Stacks Community Overwhelmingly Approves Bitcoin Staking Upgrade

The Stacks community has overwhelmingly approved the Bitcoin Staking upgrade, SIP-045, with over 99% of votes in favor. This move sets up a hard fork for around July 29 at block number 907,740. Co-creator Muneeb Ali announced the result, stating that holders can now earn yield denominated in $BTC trustlessly while their Bitcoin stays on the base layer.

The upgrade allows participants to lock BTC in a timelocked contract and pair it with locked STX to earn yield paid in bitcoin. A companion proposal, SIP-044, which brings Clarity 6 and new staking post-conditions, also passed alongside it. Voting opened on July 6.

The mechanism works by having Stakers fund a timelocked UTXO on Bitcoin using OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY, pair it with an STX lock equal to at least 5% of the bond, and commit for roughly six months. Yield comes from the BTC that miners already bid through Proof of Transfer: paired bonds get a target of about 3% APY in $BTC, $STX-only stackers take 85% of the excess, and 15% builds a reserve that buffers shortfalls.

The bootstrap phase caps capacity at 3,000 BTC, managed by the Stacks Endowment with whitelisted partners and about 10% open to pools. A public testnet went live this week, and a 'Genesis Bond' is targeted for late August. SIP-045 also reverses April's emissions cut, restoring the $STX coinbase to 1,000 STX per Bitcoin block from 500.