Community Vote Opening for SIP-044 (Clarity 6) and SIP-045 (Bitcoin Staking)
Voting opens on July 10 on our community voting platform for two Stacks proposals. Reach out to community@stacks.org if you experience any issues voting.
Hey Stackers, it's that time again: new votes are opening to the community!
There will be two separate votes on two separate ballots:
Each has its own ballot page, results, and passage requirements, but are taking place in the same voting window. To make it easy to move between them, Ballot.gg has added a grouped ballot flow: a persistent bar at the bottom of the screen links the two open votes together so you can go through both in one session. You don't have to vote on both proposals.
For background on how these proposals got here, see our earlier post. Note that the community voting window has shifted slightly so that additional CAB feedback could be incorporated into SIP-045.
Hey Stackers, it's that time again: new votes are opening to the community!
There will be two separate votes on two separate ballots:
- SIP-044 -- Clarity 6, Staking and PoX Post-Conditions, and Removal of the Cost-Voting Contract
- SIP-045 -- PoX-5: Bitcoin Staking and Emission Schedule Alignment.
Each has its own ballot page, results, and passage requirements, but are taking place in the same voting window. To make it easy to move between them, Ballot.gg has added a grouped ballot flow: a persistent bar at the bottom of the screen links the two open votes together so you can go through both in one session. You don't have to vote on both proposals.
For background on how these proposals got here, see our earlier post. Note that the community voting window has shifted slightly so that additional CAB feedback could be incorporated into SIP-045.
Quick info:
Vote window: ~July 10 -- July 20
Bitcoin Block Heights: 957,455 — 958,925
STX Snapshot Height: 8518714
PoX Cycles: 138, 139
Block heights are estimates and may be re-calculated shortly before publishing. Please confirm the final heights on the voting platform, since actual chain progression may drift slightly by the time voting opens.
Vote window: ~July 10 -- July 20
Bitcoin Block Heights: 957,455 — 958,925
STX Snapshot Height: 8518714
PoX Cycles: 138, 139
Block heights are estimates and may be re-calculated shortly before publishing. Please confirm the final heights on the voting platform, since actual chain progression may drift slightly by the time voting opens.
Voting Information
Both SIP-045 and SIP-044 are consensus-breaking changes, so each requires its own community vote to take effect. Both votes require that “yes” votes meet the standard governance thresholds:
- At least 80 million stacked STX must be allocated to voting.
- At least 80% of all stacked STX must be in favor of the proposal.
Voting with a Mobile Device
To vote on mobile, open the in-app browser within Leather or Xverse and enter the voting link: https://stx.is/sip44-45
Voting with Ledger
If you’re using a Ledger wallet, please select the "Dust Send" option rather than the contract call method to ensure your vote is recorded correctly.
Dust Voting
If you are using a custody provider or a wallet other than Leather or Xverse, use the dust voting option. Send the smallest amount your wallet allows to the addresses below:
SIP-044: Clarity 6
STX Voting Addresses
SIP-045: Bitcoin Staking
STX Voting Addresses:
Note: Xverse seems to require a minimum send of .02 STX, please keep this in mind if you’re voting via the dust method with their wallet.
SIP-044: Clarity 6
STX Voting Addresses
- YES: SP000000000F5JQ6BAK9582TC1M6HRXABVZ
- NO: SP00000000001Q6YBAK9582TC1M6KAW7AQP
- YES: 11111111114Pz8NZSx6YHoTaWZkWwMc
- NO: 11111111111hbmNftsTSgeVBzDS7tk
SIP-045: Bitcoin Staking
STX Voting Addresses:
- YES: SP000000000F5JQ6BAK9582TC1M6MVSVBX8
- NO: SP00000000001Q6YBAK9582TC1M6P8BXRYP
- YES: 11111111114Pz8NZSx6YHoTaWcPVrBe
- NO: 11111111111hbmNftsTSgeVC4YK5SY
Note: Xverse seems to require a minimum send of .02 STX, please keep this in mind if you’re voting via the dust method with their wallet.
Overview of Proposed Updates
SIP-044: Clarity 6, Staking and PoX Post-Conditions, and Removal of the Cost-Voting Contract
The next version of the Clarity smart contract language, plus two operational changes motivated by the new PoX-5 staking model.
SIP-044 Resources:
SIP-045: PoX-5 — Bitcoin Staking and Emission Schedule Alignment
A consensus change that lets participants pair a self-custodial BTC timelock with an STX lock to earn BTC-denominated yield, without giving up custody of their coins.
SIP-045 Resources:
The next version of the Clarity smart contract language, plus two operational changes motivated by the new PoX-5 staking model.
- Clarity 6: a variadic version of concat, secp256k1 public key decompression, Ed25519 signature verification, and new built-ins for trustlessly verifying Bitcoin transaction outputs on-chain.
- Staking allowances: adds the with-staking and with-pox allowances contracts need to safely interact with the new PoX-5 model.
- Staking/PoX post-conditions: new transaction-level post-conditions that let users protect their STX from unexpected staking changes.
- Problematic transactions: a mechanism for miners and signers to agree that a transaction is unmineable, so its fee can still be collected and its nonce incremented without stalling the sender's account.
- Removes cost-voting: deprecates the long-unused contract that let contract-call costs be overwritten without a hard fork — a mechanism that has gone unused since Epoch 2.0 and is superseded by the SIP process.
SIP-044 Resources:
SIP-045: PoX-5 — Bitcoin Staking and Emission Schedule Alignment
A consensus change that lets participants pair a self-custodial BTC timelock with an STX lock to earn BTC-denominated yield, without giving up custody of their coins.
- Bitcoin Staking: BTC held on Bitcoin L1 (or as sBTC) paired with an STX lock for a ~6-month bonding period, targeting a fixed BTC yield.
- Emission realignment: restores the Coinbase block reward to 1,000 STX per Bitcoin block, reversing SIP-029's step-down to 500 STX, as a provisional bootstrap-phase rate. PoX-6 will formally reassess this rate using real PoX-5 performance data, reviewed with the Economic CAB.
- Bootstrap phase only: capacity, target yield, and BTC:STX ratio are set by the Stacks Endowment under fixed guardrails during this initial phase (proposed initial conditions: 3,000 BTC capacity, 5% minimum STX ratio, 3% target APY). The fully algorithmic, permissionless phase (PoX-6) is directional only and will require its own SIP.
- Staking process improvements: removes the cooldown cycle on reward-address changes and persists pool commitments across cycles, cutting recurring operational overhead for stackers and pool operators.
SIP-045 Resources: