It’s been a long-standing tradition for Blockstack PBC to release an annual hard fork update. The latest, which completed on January 17th, materialized the Blockchain.com Stacks (STX) distribution. In the process, the full set of addresses from the Blockchain.com distribution were granted Stacks tokens, bringing the approximate number of Stacks holders from around 5,000 to well over 300,000! The STX for these new owners are locked for a year.

This latest hard fork is important because we anticipate it to be the last one Blockstack PBC itself will initiate and actively execute. Having the PBC team work on 1.0 for the past year allowed us to move quickly to launch and maintain the Stacks 1.0 blockchain, as well as to execute on parallel research and development for Stacks 2.0. As we push toward further decentralization though, we expect the Stacks 2.0 launch to be led by the network, independently of Blockstack PBC and are excited about the milestone this represents for the ecosystem.

Stacks 1.0 piggybacked on Bitcoin miners who also processed blocks and transactions for the Stacks blockchain. Stacks 2.0 introduces native STX miners, a new party in the governance of our blockchain and ecosystem. Independent STX miners are expected to have significant say in future hard forks, including the hard fork from Stacks 1.0 to the Stacks 2.0 chain.

If you remember from our ‘Path to Decentralization’ from 2018, Blockstack PBC has been steadily working to build “a healthy ecosystem where no single party has too much control of the network, where users are not dependent on any single entity for software development, and where no entity can be considered an issuer of the tokens used on the network.’’ In 2020, we expect that community and other entities in the Blockstack ecosystem will take more responsibility while Blockstack PBC focuses on developer tools.

Core engineers at Blockstack PBC will continue research and development on Stacks 2.0 as they have throughout the lifetime of 1.0, but we expect going forward that all protocol changes will be triggered by nodes on the network (including Stacks miners) and dictated by the governance mechanism of the Stacks blockchain (see SIP-000 for details). Stacks 2.0 will also make future upgrades easier as it will support soft-forks, enabling the addition of new capabilities without having to hardfork.

A few key Stacks 2.0 improvements we’re excited about include:

Clarity, a smart contract language that optimizes for predictability and security. → More

Stacking, a novel value transfer mechanism that we have proposed that allows Stacks holders to earn Bitcoin for actively participating in the consensus algorithm. → More

Proof of Transfer (PoX), a new mining mechanism we have proposed as part of the Stacking consensus algorithm, is an exciting addition to blockchain mining mechanisms. PoX enables benefits not possible with just proof-of-work or proof-of-stake. → More

As always, current SIPs (Stacks Improvement Proposals) can be found on Github. The engineers currently working on Stacks 2.0 would benefit greatly from your feedback. Specifically, you can support Stacks 2.0 by:

Using the developer preview of Clarity to write smart contracts → Try it

Providing feedback on the current Stacking consensus algorithm proposal (SIP-007). → Forum

If you want to learn more about these proposed improvements, please connect with us further at an upcoming event and join us on Discord. As we continue further decentralizing Blockstack, it’s more important than ever that we welcome new faces, openly collaborate with each other, and strengthen the community that will bring a user owned internet to the world.

Important disclaimer

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has qualified the offering statement that we have filed with the SEC under Regulation A for our offering of certain of our Stacks Tokens. The information in that offering statement is more complete than the information we are providing now, and could differ in important ways. You must read the documents filed with the SEC before investing. The offering is being made only by means of its offering statement. This document shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

An indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind. Any person interested in investing in any offering of Stacks Tokens should review our disclosures and the publicly filed offering statement and the final offering circular that is part of that offering statement here. Blockstack is not registered, licensed or supervised as a broker dealer or investment adviser by the SEC, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) or any other financial regulatory authority or licensed to provide any financial advice or services.

Forward-looking statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to us. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “will,” “expect,” “would,” “intend,” “believe,” or other comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements in this document include, but are not limited to, statements about our plans for developing the platform and future utility for the Stacks Token, our Clarity smart contracting language, and potential mining operations. These statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different. More information on the factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause or contribute to such differences is included in our filings with the SEC, including in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion & Analysis” sections of our offering statement on Form 1-A. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.