Meet the Updated Stacks CABs
Stacks Governance gets a deeper bench
Every change to the Stacks protocol starts as a Stacks Improvement Proposal, or SIP. Before a SIP goes to a community vote, it is reviewed by one or more Consideration Advisory Boards (CABs). There are three: Technical, Economics and Governance. Each CAB is a small group of volunteers who bring deep expertise to a proposal, discuss it openly, and give the community a clear recommendation. CABs don't make decisions for the network. They make sure the people who do, Stacks holders, have the analysis they need to vote well.
This fall, we refreshed all three CABs. We opened a nomination form, asked current members whether they wanted to continue, and asked each CAB to review and vote on its own nominees. The result is a deeper bench on every board, with new perspectives working alongside members who have carried Stacks governance for years.
Every change to the Stacks protocol starts as a Stacks Improvement Proposal, or SIP. Before a SIP goes to a community vote, it is reviewed by one or more Consideration Advisory Boards (CABs). There are three: Technical, Economics and Governance. Each CAB is a small group of volunteers who bring deep expertise to a proposal, discuss it openly, and give the community a clear recommendation. CABs don't make decisions for the network. They make sure the people who do, Stacks holders, have the analysis they need to vote well.
This fall, we refreshed all three CABs. We opened a nomination form, asked current members whether they wanted to continue, and asked each CAB to review and vote on its own nominees. The result is a deeper bench on every board, with new perspectives working alongside members who have carried Stacks governance for years.
Thank you to our departing members
CAB work is unpaid, detail-heavy and often happens on tight timelines. The members stepping down this round gave their time and judgment to some of the most consequential proposals in Stacks history. Thank you to:
- Economics: Matt O'Connor (MattySTX), who chaired the Economics CAB from its start in 2022; Leeor Shimron; and Pieter Aerts
- Governance: Jason Schrader (whoabuddy), who chaired the Governance CAB; Juliet Oberding; Orlando Cosme; and Harold Davis
- Technical: Radu (bowtiedradone), who has long served on the Tech CAB.
Economics CAB
The Economics CAB reviews proposals that affect STX supply, emissions, stacking rewards and the incentives that hold the network together.
RETURNING MEMBERS
Xan Ditkoff, Chair (Daemon Technologies) Xan joined the Stacks ecosystem in 2017 as an early core team member focused on growing the developer ecosystem. He now runs Daemon Technologies, a Hong Kong based company focused on community growth, project funding and partnerships for Stacks technology, primarily in Asia. Xan steps into the chair role this cycle.
Hadan Esperidiao (ALEX Lab Foundation) Hadan is BD Lead for the ALEX Lab Foundation, the Bitcoin finance layer connecting L1 assets with L2 capabilities and cross-chain bridging. He has been with ALEX Lab for three years. He previously traded fixed income at Goldman Sachs and studied physics at Harvard.
NEW MEMBERS
Sam Lee (Stacks Labs) Sam has 20 years of experience in debt and equity markets, corporate finance and blockchain advisory. He leads token research at Stacks Labs, covering STX pricing, market structure and miner bid analysis to model Bitcoin staking capacity, and co-designed the Bitcoin staking model. He was previously Head of Research at Black Lotus Capital and worked at the Lehman Estate and BNP Paribas.
Andrea Z. Ballesteros (Stacks Endowment) Andrea is a member of the Stacks Treasury Committee at the Stacks Endowment. She supports Stacks builders through the Stacks Accelerator and the Bitcoin Frontier Fund.
Shakti Pradhan (Stacks Foundation) Shakti is Finance Operations Manager at the Stacks Foundation. For more than four years, he has run the Foundation's finance administration, including the signer program, financial reporting, tax and compliance.
Mark Kilaghbian (Dataing) Mark is co-founder and CEO of Dataing, building AI-powered products that help people connect while retaining control of their data. His Stacks work includes the Bitcoin Pepe community and NFT collection, a consent-based data marketplace, and STX/sBTC payment flows for user-owned data. He hosts The Cryptoconomy, the longest-running cryptocurrency podcast, which has featured over 100 builders.
Xan Ditkoff, Chair (Daemon Technologies) Xan joined the Stacks ecosystem in 2017 as an early core team member focused on growing the developer ecosystem. He now runs Daemon Technologies, a Hong Kong based company focused on community growth, project funding and partnerships for Stacks technology, primarily in Asia. Xan steps into the chair role this cycle.
Hadan Esperidiao (ALEX Lab Foundation) Hadan is BD Lead for the ALEX Lab Foundation, the Bitcoin finance layer connecting L1 assets with L2 capabilities and cross-chain bridging. He has been with ALEX Lab for three years. He previously traded fixed income at Goldman Sachs and studied physics at Harvard.
NEW MEMBERS
Sam Lee (Stacks Labs) Sam has 20 years of experience in debt and equity markets, corporate finance and blockchain advisory. He leads token research at Stacks Labs, covering STX pricing, market structure and miner bid analysis to model Bitcoin staking capacity, and co-designed the Bitcoin staking model. He was previously Head of Research at Black Lotus Capital and worked at the Lehman Estate and BNP Paribas.
Andrea Z. Ballesteros (Stacks Endowment) Andrea is a member of the Stacks Treasury Committee at the Stacks Endowment. She supports Stacks builders through the Stacks Accelerator and the Bitcoin Frontier Fund.
Shakti Pradhan (Stacks Foundation) Shakti is Finance Operations Manager at the Stacks Foundation. For more than four years, he has run the Foundation's finance administration, including the signer program, financial reporting, tax and compliance.
Mark Kilaghbian (Dataing) Mark is co-founder and CEO of Dataing, building AI-powered products that help people connect while retaining control of their data. His Stacks work includes the Bitcoin Pepe community and NFT collection, a consent-based data marketplace, and STX/sBTC payment flows for user-owned data. He hosts The Cryptoconomy, the longest-running cryptocurrency podcast, which has featured over 100 builders.
Governance CAB
The Governance CAB reviews proposals that change how Stacks makes decisions, including the SIP process itself, voting mechanics and the rules that govern the CABs.
RETURNING MEMBERS
Zero, Chair (Zero Authority DAO) Zero has been part of the Stacks community since the Blockstack days and first learned about Stacks during its regulated token offering. He is co-founder of Zero Authority DAO and, with co-founder Hodlstx, created the Cerulean Marketplace, where creators and builders offer services and get paid for Web3 work in a trustless, permissionless way. He is also a contractor with the Stacks Foundation, focused on governance tooling and critical coordination. Zero steps into the chair role this cycle.
Stephen Perrino (PeaceLoveMusic.btc) Stephen is a father of seven, a Rhode Island Realtor since 2010 with board and government affairs experience, and the builder of DeOrganized. He is a DeGrants grantee and Cohort 3 steward, and serves as a SIP deputy. He co-hosted the weekly SIP Spaces starting in 2024, and from 2025 to March 2026 co-hosted and produced the SIP Show livestream with HeroGamer.
NEW MEMBERS
Xenitron (Skullcoin Studio) Xenitron has been part of the Stacks community since the early Blockstack days and is the founder of Skullcoin Studio. The studio builds games and interactive experiences on Stacks, including Find2Earn and Strike, and has won three hackathons in the Stacks and Bitcoin ecosystem. He also developed the concept of Encrypted NFTs (eNFTs), implemented it across multiple on-chain games, and proposed a SIP to standardize commitment-based private NFT metadata.
Kevin Baker, GP (StackingDAO, Zest Protocol) Kevin is Community Manager for StackingDAO and Zest Protocol, an NFT artist, and a project founder in the Stacks ecosystem. He has hosted X Spaces and podcasts for DeOrganized Media and has worked with many Stacks communities, giving him a direct line to builders across the ecosystem. On the Governance CAB, he aims to bring more of the community into the SIP process and increase participation in SIP voting.
Eric McHugh (Dataing) Eric is co-founder of Dataing, an AI-powered matchmaker and developer ecosystem with a Bitcoin-native advertising system, and a recent Stacks Endowment degrant recipient. He previously worked on advertising algorithms at Snap, launched SaaS platforms from a top-rated incubator, and was on the founding teams of two crypto projects, one of which grew past $2B in market cap. He wants to bring non-crypto-native users into the Stacks ecosystem by creating new ways for users and developers to earn.
Guillaume Girard (UTXO Management) Guillaume is an Investment Associate at UTXO Management. He previously worked with the Galaxy Mining team as a Research Analyst covering publicly traded miners and new Bitcoin developments. He started his career on the Bitwise Research team and contributed regularly to Messari and Bitcoin Magazine.
Dr. Chikwere Okeke (Prince Troy) Prince Troy is an independent technical writer and content strategist focused on Bitcoin DeFi and Layer 2 networks, and was named the 2025 Stackies Favorite Content Creator. He has collaborated with the Stacks Content Guild and Hermetica, and contributes to STX Legion, Zest Protocol and StackingDAO. He breaks down complex protocol upgrades and SIPs into accessible insights for the community, and is dedicated to bridging the gap between core developers, SIP authors and everyday network participants.
Zero, Chair (Zero Authority DAO) Zero has been part of the Stacks community since the Blockstack days and first learned about Stacks during its regulated token offering. He is co-founder of Zero Authority DAO and, with co-founder Hodlstx, created the Cerulean Marketplace, where creators and builders offer services and get paid for Web3 work in a trustless, permissionless way. He is also a contractor with the Stacks Foundation, focused on governance tooling and critical coordination. Zero steps into the chair role this cycle.
Stephen Perrino (PeaceLoveMusic.btc) Stephen is a father of seven, a Rhode Island Realtor since 2010 with board and government affairs experience, and the builder of DeOrganized. He is a DeGrants grantee and Cohort 3 steward, and serves as a SIP deputy. He co-hosted the weekly SIP Spaces starting in 2024, and from 2025 to March 2026 co-hosted and produced the SIP Show livestream with HeroGamer.
NEW MEMBERS
Xenitron (Skullcoin Studio) Xenitron has been part of the Stacks community since the early Blockstack days and is the founder of Skullcoin Studio. The studio builds games and interactive experiences on Stacks, including Find2Earn and Strike, and has won three hackathons in the Stacks and Bitcoin ecosystem. He also developed the concept of Encrypted NFTs (eNFTs), implemented it across multiple on-chain games, and proposed a SIP to standardize commitment-based private NFT metadata.
Kevin Baker, GP (StackingDAO, Zest Protocol) Kevin is Community Manager for StackingDAO and Zest Protocol, an NFT artist, and a project founder in the Stacks ecosystem. He has hosted X Spaces and podcasts for DeOrganized Media and has worked with many Stacks communities, giving him a direct line to builders across the ecosystem. On the Governance CAB, he aims to bring more of the community into the SIP process and increase participation in SIP voting.
Eric McHugh (Dataing) Eric is co-founder of Dataing, an AI-powered matchmaker and developer ecosystem with a Bitcoin-native advertising system, and a recent Stacks Endowment degrant recipient. He previously worked on advertising algorithms at Snap, launched SaaS platforms from a top-rated incubator, and was on the founding teams of two crypto projects, one of which grew past $2B in market cap. He wants to bring non-crypto-native users into the Stacks ecosystem by creating new ways for users and developers to earn.
Guillaume Girard (UTXO Management) Guillaume is an Investment Associate at UTXO Management. He previously worked with the Galaxy Mining team as a Research Analyst covering publicly traded miners and new Bitcoin developments. He started his career on the Bitwise Research team and contributed regularly to Messari and Bitcoin Magazine.
Dr. Chikwere Okeke (Prince Troy) Prince Troy is an independent technical writer and content strategist focused on Bitcoin DeFi and Layer 2 networks, and was named the 2025 Stackies Favorite Content Creator. He has collaborated with the Stacks Content Guild and Hermetica, and contributes to STX Legion, Zest Protocol and StackingDAO. He breaks down complex protocol upgrades and SIPs into accessible insights for the community, and is dedicated to bridging the gap between core developers, SIP authors and everyday network participants.
Technical CAB
The Technical CAB reviews proposals that change the Stacks protocol, Clarity and the software that runs the network. Its strength this cycle is continuity: six of its seven members are returning.
RETURNING MEMBERS
Jesse Wiley, Chair Jesse is a DevOps and infrastructure engineer who has worked on the Stacks blockchain's systems and security since the early days of the project. He focuses on keeping network infrastructure running smoothly and making sure the right security considerations are built in.
Aaron Blankstein (Stacks Labs) Aaron is an engineer at Stacks Labs, contributing to the Stacks blockchain and Clarity. He has worked on the Stacks blockchain for more than seven years, including Proof of Transfer consensus, Clarity and other projects.
Brice Dobry (Stacks Labs) Brice Dobry is an engineer at Stacks Labs, working on stacks-core’s consensus, signer, and security infrastructure, with a focus on the Clarity language. With a background in compilers, programming languages and analysis tools, he is passionate about helping developers build productively, efficiently, and safely.
Friedger Müffke Friedger is a developer and entrepreneur and a longtime contributor to the Stacks ecosystem. He co-authored two of Stacks’ foundational token standards, SIP-009 for NFTs and SIP-016 for token metadata, among regular contributions to SIP reviews and more. He also maintains widely used open source Clarity resources, including a library for verifying Bitcoin transactions in Clarity.
j2p2 j2p2 is a computer engineer and Clarity developer. He won first and second place in the Clarity Course Cohort #2 Hackathon, has contributed to Stacks as a SIP editor, and co-founded leos.guru, a Stacks education platform, and chat.stacksgpt.xyz, a Q&A bot for Stacks and Bitcoin.
Setzeus (StrataLabs) Setzeus is the founder of StrataLabs, a Bitcoin studio that consults for L1s and L2s, including Stacks, and launched the Bitcoin development environment BitScript. He has contributed to sBTC development and is active across the Stacks builder community.
NEW MEMBER
Rapha Rapha runs an STX miner observatory and operates the Juice signer (about 0.23% of signing power as of cycle 141). He built JingSwap, an sBTC/STX order book, and the Juice stacking pool, which converts or compounds PoX-5 rewards on chain. He wrote a bond capacity analysis, writes on Bitcoin staking and unilateral exit, and co-hosts the Clarity Working Group.
Jesse Wiley, Chair Jesse is a DevOps and infrastructure engineer who has worked on the Stacks blockchain's systems and security since the early days of the project. He focuses on keeping network infrastructure running smoothly and making sure the right security considerations are built in.
Aaron Blankstein (Stacks Labs) Aaron is an engineer at Stacks Labs, contributing to the Stacks blockchain and Clarity. He has worked on the Stacks blockchain for more than seven years, including Proof of Transfer consensus, Clarity and other projects.
Brice Dobry (Stacks Labs) Brice Dobry is an engineer at Stacks Labs, working on stacks-core’s consensus, signer, and security infrastructure, with a focus on the Clarity language. With a background in compilers, programming languages and analysis tools, he is passionate about helping developers build productively, efficiently, and safely.
Friedger Müffke Friedger is a developer and entrepreneur and a longtime contributor to the Stacks ecosystem. He co-authored two of Stacks’ foundational token standards, SIP-009 for NFTs and SIP-016 for token metadata, among regular contributions to SIP reviews and more. He also maintains widely used open source Clarity resources, including a library for verifying Bitcoin transactions in Clarity.
j2p2 j2p2 is a computer engineer and Clarity developer. He won first and second place in the Clarity Course Cohort #2 Hackathon, has contributed to Stacks as a SIP editor, and co-founded leos.guru, a Stacks education platform, and chat.stacksgpt.xyz, a Q&A bot for Stacks and Bitcoin.
Setzeus (StrataLabs) Setzeus is the founder of StrataLabs, a Bitcoin studio that consults for L1s and L2s, including Stacks, and launched the Bitcoin development environment BitScript. He has contributed to sBTC development and is active across the Stacks builder community.
NEW MEMBER
Rapha Rapha runs an STX miner observatory and operates the Juice signer (about 0.23% of signing power as of cycle 141). He built JingSwap, an sBTC/STX order book, and the Juice stacking pool, which converts or compounds PoX-5 rewards on chain. He wrote a bond capacity analysis, writes on Bitcoin staking and unilateral exit, and co-hosts the Clarity Working Group.
How CAB rotations work
CAB members serve for as long as they choose to, and new members join through periodic rotations that keep each board active and add fresh expertise. A rotation works like this:
If you applied this round and weren’t selected, we’d love to hear more about your background. Limited information was the most common reason nominees didn’t advance.
Interested in serving? Watch for the next nomination form on the Stacks forum and X, or reach out anytime at community@stacks.org.
- Nominations open. This round, for the first time, the Foundation opened a public self-nomination form so anyone in the Stacks community could apply to serve on a CAB. We also reached out directly to builders whose work made them a strong fit. We plan to keep the form as part of future rotations.
- Current members check in. Each member confirms whether they’ll continue. Members who step down or don’t respond come off the roster and are always welcome to rejoin later.
- Each CAB chooses its members. Nominees who meet basic qualifications go to the current members of the relevant CAB, who vote to approve each one. If a chair seat opens, the CAB votes on a new chair too. The Foundation facilitates the process but doesn’t vote.
- Rosters go public. Updated rosters are published on GitHub and the SIP Tracker, and new members are onboarded to the governance platform and their CAB’s discussion channel.
If you applied this round and weren’t selected, we’d love to hear more about your background. Limited information was the most common reason nominees didn’t advance.
Interested in serving? Watch for the next nomination form on the Stacks forum and X, or reach out anytime at community@stacks.org.
What's next
The new rosters get to work right away, with upcoming SIPs headed for review in the coming weeks. You can follow every CAB review and vote on the SIP Tracker and find each CAB's roster and bylaws on GitHub at github.com/stacksgov/sips.
CABs work best when the community shows up. Read the proposals, join the discussion during feedback phases, and vote!
Thank you to every member, returning and new, for the time and care you bring to Stacks governance.
CABs work best when the community shows up. Read the proposals, join the discussion during feedback phases, and vote!
Thank you to every member, returning and new, for the time and care you bring to Stacks governance.