Bitcoin L2 Stacks Activates Nakamoto Upgrade

Bitcoin L2 Stacks is activating its long-awaited Nakamoto upgrade after months of delay.

What’s the Scoop?

• Performance Benefits: While Bitcoin’s 10-minute block times had previously imposed long wait times for Stacks transactions, the Nakamoto upgrade will allow transactions to be confirmed inside of a given block, increasing Stacks block production by 120 times to reduce transaction wait times from many minutes to seconds.
• Rollout Schedule: Today marks the commencement of the Nakamoto Activation Sequence, and Stacks node operators will have one Stacking cycle (roughly two weeks) to implement the upgrade, after which a final hard fork will be selected and the Nakamoto consensus rules will come into effect.
• Pegged Stable: Beyond increasing transaction speeds, the Nakamoto upgrade also creates sBTC. This decentralized pegged representation of BTC issued will be issued by the Stacks blockchain and can be used to pay for gas on Stacks or transfer BTC between the Bitcoin and Stacks networks.

Bankless Take:

Nakamoto will boost transaction speeds and transform Stacks into an actually usable L2, and it is imperative that this upgrade attracts new users and their capital to the ecosystem. Despite the vast improvements promised by Stacks technological upgrade, token price tumbled today alongside broader crypto markets, meanwhile, STX has collapsed 60% off its early-April highs from when it was identified as a BTC beta play coming into the Halving.