Nakamoto Upgrade Approved: The Stacks Community Resoundingly Votes ‘Yes’
March 18, 2024
The votes are in, and the community has approved the Nakamoto Upgrade, a major update for the Stacks layer that will make it faster and more secure. In this post, we've recapped the voting results, what you can expect for the remaining rollout process, and resources to help you stay up to date.

Before we dig into the details, here’s the quick version of the results:
  • For voters with Stacked STX, every vote was cast in favor of the upgrade
  • For non stackers, 99.98% voted in favor of the upgrade.
The Voting Breakdown
According to the voting criteria outlined in SIP-021, for the Nakamoto Upgrade to pass, the below is required:

  • Of the Stacked STX that vote, at least 80% must vote "Yes on Nakamoto.”
  • Of the Non-Stackers’ STX that vote, at least 66% must vote "Yes on Nakamoto."

We’re proud to announce that the Stacks Community reached (and exceeded) each of these voting thresholds.

  • Over 150 million Stacked STX (80 million were technically required) from nearly 400 accounts voted in favor of the upgrade. From voters with Stacked STX, there was not a single vote cast against the upgrade.
  • For Non-Stackers, an additional voting power of over 1.5 million STX cast their votes from 2,300+ accounts. From this group, only a voting power of 271 STX balance from 16 accounts voted against the upgrade, resulting in 99.98% in favor of the upgrade.
Voting Highlights
Only 271 STX out of 177,166,148 STX Voted Against the Upgrade
  • Total number of STX used to vote = 177,166,148.
  • Total voting power for those in favor of Nakamoto Upgrade = 177,165,877 STX.
  • Total voting power against Nakamoto Upgrade = 271 STX.
99.41% of Unique Addresses Voted in Favor
  • 2,717 unique addresses took part in the vote.
  • 2,701 accounts voted in favor of Nakamoto Upgrade, 99.41%.
  • 16 accounts voted against Nakamoto Upgrade, 0.59%.
A dramatic increase in Stacks governance participation from the Stacks 2.1 Vote
  • 465% increase in overall votes for Nakamoto (2,717 accounts participated, up from 481 participating accounts for the Stacks 2.1 vote)
  • 25% increase in the number of STX used to vote for Nakamoto. (177M STX used, up from 142M STX used for the Stacks 2.1 vote)
StackingDAO’s Internal Voting Added Over 19M STX in Voting Power
With the emergence of new Liquid STX (stSTX) protocols like StackingDAO in the ecosystem, there is a growing trend of Stacks community members opting to swap their STX for stSTX.

Furthermore, within StackingDAO's internal voting system, community members had the opportunity to voice their opinions on whether they support or oppose the Nakamoto Upgrade. The results are as follows:
  • Total number of STX balance used to vote Solo Stacking: 19,370,000.
  • 6,827 StackingDAO accounts took part in the vote.
  • 6,681 StackingDAO accounts voted in favor, 97.86%.
  • 146 StackingDAO accounts voted against, 2.14%.
What's Next
With the Nakamoto Upgrade approved, we can look forward to the future. Here’s a timeline of what to expect as explained in Nakamoto Launch: Testnet and Mainnet Rollout Overview.

  • Pre-Launch Testnet (Activated): Live as of March 11th
  • Nakamoto Testnet: Live starting March 25th
  • Nakamoto Mainnet (Instantiated): Instantiation Window is between April 15-29
  • Nakamoto Mainnet (Activated): Activation Window is between May 15-29
Take Action
With the Nakamoto Upgrade approved, it’s time to act!

The Pre-Launch testnet officially launched on March 11th. Go build with the benefit of accelerated cycles. Here are some resources to get help if you need it. This pre-launch testnet provides core developers with a crucial window to test and fine-tune before testnet.

The Nakamoto Testnet is slated to be introduced on March 25th. This is a great opportunity for builders and Signers alike. We encourage you to join this testnet, begin building alongside the live network, and provide invaluable feedback that will help developers and contributors prepare for the mainnet release.
Learn more about what the approved Nakamoto upgrade brings to the ecosystem
With the Nakamoto upgrade, Stacks not only settles existing block transactions on Bitcoin but will upgrade to 100% BTC reorg resistance. After the upgrade, STX will be dramatically faster with rapid block times (vs current block time of ~10–30 minutes). Learn more at nakamoto.run.

Thank you to our active community for helping Stacks move into a new chapter!