The Nakamoto Release is a major upgrade that will result in many noticeable changes to the Stacks network and impact stakeholders across the ecosystem. For the core developers to implement this upgrade safely and in accordance with the principles of the Stacks ecosystem, 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 developers, 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 through the SIP process.

Voting will take place during to-be-defined Stacking rewards cycles, estimated to begin around February 2nd, 2024 and end around March 1st, 2024.

Code 'complete' is a bit of a misnomer, the blockchain code is never really complete. The bar for voting on a SIP is that fundamental design elements are locked down - this is when a vote can begin. We expect that by the time voting begins a majority of the code will be 'complete' sans any updates that result from bug fixes and final implementation details around the time voting opens. Code will be audited by a 3rd-party and is always available on Github for further review by all.

The short answer, everyone who holds Stacks. The method by which you vote may differ depending on your usage history, however.

For those who are Stacking either on their own or through a community delegate/pool during the Stacking cycles during the vote (TBD), are eligible to vote. Those who are 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.

For those users who have their STX on exchanges, it is recommended that if they want to vote, move some STX to a regular Leather or Xverse wallet and cast a vote from on EcosystemDAO.
These requirements were put in place to prevent voters from “double dipping” or using the same STX. The requirement that stacker voters be Stacking throughout cycles X and Y 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 X and stack those same STX for cycle Y (or stack those STX for cycle X and unlock them for cycle Y), any attempt at voting via stacker voting would not count since stacker voters must be Stacking during both cycles X and Y.

A very, very small amount. 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. 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 Leather or Xverse wallet, and community members Stacking through a pool or not Stacking at all can vote by simply connecting their web or mobile wallet to EcosystemDAO.

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 Nakamoto” 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 and liquid stacking protocols 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 STX holders on exchanges and liquid stacking protocols, it is recommended that if they want to vote, move some STX to a regular Leather or Xverse wallet and cast a vote on 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. Known ecosystem entities like the Stacks Foundation will participate in the vote as well, some may choose to share their position, others may not.

You can expect to see all the upgrades outlined in the Nakamoto SIP incorporated into the Stacks layer.

The Stacks Nakamoto 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-021 (the Stacks Nakamoto specification) until it is suitable for the community.