Muneeb Ali, cofounder of Blockstack, joins the show to talk about the launch of Stacks 2.0 and its evolution from a securities offering to a freely tradable instrument in the U.S.

• New developments with Stacks and a novel legal opinion
• What constitutes sufficient decentralization and how Blockstack took cues from regulators
• Why Blockstack felt empowered to list their token on public US exchanges
• The current state of Blockstack governance
• Reflections on Ethereum's purported transmutation
• How Blockstack did the first reg A+ securities offering for a cryptoasset
• Why securities registration is worthwhile for token issuance
• Whether the SEC disclosure framework is suitable for the issuance of a token
• Alternative disclosure and securities offering frameworks for registered token issuance
• Whether Blockstack was willing to treat Stacks as a security in perpetuity
• Why security tokens haven't taken off in the US so far
• The evolution from Stacks 1.0 to Stacks 2.0, and the differences between the two
• Why Blockstack chose to build on Bitcoin, and how they managed to do so in an efficient manner
• Why Blockstack chose not to build a distinct chain in its own right
• Why Bitcoin's inflexibility as a base layer makes it a suitable underlying protocol
• How Muneeb thinks about Stacks value accrual
• Blockstack's transaction-based consensus mechanism relying on Bitcoin
• Why Blockstack chose not to use OP_RETURN
• The relationship between Blockstack usage and BTC value accrual
• Muneeb's response to the criticism of their regulated token issuance model

Key readings:

• Wilson Sonsini's Summary of Memorandum Regarding the Status of the Stacks Tokens Upon Adoption of Stacks Blockchain 2.0

Sponsor notes:

Withum is a forward-thinking, technology-driven advisory and accounting firm committed to helping our clients be more profitable, efficient and productive in today’s complex business environment. Our Digital Currency group is proud to partner with members of the cryptocurrency community. Get to know us at withum.com/crypto.