Remove cool down cycle

sips/sip-x/sip-x-remove-cooldown-cycle.md

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+# Preamble
+
+**SIP Number:** XXX
+
+**Title:** Remove Cooldown Cycle for Stackers
+
+**Authors:**
+
+- Friedger Müffke ([friedger@ryder.id](mailto:friedger@ryder.id))
+
+**Consideration:** Technical
+
+**Type:** Consensus
+
+**Status:** Draft
+
+**Created:** 2025-04-01
+
+**License:** BSD 2-Clause
+
+**Sign-off:**
+
+**Discussions-To:**
+
+- [Stacks Forum Discussions](https://forum.stacks.org/t/remove-cool-down-cycle-in-stacking/17899)
+
+# Abstract
+
+This SIP proposes a change to the different phases of the stacking process so that stackers can change their stacking settings without the so-called cooldown cycle.
+
+The specification defines that
+
+- the beginning of the prepare phase is moved by 90 blocks towards the end of hte cycle
+- the length of the prepare phase is reduced to 10 blocks and
+- that locked Stacks token ready for unlocking are unlocked at 90 blocks before the beginning of the prepare phase.
+
+# Introduction
+
+## Glossary
+
+| Term               | Definition                                                                                                                                               |
+| ------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
+| **Cooldown Cycle** | The period of 1 stacking cycle where stackers cannot stack their STX tokens because their tokens are unlocked only at the beginning of a stacking cycle. |
+
+## Problem Statement
+
+The current stacking process is defined by a prepare phase of 100 bitcoin blocks that is used to find an anchor block for the next stacking cycle. Stackers must lock their Stacks tokens before the preapre phase, i.e. before the 2000th blocks of the current stacking cycle. Furthermore, Stacks tokens are locked for a locking period that always end at the beginning of a cycle, i.e. after the prepare phase. Therefore, the current implementation of Stacking includes a period where Stacks tokens are unlocked and cannot earn stacking rewards (Cooldown Cycle).
+
+The cooldown cycle for unstacking from a pool presents a problem for network decentralization. As a stacker, when I delegate to a signer and that signer does not perform and gets low yield, I get penalized for switching. In today's model with cooldown cycles, users get double penalized if a validator does not perform. Even if there are penalties for signers not performing / being down, the switching costs are too high for users to switch (2 weeks worth of yield is a lot).
+
+## Proposed Solution
+
+The proposed solution defines the end of the locking period to be before the start of the stacking cycle.
+
+# Specification
+
+Applying these upgrades to the Stacks blockchain requires a consensus-breaking network upgrade, in this case, a hard fork. Like other such changes, this will require a new Stacks epoch. In this SIP, we will refer to this new epoch as Stacks 3.2.
+
+## Locking period
+
+Stacking transactions shall result in locking periods that end 100 blocks before the beginning of a stacking period. This includes
+
+- stack-stx
+- stack-extend
+- delegate-stack-stx
+- delegate-stack-extend
+
+The PoX contract has to be changed and return the unlock height as previous unlock height minus 100 blocks for mainnet. E.g.
+
+```
+(new-unlock-ht (- (reward-cycle-to-burn-height (+ u1 last-extend-cycle)) u100))
+```
+
+The unlocking process of the stacks node needs to be adapted accordingly.
+
+## Prepare phase
+
+The prepare phase shall start 10 blocks before the beginning of the stacking cycle and last for 10 blocks.
+
+The prepare cycle length defined in PoX contract has be changed to
+
+```
+(define-constant PREPARE_CYCLE_LENGTH (if is-in-mainnet u10 u5))
+```
+
+## Transition to PoX-5
+
+A new PoX contract requires that all stacked Stacks tokens are unlocked and Stackers need to lock their Stacks token again using the new PoX-5 contract. The process shall be similar to the previous upgrades of the PoX contract. PoX-4 contract shall be deactivated and PoX-5 contract shall be activated at the beginning of epoch 3.2 All locked Stacks tokens shall be unlocked automatically 1 block after the beginning of epoch 3.2.
+
+# Related Work
+
+The previous PoX process is described in SIP 007
+
+# Activation
+
+This SIP requires are hard for and shall be activated on Stacks 3.2 as defined by the SIP for epoch 3.2.
+
+## Appendix
+
+[1] https://github.com/stacks-network/stacks-core/issues/4912