mission of Stacks, which is to revolutionize the internet and give the power back to the user. Their current campaign #OwnYourInternet aims to raise awareness around data and privacy. They are actively advocating for bitcoin regulation with the help of the local industry and are forming communities (Stacks Pakistan Circles) alongside.
Pakistan has a special place in the history of the project, being where co-founder Muneeb Ali grew up before heading to Princeton where his thesis eventually led to everything we know as Stacks.
“I remember when the early ISPs came to Pakistan in the 90s. Growing up in Rawalpindi, I saw the potential of the internet and how it was a life-changing technology. The crypto revolution is potentially more disruptive than the original internet. It introduces digital assets, like Bitcoin, on a next internet, and gives developers new superpowers to program advanced smart contracts that provide not only better user-owned apps but also new types of financial products. These crypto networks can displace existing Big Tech companies like Facebook and Google that take ownership of user data. We believe users will own digital currencies along with various other Internet assets using private keys as the artificial line between money and data disappears.” – Dr. Muneeb Ali
We’re so excited to welcome the Stacks Pakistan team and chapter to the ecosystem and look forward to what they’re building. The team at PBC is currently exploring other Stacks Chapter programs and looking for chapter leaders. If you are interested or know someone that would make a great lead, please get in touch with us at [email protected].