[Desktop Wallet]

1. Go to https://sip015.xyz/
2. Scroll down to where it says ‘Method 2: Stacking in a Pool’
3. Launch the desktop wallet used to participate in Stacking
4. To vote ‘Yes on 2.1’, send 1 uSTX (0.000001 STX) to SP00000000000003SCNSJTCHE66N2PXHX (make sure it is sent from your Stacking address!)
5. To vote ‘No on 2.1’, send 1 uSTX (0.000001 STX) to SP00000000000000DSQJTCHE66XE1NHQ
6. Double check that you are sending this transaction from your Stacking address, to the correct ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ address, and sign your transaction

[Web Wallet]

1. Go to https://sip015.xyz/
2. Click ‘Login to Vote’ at the top of the page to connect your wallet (must be a Hiro or Xverse wallet)
3. Choose the account that is being used for stacking
4. Scroll down to where it says ‘Method 2: Stacking in a Pool’. There should be a banner showing the options to either vote ‘Yes on 2.1’ or ‘No on 2.1’.
5. Click the option that you prefer
6. A window should pop up asking you to confirm your transaction. Click ‘Confirm’ to complete your vote.

Stacks 2.1 is a major upgrade that will result in many noticeable changes to the Stacks network and impact stakeholders across the ecosystem. In order for the core blockchain team to implement this upgrade safely and without contention, they must gain the consent of the overwhelming majority of stakeholders.

It’s also important to note that by design, Stacks governance is decentralized in such a way that no one party, including the core blockchain team, can make any breaking changes to the Stacks network until they have thoroughly consulted with and gained the approval of the overwhelming majority of the Stacks community.

Voting will take place during Stacking rewards cycles 46 and 47, estimated to begin around November 10, 2022 and end around December 10, 2022.

First, please note that all code for the Stacks 2.1 upgrade is and has been public and available for review. By the time that voting launches, code for the Stacks 2.1 upgrade will be 95% complete. However, those who would prefer to review 100% complete code may do so starting Nov 15th and vote afterward.

For stacker voting, those who are Stacking either on their own or through a community delegate/pool through cycles 46 and 47, are eligible to vote.

For non-stacker voting via EcosystemDAO, those who are Stacking through an exchange or not Stacking at all are eligible to vote so long as they have at least 1 liquid STX at a specific block height around the time that voting commences.

These requirements were put in place to prevent voters from “double dipping” or using the same STX to vote via stacker voting AND EcosystemDAO. The requirement that stacker voters be Stacking throughout cycles 46 and 47 means that those stacked STX cannot be unlocked and used to vote with EcosystemDAO at any point during the voting period. The reverse is also true; while a voter may have liquid STX to vote with EcosystemDAO during cycle 46 and stack those same STX for cycle 47 (or stack those STX for cycle 46 and unlock them for cycle 47), any attempt at voting via stacker voting would not count since stacker voters must be Stacking during both cycles 46 and 47.

Not really. For stacker voting, you will only be required to cover the cost of the transaction, so, a very, very, very small amount of STX (1 uSTX or 0.000001 STX) or BTC (~6,000 sats or 0.00006). Similarly, with non-stacker voting (i.e. EcosystemDAO), you will only be required to cover the gas fee or cost of the voting transaction.

Put simply, offering several different methods of voting enables much more of the Stacks network to participate. For the last network-wide vote on SIP-012, only Stackers were eligible to participate and they were required to send a bitcoin transaction in order to complete their vote. This method of voting was feasible for experienced, long-standing stakeholders, but was not as accessible for the average community member who may not have been Stacking or sending bitcoin transactions everyday. The difficulty of voting was reflected in the voter turnout, which was only 28 addresses (though this number could have been higher since at least one pool voted on behalf of many participants).
That being said, the goal for the Stacks 2.1 vote is to make the process much easier, encouraging at least a 10x increase in voter turnout, so ~280 voters. In addition to voting using a bitcoin transaction, community members Stacking through a community pool/delegate can now vote (and be recognized as distinct voters) by sending a minimal STX transaction using their Hiro or Xverse wallet, and community members Stacking through an exchange or not Stacking at all can vote by simply connecting their web or mobile wallet to EcosystemDAO.

Stacker voting helps us capture the voices of experienced stakeholders who are invested in the long-term success of the network. With this method, there is little incentive to “game” the vote because the final decision is based upon the proportion of stacked STX committed to the vote, not the number of individuals that have voted. For this method of voting, the threshold to complete the vote (80 million STX) is set such that a “whale” cannot account for more than 50% of the stacked STX used to vote.
EcosystemDAO, which employs a mechanism called “Snapshot Voting,” allows any community member to vote, whether they’re Stacking or not. Snapshot voting works by taking a snapshot of a voter’s STX balance (aka their “voting power”) at a specific block height around the time that voting opens. The voter can then choose to represent a ‘Yes on 2.1’ vote or a ‘No on 2.1’ vote using any amount of STX in their wallet, up to the balance recorded at the snapshot height. The higher their balance, the more “voting power” (i.e. the stronger the vote) a voter has.
Voters cannot vote via EcosystemDAO if they have a STX balance that exceeds the stacking minimum at the time that voting has begun. This requirement was put in place to prevent large custodians like exchanges from unfairly skewing the vote. Moreover, while this mechanism requires fewer STX to vote, theoretically making it possible to vote with different accounts or even the same account multiple times, keep in mind that the final vote takes into consideration the overall voting power or the number of STX used to vote. Even if the same account votes multiple times, the overall voting power can’t exceed the account’s snapshot balance taken around the start of the voting period. Voting once with maximum voting power is more efficient than voting multiple times with varying voting power because it requires less gas.

For stacker voting, there is no minimum threshold for voter participation, i.e. voter turnout, but there is a threshold for voting power, i.e. the number of stacked STX used to vote. A valid vote requires that 80 million stacked STX were used to vote. Of those 80 million stacked STX, at least 80% of them must have been used to represent a “Yes on 2.1” vote in order for the network to move forward with the 2.1 upgrade. If 80 million stacked STX are not used to vote by the time the voting period ends, then the network simply cannot move forward with the upgrade.
For EcosystemDAO voting, there is no minimum threshold for voter participation or voting power. However, in order for the network to move forward with the 2.1 upgrade, at least 66% of the STX used to vote via EcosystemDAO must have been used to represent a “Yes on 2.1” vote.
As part of SIP-015’s activation requirements, the final number of people who voted will be reported.

The voting power threshold for stacker voting was set by identifying the wallet address with the largest STX balance and doubling that balance. This was done to ensure that no one token holder could account for more than half the STX used to vote.
The threshold for sufficient percentage of “Yes on 2.1” votes was set at a level that would be considered “indisputably supported”, i.e. 80% of STX demonstrates that a strong majority of voters are in favor of the upgrade, whereas 60%, though it is technically a majority, carries a much more contentious margin.
These thresholds were proposed and discussed on a number of SIP community calls as well as on the Stacks Forum. So far, there hasn’t been any objection/opposition to the decision.
It’s important to note that the voting process is iterative! The voting process that is implemented now may not be the process we use in the future. The current process is designed to get the network started with as much participation from the community as possible. As the network grows and matures, changes/refinements geared toward improving the overall voting process/experience for everyone will inevitably be made.

Because exchanges themselves are merely custody providers (i.e. representatives) of STX holders, they should not vote unless they can prove that their users have given them consent to vote on their behalf. Instead, those Stacking via exchanges should vote individually using EcosystemDAO. The same principle applies for community pool operators, who are not expected to vote on behalf of their pool. In this case, however, individual pool participants are able to vote via stacker voting and be recognized as distinct voters.
Larger ecosystem entities like the Stacks Foundation will be abstaining from the vote until the very end so as not to skew or influence the vote earlier on.

You can expect to see all the great improvements listed here incorporated into the Stacks network.

The Stacks 2.1 upgrade will simply not activate. The core blockchain team and other key stakeholders will take steps to figure out why the upgrade did not pass and work to revise SIP-015 (the Stacks 2.1 specification) until it is suitable for the community.