With the launch of Stacks 2.0 today, we're excited to announce that Foundry Digital LLC, a leading Bitcoin mining company, is mining STX and will provide other infrastructure services to the Stacks 2.0 network. Foundry is a Digital Currency Group subsidiary and brings institutional knowledge and capital to the Stacks ecosystem. As a mining leader, Foundry is building on their work to support a decentralized future supporting the Stacks chain, which in turn bring apps and smart contracts to Bitcoin.
Foundry joined a number of other independent miners that triggered the Stacks 2.0 network launch and have been instrumental in the testnet process leading up to this point. Along with the other launch miners, Foundry is one of the first participants in Stacks 2.0's novel consensus mechanism, Proof-of-Transfer (PoX).
PoX is an extension of Bitcoin's Proof-of-Work and connects the Stacks blockchain to Bitcoin. This allows the Stacks blockchain to anchor to the security of Bitcoin, and extend other key aspects of the Bitcoin network for use by developers in their applications and smart contracts. Aside from opening up STX Mining on the network, PoX enables 'Stacking' where STX holders can earn regular BTC rewards for supporting consensus.