Is the Stacks Network a Sidechain or?

So Liquid and RSK are both sidechains to Bitcoin.

Is the Stacks Network considered to be a sidechain to bitcoin? I can't find them using the term sidechain on their webpage nor anywhere else.

I am trying to find the proper term to describe Stacks to my colleagues.

Quote from: titular on November 10, 2021, 01:11:47 PM

I could be wrong because I've never heard of it until just now, but it sounds like an altcoin that leverages Bitcoin's blockchain to enhance its own security. Other coins have done it before. Veriblock comes to mind.

Quote from: DooMAD on November 10, 2021, 05:54:17 PM

Don't we want projects like these? Projects that bring more demand to the underlying asset? (Bitcoin)

I feel like we should love seeing these. Educate me if not.

I just fastly read those 2 links
https://www.stacks.co/what-is-stacks#
https://news.bitcoin.com/stackswap-raises-1-3-million-in-funding-round-to-build-dex-on-bitcoin-network/

From which I grabbed

Quote

Stacks 2.0 is powered by PoX. PoX is a consensus algorithm involving two separate blockchains. It uses an already well-established blockchain (in this case Bitcoin) to secure a new blockchain (Stacks).

Its written that its main purpose is to provide functionalities like smart contracts, Proof of Stake, and also DEX to Bitcoin

I know that HTLC provide smart contracts to Bitcoin, but I'm not sure about the rest
Whether it is considered side chain or should be classified as something like Catena non-standard transactions that attach another data or Merkle or whatever to the Bitcoin Blockchain through signatures or OP_Return or ...
.
This is just a fast glance, never heard about "Stacks"
network before.

It does sound like it is something similar to a sidechain but it's developers don't refer to it that way. They might call it a layer 2 protocol but the definition of this is kind of vague and the term is used to describe everything from CounterParty, Omni Layer, Lighting Network and several other completely distinct protocols.

Quote from: titular on November 10, 2021, 07:14:21 PM

Don't we want projects like these? Projects that bring more demand to the underlying asset? (Bitcoin)

I feel like we should love seeing these. Educate me if not.

That would be entirely subjective, I'm afraid. Everyone will probably do their own personal version of a cost/benefit analysis. Some people may approve of it because they can realise a benefit from it, while others may see it as a leech on precious resources. I don't think there's a "right" or "wrong" stance there. Only differing opinions.

Quote from: DooMAD on November 10, 2021, 10:38:43 PM

In almost all cases it is not that hard to decide. It all comes down to what utility they provide in real world. If it is some useless short lived hype then obviously it is a waste of resources, for example Veriblock that you mentioned is an obvious case of a waste when they provide no utility and have also been spamming bitcoin blockchain.

Quote from: Shymaa-Arafat on November 10, 2021, 08:12:46 PM

also DEX

DEX does not need a blockchain, in fact it makes no sense to store all your trades that you are performing peer to peer (for maximum privacy) in a database somewhere called a "blockchain"!

I can't access the documentation subdomain (https://docs.stacks.co) and the main website/white paper is quite vague, but at very least i won't use term sidechain/2nd layer/off-chain to describe how Stacks utilize Bitcoin since they have their own coin. Additionally, Stacks use Bitcoin mainly for these purpose.

Quote from: https://gaia.blockstack.org/hub/1AxyPunHHAHiEffXWESKfbvmBpGQv138Fp/stacks.pdf

Bitcoin is used as a settlement protocol by Stacks. It serves as the source of ultimate truth and
archives hashes of Stacks block history.

Quote from: https://gaia.blockstack.org/hub/1AxyPunHHAHiEffXWESKfbvmBpGQv138Fp/stacks.pdf

STX miners can view state on both the Bitcoin blockchain and the Stacks blockchain. STX
miners participate in leader election by sending transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, a
Verifiable Random Function (VRF) randomly selects leader of each round (while giving more
weight to higher BTC bids), and the leader writes the new block on the Stacks chain.

I actually found out that networks such as Stacks are actually considered to be "anchored chains".

Veriblock is under the same kind of category.