Author: Blue Fox Notes

During this cyclical bear market, the crypto space has witnessed the rise of the BTC ecosystem. Although some staunch supporters of BTC as a store of value are not fond of any ecosystem around BTC, the exploration of the BTC ecosystem has been ongoing. The driving forces behind this exploration are several; aside from the significant factor of "speculation," there are two other aspects of demand: one is the desire to unlock the value of BTC assets for profit opportunities; the other is to address the issue of BTC's future mining subsidies, which is also the most critical issue for BTC's future, involving how to ensure the sustainability of the entire network's security. Without the rise of the BTC ecosystem, BTC would face challenges in addressing this issue in the future.

In the exploration of BTC L2, there is also the exploration of Stacks, which is one of the earliest projects to enter this field. It attempts to allow ecosystems like DeFi to have opportunities to occur within the BTC ecosystem through its L2. So, how can we technically understand the evolution of Stacks? Here, we divide Stacks into the sidechain era and the L2 era. Although this classification is not very rigorous and there are different dimensions, it is mainly to help everyone focus on and understand some of the most important stages in the development history of Stacks.

Sidechain Era

The concept of Bitcoin sidechains was proposed by Blockstream, which later developed the Liquid Network; at the same time, the Rootstock network was also launched during that period. In 2018, Stacks launched its mainnet and introduced Clarity contract development for oracles in 2019. Additionally, it applied to the SEC for compliant token issuance, which was a rare practice at that time. Its significance lies in the fact that under compliant regulatory policies, Stacks earned more exploration time for itself. Throughout this long period of alternating bull and bear markets, Stacks has persevered.

The initial technical mechanism of Stacks is similar to that of BTC's sidechains. However, it is not entirely the same as other sidechains; it has a unique mechanism to achieve its security, which is its characteristic. In simple terms, Stacks integrates with Bitcoin through an anchoring transaction mechanism, where the anchoring transaction includes block header information from the Stacks chain, which needs to be broadcasted to the BTC network. Therefore, although it is called a sidechain, it differs from the conventional concept of sidechains.

Stacks has a PoX mechanism, which is somewhat similar to the PoS staking system. PoX stands for Proof of Transfer. There are two types of participants: miners and signature validators. Miners need to participate in Bitcoin chain transactions to qualify for participation (the opportunity to write new blocks into the Stacks chain, which is the qualification for mining), which is its unique aspect. Miners on Stacks need to obtain the opportunity to write new blocks into the Stacks chain to earn rewards. To gain this opportunity, Stacks miners must participate in each round of leader elections by sending transactions on the BTC chain, and then a leader is randomly selected from these participants for each round using a VRF (Verifiable Random Function) to gain the opportunity to write new blocks on the Stacks chain.

Each Bitcoin block will have a corresponding Stacks miner who gains the production rights for all Stacks blocks during that block's term. When a Stacks miner adds a transaction to a Stacks block, the signers of Stacks perform signature validation. If more than 70% of the signers validate successfully and reach consensus, the new block can be added to the Stacks chain.

Stacks interacts with the Bitcoin L1 layer through a "chain anchoring" mechanism. This mechanism binds information on the Stacks chain to BTC L1. Each Stacks block contains a hash pointing to the previous Stacks block and a hash pointing to the previous Bitcoin block. Through this mechanism, the Stacks chain attempts to ensure that all state changes occurring within its network can be verified on the BTC L1 network.

In summary, during this process, Stacks miners need to spend BTC to gain the opportunity to become block leaders (which can yield profits). To increase their chances, Stacks miners will spend more BTC based on the cost-effectiveness of the rewards. Once a certain miner on Stacks obtains the leader position, they gain the right to create new blocks on Stacks and add block transactions to the Stacks chain. After completing their work, miners can receive STX token incentives. The STX incentive tokens come from two sources: newly added STX token rewards for blocks and transaction fees from users on the Stacks chain.

In addition to Stacks miners obtaining opportunities to write new blocks through PoX, there are also Stackers who participate as signature validators, which is another important participant in the PoX mechanism. STX (Stacks token) holders can participate in the PoX consensus mechanism, primarily to validate the effectiveness of Stacks blocks and determine whether a block should be added to the chain. STX holders can participate in this Stacking process by staking STX, allowing them to earn a portion of the BTC that miners initially bid and STX as rewards. The Stacking rewards for STX holders will be based on the amount and duration of STX they stake. A Staking cycle lasts about 2 weeks (approximately 1800 blocks).

The total supply of STX tokens is 1.818 billion, with approximately 1.5 billion currently in circulation (according to CoinMarketCap data). Mining rewards will be the main release method in the future, with 1000 STX per block for the first four years, halving every four years until it reaches 125 STX per block, after which it will no longer halve.

L2 Era

Stacks 2.0 enters the Bitcoin L2 era, with two main aspects: the Nakamoto upgrade and the launch of sBTC. The Nakamoto upgrade brings Stacks into the BTC L2 layer era from a technical foundation, attempting to address issues of security and performance; while the launch of sBTC prepares for the practical implementation of its L2 ecosystem.

*Nakamoto upgrade allows Stacks to evolve towards true Bitcoin L2.

The Nakamoto upgrade is a significant milestone for Stacks itself. It allows Stacks to evolve towards a true L2 direction.

The most important aspect of L2 is sharing the security of L1. The Nakamoto upgrade attempts to move in this direction. After the Nakamoto upgrade, Stacks aims to position itself as a layer of the Bitcoin network, integrating more closely into the Bitcoin network, thereby becoming a deeper part of the Bitcoin network and ecosystem.

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