Stacks Blockchain

Reference implementation of the Stacks blockchain in Rust.

Stacks is a layer-2 blockchain that uses Bitcoin as a base layer for security and enables decentralized apps and predictable smart contracts using the Clarity language. Stacks implements Proof of Transfer (PoX) mining that anchors to Bitcoin security. Leader election happens at the Bitcoin blockchain and Stacks (STX) miners write new blocks on the separate Stacks blockchain. With PoX there is no need to modify Bitcoin to enable smart contracts and decentralized apps.

Building

1. Download and install Rust

For building on Windows, follow the rustup installer instructions at https://rustup.rs/.

$ curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
$ source $HOME/.cargo/env
$ rustup component add rustfmt

When building the master branch, ensure you are using the latest stable release:

$ rustup update

2. Clone the source repository:

$ git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/stacks-network/stacks-core.git
$ cd stacks-core

3. Build the project

$ cargo build

Testing

Run the tests:

$ cargo test testnet  -- --test-threads=1

Run all unit tests in parallel using nextest:

Warning, this typically takes a few minutes

$ cargo nextest run

Run the testnet

You can observe the state machine in action locally by running:

$ cd testnet/stacks-node
$ cargo run --bin stacks-node -- start --config ./conf/testnet-follower-conf.toml

On Windows, many tests will fail if the line endings aren't LF. Please ensure that you are have git's core.autocrlf set to input when you clone the repository to avoid any potential issues. This is due to the Clarity language currently being sensitive to line endings.

Additional testnet documentation is available here and here