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Repo for all resources related to the Stacks Foundation's Residence Program, including the application and nominations process.
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Andre Serrano to work on Project Management for GTM sBTC Working Group #41

Open renashah opened 1 year ago

renashah commented 1 year ago

Since the publication of the sBTC whitepaper, it has become clear to the GTM Non-Custodial BTC working group that we will need a project manager lead to coordinate and execute a proper go-to-market strategy for sBTC ahead of its official launch. This person would be critical in driving awareness, adoption, and support of sBTC. In particular, we envision that this "sBTC Go-to-Market Lead" would work on the following:

In addition to proposing this role, we would like to nominate Andre Serrano to fill this residency potentially. Andre recently presented a go-to-market plan to the Non-Custodial BTC working group and demonstrated a strong understanding of sBTC and a compelling strategy for getting sBTC into the hands of potential partners and investors.

Andre is also a long-time Stacker who intimately understands the needs of Stacks builders!

cuevasm commented 1 year ago

Fully support this, Andre is an incredible fit and is already proving out his worth having dived in with us in the GTM Working Group. Residency is a great way he can continue that momentum! He will do right by the community and help us all get really clear and organized around this exciting unlock for Stacks. It's a huge amount of work but good leadership can help us break it down and execute. 🤘

nocodeclarity commented 1 year ago

We are in favor of this nomination. Andre is a great asset to the Stacks community and his track record of attention to detail, understanding of technology as well as his deep roots in Stacks makes this a win for the ecosystem!

will-corcoran commented 1 year ago

Yes! Andre is a great fit for this role and already performing in this capacity at a high level.

andrerserrano commented 1 year ago

@renashah, thanks for the nomination. I'm excited to officially submit my proposal for the sBTC residency.

What's your name/your team's name?

Andre Serrano Discord: andre.btc#1939 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrerserrano

Best email on which to contact you?

Email: andre@novablock.io

Personal Statement

sBTC is infrastructure that will enable Bitcoin to be used throughout Web3 and DeFi, while staying true to the ethos of decentralization and censorship-resistance. It has the potential to unlock billions of dollars of BTC capital through the use of smart contracts that can trustlessly write to the Bitcoin blockchain. Given the market opportunity and it’s strategic importance to the Stacks ecosystem, it’s crucial that we have a clear go-to-market plan, alignment within the community, and foundational partnerships secured for when it goes live later this year.

During the residency, I plan to drive awareness, adoption and support for sBTC. This residency would play a key role in defining use cases, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, and ensuring accountability for key milestones.

End Product: What does success look like?

By the end of the residency, I plan to achieve the following:

Roadmap

Milestone 1: Planning & Logistics: Q1 2023

Milestone 2: Activation: Q1-Q3 2023

Milestone 3: Post-launch support: Q4 2023

Appendix

  1. Contributor to the sBTC GTM working group (references: @Rena Shah, @Mitchell Cuevas)
  2. Former app builder on Stacks via CityCoins
    • Hosted a 300+ person conference exploring how NFTs empower community while improving quality of life for city residents.
    • Launched Miami Web3 Developer Bootcamp, a smart contract development course in partnership with Stacks Foundation, the City of Miami and Miami-Dade College.
    • Led the Governance working group and developed the DAO structure.
    • Grew the developer ecosystem by hosting hackathons and bi-weekly Builder’s Calls.
  3. Experience leading business development for top crypto projects (Zcash)
    • Executed strategic partnerships across cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets/custodians, payments providers and DeFi protocols.
    • Developed creative co-marketing campaigns around new product launches.
    • Published regular progress updates for the community.

Thanks for taking the time to review my application. Feel free to leave any feedback or comments. I look forward to hopefully collaborating with y'all further!

elenananana commented 1 year ago

Thrilled to see this. I strongly endorse Andre for this residency.

JakeBlockchain commented 1 year ago

Many 👍 to this!

Andre did a fantastic job coordinating the CityCoins community and thinking deeply on the topics CityCoiners were considering.

Andre would be a great asset to give sBTC the best chance to lead the way for Bitcoin layers and Stacks.

ileanabtc commented 1 year ago

+1 to this! Andre is a great fit! I strongly support this residency.

shanvoight commented 1 year ago

Andre has been an incredible asset to the Stacks ecosystem. I look forward to seeing the great work he'll do for sBTC.

orlandobtc commented 1 year ago

I strongly support this residency. Andre's previous experience as a CityCoins community lead has demonstrated that he is an excellent project manager and ardent supporter of the Stacks ecosystem.

Also, as a member of the GTM sBTC working group, I strongly agree that there should be a person working full time to lead the initiative. The group necessarily requires communicating with and managing various stakeholders and spearheading various initiatives. We need one person who can act as the liaison between all of these initiative, keep things organized, and move things along. However, the rest of the working group members are already working full time in other capacities.

Additionally, sBTC is also going to be one of Stacks' most important features, if not the important. Accordingly, its rollout needs to executed well. This residency would fill a much needed gap and, given the importance of getting the sBTC launch right, is critical for the ecosystem.

I can't think of a better person for the role.

GinaAbrams commented 1 year ago

I strongly support Andre taking on this crucial role! Andre hits the ground running on all that he does, and there is a definitive need for someone to incorporate and streamline all the various working group efforts to realize a successful launch for sBTC. Andre is a fantastic fit for this; we're lucky to have him.

diegomey commented 1 year ago

sBTC is groundbreaking and demands a team that can operate a GTM at a high level with the talent/skills to plan, execute and deliver product/market strategies while building a thriving community, and that's exactly why I strongly support Andre for this role.

jonastgerber commented 1 year ago

Absolutely! Already contributing great value to the sBTC planning and GTM activities. Work ethic, organizational skills, strong relationship cultivation abilities and of course domain expertise - all make Andre a great fit for this important role. Fully endorse!

dpym commented 1 year ago

+1 for Andre. Great fit for this role.

proiacm commented 1 year ago

I fully support Andre taking this Residency. He has demonstrated his skill and commitment to Stacks as the CityCoins community lead and went above and beyond when working with the Whitelabel team to deliver the first Clarity Camp in partnership with CityCoins, Venture Miami, and MDC. He will do a fantastic job leading this sBTC initiative.

adam-haun commented 1 year ago

👍 👍 👍 all my support and confidence goes to Andre leading this initiative. His knowledge of the overall ecosystem combined with past experiences serving the community goes above and beyond 🚀

andrerserrano commented 1 year ago

Thanks so much for the support everyone! I sincerely appreciate it!

LayerTechnologies commented 1 year ago

I'm all in on Andre leading this. He knows the ins and outs of the ecosystem and has a track record of serving the community and what is needed to drive this initiative forward

Hero-Gamer commented 1 year ago

Hi all, I'd like to comment on the to-do list or goals. (not sure if it's on the to do list yet if it's already sorry!)

Just some thoughts that this can be very powerful and be very useful part of documentation everywhere. Again, if it's already on the to do list. Sorry!

jennymith commented 1 year ago

@renashah, thanks for the nomination. I'm excited to officially submit my proposal for the sBTC residency.

What's your name/your team's name?

Andre Serrano Discord: andre.btc#1939 Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrerserrano

Best email on which to contact you?

Email: andre@novablock.io

Personal Statement

sBTC is infrastructure that will enable Bitcoin to be used throughout Web3 and DeFi, while staying true to the ethos of decentralization and censorship-resistance. It has the potential to unlock billions of dollars of BTC capital through the use of smart contracts that can trustlessly write to the Bitcoin blockchain. Given the market opportunity and it’s strategic importance to the Stacks ecosystem, it’s crucial that we have a clear go-to-market plan, alignment within the community, and foundational partnerships secured for when it goes live later this year.

During the residency, I plan to drive awareness, adoption and support for sBTC. This residency would play a key role in defining use cases, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders, and ensuring accountability for key milestones.

End Product: What does success look like?

By the end of the residency, I plan to achieve the following:

* Establish a product vision and shared set of priorities across the ecosystem for sBTC launch.

* Drive go-to-market strategy for sBTC, including roadmap, use cases and target audiences.

* Integrate sBTC into impactful apps & use cases available at launch. Examples include:

  1. DeFi (Zest, Alex, Arkadiko)
  2. DAOs (OrangeFund, Multisafe, StackerDAO)
  3. NFTs (Gamma)
  4. Identity (BNS)
  5. Privacy (TBD)

* Build and convert a pipeline of strategic product integrations for sBTC, inclusive of:

  * Signers (Exchanges, Custody, Stacking Pools)
  * Oracles
  * Stablecoins
  * Institutional (Funds, OTC, Market-makers)

* Collaborate with a broad range of stakeholders and ensure accountability for key milestones.

* A regular cadence of progress updates to the broader community.

Roadmap

Milestone 1: Planning & Logistics: Q1 2023

* Publish public sBTC roadmap featuring key developments that community members can expect every month

* Establish key workstreams, activate alliance, and set up comms platform

* Prepare sales materials and open source for Stacks community leaders

* Identify prospective BD partners and create account plans

* Schedule monthly town hall to communicate progress updates

Milestone 2: Activation: Q1-Q3 2023

* Develop business case for sBTC

* Pitch and convert integrations with strategic BD partners

* Create RFPs for top use cases and ensure priority apps are integrated for launch

* Ensure deadlines are met, audits are completed, comms are prepared for launch

Milestone 3: Post-launch support: Q4 2023

* Ensure sBTC launches with a target amount of BTC committed to the peg and critical partnerships activated on day 1

* Coordinate with internal stakeholders to plan launch event and hackathon for sBTC

* Manage ongoing relationships with key partners and develop creative approaches to secure new partnerships

* Design approaches to recruit startup founders to build on sBTC

Appendix

1. **Contributor to the sBTC GTM working group (references: @rena Shah, @mitchell Cuevas)**

2. **Former app builder on Stacks via CityCoins**

* Hosted a 300+ person conference exploring how NFTs empower community while improving quality of life for city residents.

* Launched Miami Web3 Developer Bootcamp, a smart contract development course in partnership with Stacks Foundation, the City of Miami and Miami-Dade College.

* Led the Governance working group and developed the DAO structure.

* Grew the developer ecosystem by hosting hackathons and bi-weekly Builder’s Calls.

3. **Experience leading business development for top crypto projects (Zcash)**

* Executed strategic partnerships across cryptocurrency exchanges, wallets/custodians, payments providers and DeFi protocols.

* Developed creative co-marketing campaigns around new product launches.

* Published regular progress updates for the community.

Thanks for taking the time to review my application. Feel free to leave any feedback or comments. I look forward to hopefully collaborating with y'all further!

Congratulations @andrerserrano, we're happy to approve your residency! You delivered a great presentation to the community on Friday and we're excited to see how you can help move sBTC forward.

Many thanks to the community as well for all your feedback. If you were unable to tune in to Andre's presentation, you can take a look here (Passcode: &@wj0wJ5).

@andrerserrano Let us know where the community can tune in for regular updates on your residency.

andrerserrano commented 1 year ago

Thank you @jennymith! Very excited about this opportunity.

Here's how to get involved / stay in touch:

We'll be hosting more community events in the future to discuss our roadmap and progress. Keep an eye out for that soon!

andrerserrano commented 1 year ago

Hi everyone,

I wanted to provide a quick mid-residency update to the community. First, it's an honor being the sBTC resident. I believe this continues to be a critical area of development to provide seamless transition of BTC between L1 and L2. This also positions Stacks as the scalability solution to help address rising fees and network congestion caused by inscriptions.

Here’s a summary of achievements so far in Q1-Q2 and how it tracks to my original proposal.

Top Achievements in Q1 - Q2

How does this align with the goals I set?

Milestone 1: Planning & Logistics: Q1 2023

Plan Result
Publish public sBTC roadmap featuring key developments that community members can expect every month ✔️Published public sBTC roadmap detailing the sBTC vision and strategic plan
Establish key workstreams, activate alliance, and set up comms platform ✔️Workstreams established which are viewable in the sBTC Project Plan. Info on comms is viewable in sBTC HQ.
Prepare sales materials and open source for Stacks community leaders ✔️Completed sBTC one pager and revised sBTC deck for partner engagement
Identify prospective BD partners and create account plans ✔️Created a list of strategic partners & worked with BD to prioritize and convert agreements. (confidential)
Schedule monthly quarterly town hall to communicate progress updates ✔️hosted Q1 Town Hall, planning Q2 for June. Note that this cadence has been updated to quarterly. Also hosted regular go-to-market calls that are open to the community.
Milestone 2: Activation: Q1-Q3 2023 Plan Result
Develop business case for sBTC I believe the product-market fit for sBTC is 1) earning yield or using BTC collateral without counterparty risk and 2) scaling solution for Ordinals & inscription based assets (BRC20). This is on-going and I’m closely following market trends to inform the business case strategy.
Pitch and convert integrations with strategic BD partners ✔️Two signers are in the contract stage, two are in the due diligence & pitching stage.
Create RFPs for top use cases and ensure priority apps are integrated for launch ✔️Published an RFP for sBTC startups & use cases “21 startup ideas for sBTC” ✔️Hosted “Stacks Founder” call and kicked off workstream with ecosystem stakeholders to identify ways to improve founder recruitment and retention for sBTC startups.
Ensure deadlines are met, audits are completed, comms are prepared for launch This is on-going. I’ve been working closely with engineering to align with GTM strategy. We are generally tracking to be able to launch by Q4.

**Note that some of these links are confidential, so link sharing is off.

As the Resident, I work across BD, engineering, marketing, etc. The achievements listed are a result of collaboration with a wide range of people working across the ecosystem. There are too many to name, but if you contributed to any of these items, THANK YOU.

I welcome any feedback on my residency, and I’m open to any ideas or suggestions to drive sBTC adoption.

Best Regards,

Andre 🫡

igorsyl commented 1 year ago

These are outstanding accomplishments, @andrerserrano! Working with Andre has been one of the highlights of my career at Trust Machines. Andre will continue to be a critical force in bringing the sBTC vision to life! 🖖🏼

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shanvoight commented 1 year ago

Great work, Andre!

andrerserrano commented 11 months ago

Hi everyone -

After many conversations, we've realized the product/tooling scope of work surrounding the sBTC protocol requires full time technical expertise. We need to add an engineering lead to develop and support the bridge and signer tools.

To that end, I'd like to propose @Radicleart be added to this residency as a Technical Product Lead. This will ensure that critical sBTC infrastructure is maintained long-term and also provide more flexibility for his contributions to the project.

The primary goals would be the following:

I can't think of a better person to help build the open source tools that enable a thriving Bitcoin developer ecosystem. Mike has been a long-time member of the Stacks community and has made several important contributions to sBTC already through his work on Critical Bounties. I'll let him take it from here :)

will-corcoran commented 11 months ago

Hi everyone -

After many conversations, we've realized the product/tooling scope of work surrounding the sBTC protocol requires full time technical expertise. We need to add an engineering lead to develop and support the bridge and signer tools.

To that end, I'd like to propose @radicleart be added to this residency as a Technical Product Lead. This will ensure that critical sBTC infrastructure is maintained long-term and also provide more flexibility for his contributions to the project.

The primary goals would be the following:

  • Develop the sBTC bridge API & web application
  • Develop a Signer dashboard to provide signer details and transaction analytics.

I can't think of a better person to help build the open source tools that enable a thriving Bitcoin developer ecosystem. Mike has been a long-time member of the Stacks community and has made several important contributions to sBTC already through his work on Critical Bounties. I'll let him take it from here :)

+1 to this idea. @radicleart is perfectly positioned to step into this role and provide immediate support.

radicleart commented 11 months ago

Thanks so much @will-at-stacks and @andrerserrano for the nominations !

Very excited to officially submit my proposal to support the sBTC bridge and signer tools.

What's your name/your team's name?

Mike Cohen

Discord: mijoco.btc

GitBook: https://brighton-blockchain.gitbook.io/sbtc-bridge/​

GitHub: https://github.com/radicleart​

Twitter: https://twitter.com/radicleart​

Best email on which to contact you?

Email: mjoecohen@gmail.com

Personal Statement

The world is converging on Bitcoin as the most secure, decentralised and censorship resistant store of value available. However, the inescapable truth is that layer 2 solutions are necessary if Bitcoin DeFi is going to fulfil its potential and scale up to millions of users.

The hard problem is how to bridge bitcoin, to a smart contract enabled layer 2, without the risk of loss of funds, hacks and exploits which come as standard with custodial solutions?

The answer is the decentralised sBTC bridge protocol. sBTC addresses the problem of non-custodial writes to the Bitcoin blockchain and is in a unique position, within the blockchain industry, to solve this important bridging problem.

Given the strategic importance of sBTC to the Stacks ecosystem, the development of free at the point of use, open source, web based tools which provide access to the main sBTC features is crucial. These web based tools will ultimately give users the ability to use sBTC but will provide the important function of supporting development of the core protocol and overall sBTC product development and go to market strategy.

My plan is to use this residency to continue my work on sBTC Bridge and Signer Dashboard to extend the products applicability, from the early sBTC Alpha release, through sBTC Mini and on to the full Nakamoto release early next year.

End Product: What does success look like?

By the end of the residency, the sBTC Bridge and sBTC Signer Dashboard web based tools and APIs will be operational on bitcoin testnet and mainnet.

The core feature set of each application will be;

sBTC Bridge

sBTC Signer Dashboard

Each web application will be supported by an indexer API that caches contract data to support fast access and complex queries.

I will continue to work closely with existing partners and collaborators under the guidance of product lead, Andre Serrano. These include the amazing protocol and clarity developers and especially @Macxim who has done such a great job delivering the UI/UX design system.

Detailed sprint planning will be delivered at the beginning of each month. Plans will be tailored to the core project planning and tracked via GitBook, GitHub Issues and Pull Requests.

An outline of the delivery schedule is;

Delivery

Milestone 1: August 2023

Milestone 2: September 2023

Milestone 3: October 2023

Milestone 4: November 2023

Milestone 5: December 2023

Milestone 6: January 2024

Appendix: About Me

  1. Stacks advocate and contributor since 2018
  2. Contributor to sBTC since Jan 2023
  3. Successfully delivered several projects on Stacks
  4. Spoken at several blockchain events and ran bitcoin and stacks meetups in Brighton, UK
  5. Contributor to stacks governance via the DAO and Technical CAB

Thanks for taking the time to review my application.

Feel free to leave any feedback or comments.

I look forward hopefully to being a part of this exciting project !

MarvinJanssen commented 11 months ago

+1 just wanted to express my support for @radicleart.

@radicleart for Milestone 6 I assume you meant January 2024? 😁

radicleart commented 11 months ago

Thanks @MarvinJanssen - much appreciated !

Macxim commented 11 months ago

You got this, Mike 💪 🚀 Thanks for the mention 🙇 Looking forward to keep collaborating on this ✨

jennymith commented 11 months ago

Hi everyone -

After many conversations, we've realized the product/tooling scope of work surrounding the sBTC protocol requires full time technical expertise. We need to add an engineering lead to develop and support the bridge and signer tools.

To that end, I'd like to propose @radicleart be added to this residency as a Technical Product Lead. This will ensure that critical sBTC infrastructure is maintained long-term and also provide more flexibility for his contributions to the project.

The primary goals would be the following:

* Develop the sBTC bridge API & web application

* Develop a Signer dashboard to provide signer details and transaction analytics.

I can't think of a better person to help build the open source tools that enable a thriving Bitcoin developer ecosystem. Mike has been a long-time member of the Stacks community and has made several important contributions to sBTC already through his work on Critical Bounties. I'll let him take it from here :)

Thanks for raising and thank you @radicleart for responding so quickly with such a thorough project proposal! This sounds like a reasonable adjustment to the current sBTC Product residency. Mike, I'll chat with you offline to figure out the details.

Hero-Gamer commented 11 months ago

+1 to @radicleart long term loyalty to Stacks and a technical contributor to the ecosystem. Plus knowing Mike's dedication to getting the job done having worked with him previously.

There is extra 2 deliverable I'd like to ask if it would be possible to add from Governance point of view:

radicleart commented 11 months ago

Many thanks @Hero-Gamer !!

Agreed support for SIP voting would be included in potential residency with @jennymith earlier.

igorsyl commented 10 months ago

I am glad the ecosystem is giving more power and responsibility to @radicleart. He is a genuinely exceptional and intelligent agent.

radicleart commented 10 months ago

Means a lot coming from you Igor - thank you !

radicleart commented 10 months ago

In addition to facilitating the flow of bitcoin, the sBTC Bridge is also ideally placed to facilitate the flow of other digital assets, like ordinals and BRCs, from bitcoin to stacks and back again.

Researching and exploring sBTC / ordinal use cases will also form a key part of my residency.

andrerserrano commented 10 months ago

In addition to facilitating the flow of bitcoin, the sBTC Bridge is also ideally placed to facilitate the flow of other digital assets, like ordinals and BRCs, from bitcoin to stacks and back again.

Researching and exploring sBTC / ordinal use cases will also form a key part of my residency.

Awesome, Mike! I think this is a great addition to your residency. This research is very relevant for sBTC and you are perfectly suited to explore this use case.

andrerserrano commented 7 months ago

Gm all,

I'd like to share a brief update on my residency. Below, I've summarized the main accomplishments in Q3-Q4 2023. sBTC is progressing well and I'm pleased with the amount of progress made during this time. Furthermore, I believe the market is starting to take note of the Bitcoin L2 thesis and opportunity ahead for Stacks/Nakamoto.

Achievements in Q3-Q4 2023

As always, shoutout to all the wonderful folks who contributed to these projects. There are too many to name, but you know who you are ❤️

jonastgerber commented 7 months ago

Crushing it! Amazing contributions @andrerserrano, the ecosystem is lucky to have you!!