Muneeb Ali is the co-founder of Stacks (formerly Blockstack), the leading Layer 2 platform bringing smart contracts and decentralized applications to Bitcoin.
Stacks
Ali co-founded the project as Blockstack in 2013 with Ryan Shea. Blockstack conducted the first SEC-qualified token offering in 2019, raising $23 million. The project rebranded to Stacks in 2020, refocusing its mission on extending Bitcoin’s capabilities.
Stacks uses a unique consensus mechanism called Proof of Transfer (PoX), which anchors to Bitcoin’s security by requiring Stacks miners to spend BTC to mine STX blocks. This allows Stacks to inherit Bitcoin’s security guarantees without modifying Bitcoin’s base protocol.
Nakamoto Upgrade
In 2024, Stacks launched its Nakamoto upgrade, a significant protocol improvement that increased transaction speed, introduced Bitcoin finality for Stacks transactions, and enabled sBTC — a decentralized, programmable Bitcoin-pegged asset. The upgrade positioned Stacks as one of the most active Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystems.
Trust Machines
Ali also co-founded Trust Machines, a company focused on building applications and infrastructure on Bitcoin Layer 2s.
Education
Ali holds a PhD in Computer Science from Princeton University, where his research focused on building a decentralized internet for application development.