As you're aware, sBTC is the next evolution in our journey to enable secure Bitcoin movement within the Stacks ecosystem. This development naturally addresses the limited expressivity in Bitcoin script, paving the way for decentralized and scalable Bitcoin applications.
In line with our ongoing commitment to community-driven security, we're now moving forward with selecting 15 sBTC Signers from our existing Stacks Signers. This selection, as previously discussed, will involve a community vote to finalize the initial group for the bootstrap launch.
As an extension of your current responsibilities, sBTC Signers will ensure the liveness and security of the protocol by triggering sBTC mint and redeem requests. During this initial "Bootstrap" phase, you'll run a separate signer binary, distinct from the Stacks protocol consensus. This is a temporary measure as we prepare for full integration into Stacks consensus.
Building on your existing commitment as a Stacks Signer:
As you know, our goal has always been full decentralization. This is the first step in what will be an ongoing progression toward greater decentralization. After this bootstrap phase, we'll transition to an open set of dynamic signers, fully integrated into the Stacks consensus mechanism. This progression aligns with our commitment to increasing decentralization while ensuring system stability.