How to Get Your First Boombox

Boom
4 min readMar 21, 2021

Boomboxes are a new type of NFT built on Stacks. They allow people to do delegated stacking of their STX and receive an NFT which acts as an automatic claim certificate on their portion of stacking rewards. Read on for details!

Prerequisites

1. Get some Stacks (STX)

2. Install the latest version of the Stacks Wallet for Web

3. Transfer at least 101 STX to your Test Stacks Wallet for Web address (100 STX is the minimum amount for a Boombox, and the extra 1 STX will cover fees to the network)

4. Go to boom.money, select “Get Started” and pick the account you transferred your STX to in the previous step

Process

Once you get past the prerequisites, here’s how you actually get your Boombox.

  1. Scroll down to find the section that says “Start Stacking with Boomboxes!” and select the button that says “Get a Boombox”
  2. Select the “Continue” button to approve stacking via Boomboxes on the next screen”
  3. This will pull up the Stacks Wallet extension where you’ll submit a Stacks transaction. Approve the transaction to continue.
  4. Wait for the transaction to be confirmed on the Stacks network. Remember that Stacks is anchored to Bitcoin, so you may need to wait 30+ minutes for this to happen.
  5. Once the transaction is confirmed, you will be able to set the parameters for your Boombox (Note: You may need to refresh the page first. If you’re having issues getting the creation form to appear, refresh the home page, wait a minute or two, then select “Get a Boombox”).
  6. If you haven’t already, review the “How does this work?” slides at the top— it’s got important details about how Boomboxes work.
  7. Scroll down to the Setup section and specify how much you want to stack with your Boombox. There’s a 100 STX minimum, but no upper limit.
  8. Review the callouts, the select “Create This Boombox” when you’re ready to proceed.
  9. You will need to approve another transaction with the Stacks Wallet extension. Approve the transaction so it is submitted to the Stacks network.
  10. Wait for the transaction to be confirmed on the Stacks network. Again, this could take 30+ minutes.
  11. Once the transaction is confirmed, we will issue you a Boombox NFT that is labeled with the amount of STX you stacked. Receiving your Boombox can take 30+ minutes.
  12. After 3 weeks, we will distribute a reward payout in STX to you (or if you transferred your Boombox to another address, that address will receive the reward).

When Will This Be Launching?

We’re live! If you don’t see the “Get a Boombox” option available to you in the app, clear the application data and sign back in with the Stacks Web Wallet.

How Much Will I Get as a Reward?

We’re not sure. Boomboxes are released on every other stacking cycle, and yields are based on a number of factors that we don’t have control over.

Why Are You Paying the Reward in STX (and Not BTC)?

This was the best way for us to test out the concept of Boomboxes and see if people like them. We 🧡 Bitcoin, and we fully expect that our community does too. We’d love to make this available in the future, but for now we’ll distribute rewards as STX.

Should I Just Do Normal Stacking?

That’s up to you! We think this is a fun way to explore the potentials of having an NFT with intrinsic value attached to it. If you’re looking for the highest yields possible, we’d recommend checking out some of the other stacking pools.

Anything Else I Should Know?

Yes. We will release a new Boombox edition each month. Our plan is to open the doors to claim the new edition after rewards get paid out for the previous edition, so there will generally be a ~1 week window each month where you can get the new Boombox (so no need to rush when we drop a new edition…the limit is based on time, not quantity). Also, each account can only get one Boombox per edition.

Behind the Scenes

This section has a few more technical details, for those that care to dig in deeper.

  • We’re using Friedger Pool as our community stacking pool, so that’s where your STX will be stacked.
  • Stacking cycles occur about every ~2 weeks. To make Boomboxes super simple for end users, we opted to launch new editions monthly, which means they operate on an every-other-cycle basis.

Who’s Making Boom?

A rag-tag group of four builders, powered by the love and energy of the Stacks community. We’ve been making Stacks/Blockstack dapps all the way back to 2016, and believe deeply in the potential of a user-owned internet bolstered by strong principles in data dignity. The NFT hype is kind of over-the-top right now, but we plan on sticking around for the long term in order to help creators take advantage of this new world in exciting ways.

What’s Next for Boom?

Thanks for making it this far! We tend to focus more on building than on communication, so we’re throwing in a small roadmap for folks that are curious about what comes after Boomboxes (in no particular order)…

  • A marketplace for your custom NFTs and Boomboxes (thanks for your patience on this!)
  • BTC payout option for Boombox rewards
  • A new home screen that focuses on your NFTs more than $ balance
  • We’ll stay pretty tight-lipped on this one until it’s ready…but we’ve got some pretty amazing ideas for supporting creators in brand new ways

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Boom

Boom is a Stacks wallet that lets you create and manage NFTs.