description: Help build the user owned internet by testing the latest builds for Stacks nodes, Stacks mining, Clarity smart contracts, and more.
description: Learn more about the Stacks blockchain
---
## Introduction
@ -20,6 +20,15 @@ replica as all other peers.
_Non-enumerable_ means that the set of peers that are producing the blocks don’t know about one another — they don’t know
their identities, or even how many exist and are online. They are indistinguishable.
## Status
The Stacks 2.0 blockchain is in active development. While the final release ("mainnet") is in the works, you can already get familiar with Stacks 2.0 capabilities on the "testnet".
For more information on the testnet, have a look at this page:
description: Learn about testnet phases, timelines, and features
images:
large: /images/pages/testnet.svg
sm: /images/pages/testnet-sm.svg
---
## Introduction
The Stacks 2.0 testnet is an altenrative blockchain, to be used for testing. It is intended for developer experimentation and not built for production-ready integrations. The testnet is frequently reset and Stacks tokens, used as fees for operations on the testnet, can be obtained for free using a [faucet](https://www.blockstack.org/testnet/faucet).
With the completion of the Stacks 2.0 blockchain, a production-ready, stable version will be released as "mainnet". While work for the mainnet is in progress, the testnet reflects the most recent implementation of the Stacks 2.0 blockchain.
## Testnet phases
- ✅ **Phase 1 (Neon):** is a developer local setup, mono-node, assembling SIP 001, SIP 002, SIP 004 and SIP 005. With this version, developers can not only run Stacks 2.0 on their development machines, but also write, execute, and test smart contracts.
- ✅ **Phase 2 (Argon):** is the current version of our public testnet. This testnet includes SIP 003, and will be an open-membership public network, where participants will be able to validate and participate in mining testnet blocks.
- [ ] **Phase 3 (Krypton):** is the upcoming version that we're anticipating to ship in Q3 2020. This version focus on the PoX basics (miner get rewards, Stackers get BTC distributions, etc).
- [ ] **Phase 4 (Mainnet)** is the fully functional version, that we're intending to ship in Q4 2020.
The work towards mainnet is split up into four sequential phases:
- ✅ **Phase 1:** is a developer local setup, mono-node, assembling SIP 001, SIP 002, SIP 004 and SIP 005. With this version, developers can not only run Stacks 2.0 on their development machines, but also write, execute, and test smart contracts.
- ✅ **Phase 2:** is the current version of our public testnet. This testnet includes SIP 003, and will be an open-membership public network, where participants will be able to validate and participate in mining testnet blocks.
- [ ] **Phase 3:** is the upcoming version that we're anticipating to ship in Q3 2020. This version focus on the PoX basics (miner get rewards, Stackers get BTC distributions, etc).
- [ ] **Phase 4** is the fully functional version, that we're intending to ship in Q4 2020.
## Testnet roadmap
✅ Released features <inputtype="checkbox"disabled/> Upcoming
Each phase add capabilities to the Stacks 2.0 blockchain:
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Transactions go through phases before being finally confirmed, and available for
- **Verify and sign**: Transactions are verified to confirm if they are well-formed. Required signatures are filled in.
- **Broadcast**: Transactions are send to a node.
- **Register**: A miner receives transactions and adds them to the "mempool", a holding area for all the pending transactions.
- **Process**: Miners review the mempool and select transactions for the next blocked to be mined. Depending on the transaction type, different actions can happen during this step. For example, post-conditions could be verified for a token transfer, new tokens could be minted, or an attemp to call an existing smart contract method could be made.
- **Process**: Miners review the mempool and select transactions for the next blocked to be mined. Depending on the transaction type, different actions can happen during this step. For example, post-conditions could be verified for a token transfer, new tokens could be minted, or an attempt to call an existing smart contract method could be made.
- **Confirm**: Miners successfully mine blocks with a set of transactions. The transactions inside are successfully propogated to the network.
## Types
@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ Each transaction includes a field that describes zero or more post-conditions th
| Comparator | Compare operation to be applied (could define "how much" or "whether or not") |
| Literal | Integer or boolean value used to compare instances of the asset against via the condition |
## Evaluation modes
### Evaluation modes
The Stacks blockchain supports an `allow` or `deny` mode for evaluating post-conditions:
- What serialization protocol do you use for transactions? (e.g. RLP, JSON)
A well-formed transaction construct is encoded in [Recursive Length Prefix ("RLP")](https://eth.wiki/en/fundamentals/rlp). RLP encoding results in a variable-sized byte array.
In order to broadcast transactions to and between nodes on the network, RLP data is represented in hexadecial (also called the **raw format**).
To support an API-friendly and human-readable representation, transactions are serialized into a JSON format.
=> [The Stacks Transactions JS liberary](https://github.com/blockstack/stacks-transactions-js) supports serialization of transactions.
### Raw format
Broadcasting transactions directly to the Stacks Blockchain API or Node RPC API requires the transaction to be serialized and in hexadecimal representation.
When called the Stacks Blockchain API or Node RPC API, transactions returned will be serialized in a JSON format. Here is a token transfer transaction:
Alexander Graebe
5 years ago