

Note: You must have v2.16.0 installed to access the functionality described in this FAQ. If you've installed the extension via the Chrome or Firefox stores but don't see this version yet, please wait until it updates automatically upon approval. Alternatively, you can install the latest version from source.
--------
Users can edit the fee and nonce values for any transactions they sign and broadcast to the Stacks blockchain with the Hiro Wallet.
To edit these values, select "Settings" at the bottom of the transaction signing modal:


The dialog displays a "Fee" input that allows you to modify the default fee value for your transaction.
While the default value is often sufficient for transactions to confirm quickly on the network, sometimes the value needs to be increased for them to compete against other transactions, especially during periods of unusually high network congestion.
To modify the fee value, simply enter an alternative value into the field or select one of the multiplier options (2x, 5x or 10x) and select "Apply".
Fees can be modified this way for all newly broadcasted transactions as well as for any existing transactions that are pending confirmation on the network.
To increase the fees for an existing transaction that remains pending, simply hover over the transaction listed under the "Activity" tab on the home screen of the wallet and select "Increase fee":

This will display a modal that allows you to modify the fee in a similar fashion as for a new transaction. Simply modify the fee and select "Submit" to re-broadcast the transaction to the network with the new fee value:

Note that the calculations used for setting default fees automatically were modified in September 2021 in a way that increased them substantially as compared to their previous values. This change was intended to help ensure that transactions confirm reliably despite increased network usage trends. Users can always decide to adjust these default fees upwards or downwards based on their preferences.
The wallet submits an incremental integer value (called a "nonce") with every transaction you broadcast to the network from a given account. This integer serves as an identification number for your transaction so the network knows how to recognize and process it properly as opposed to others you may have broadcasted as well.
The wallet usually keeps track of which nonce value to include for your transactions, automatically incrementing by one each time since the network will only confirm a transaction that includes a nonce value that's one more than the last recognized for a given account.
However, under certain rare conditions, the wallet may be unable to increment the nonce accurately and your transaction will fail to confirm on the network. In these circumstances, you can select "Edit nonce" from the bottom area of the above "Advanced settings" modal during transaction signing, and a field will appear to edit the nonce manually:

To determine the correct nonce to use, visit the Stacks Explorer and search for your account's address. You will then see the nonce value listed near the top of the address page:

Enter the exact value you see here in the wallet's advanced settings field, replacing whatever value is shown there by default and selecting "Apply".
Important: Do not edit the nonce unless confident about the right value to use since any inaccurate value will cause your transaction to remain pending until it eventually fails.
Secret Keys control the funds sent to individual Stacks addresses. Secret Keys are either a 24 word secret phrase that users were prompted to record in the process of generating the Hiro Wallet, or secret keys connected to a hardware wallet device. A full overview and background on Secret Keys is available here.
In the past, users were able to use either a Trezor or Ledger to set up a Hiro Wallet address as an alternative to generating a new secret key for their STX holdings. As such, they may have 12, 18 or 24 word secret keys that are associated with their hardware wallets that might have been used to set up the Hiro Wallet originally.
Users that think they may have lost their secret key are encouraged to first check any hardware devices for their holdings by connecting to the latest Hiro Wallet for desktop via hiro.so/wallet and trying the steps for Ledger here or Trezor here.
Users are also encouraged to check any safes / password managers or paper files with important information to find their 24 word secret keys if they have never used a hardware wallet.
Following the launch of Stacks 2.0 on Jan. 14th 2021, users must use the new version of the Hiro Wallet to transact with Stacks. The Hiro Wallet v3 and older can no longer be used for sending or receiving STX tokens and is effectively “read only.”
In order to access and transact with your STX, login to the new Hiro Wallet available at hiro.so/wallet by selecting “I already have a wallet” after downloading, and enter your secret key associated with your Stacks holdings. Your secret key is either a 24 word secret phrase or a hardware device such as Trezor or Ledger.
Users have a few paths forward to proceed with Stacking. Recommendations for smaller Stacks holders can be found in this blog post covering Stacking Observations and Reminders for Individual Stackers at or Near the Minimum.
The three options for Stacking include:
Direct Stacking can be done through the Hiro Wallet for desktop or via direct contract call using Clarity. In order to participate, users must meet the dynamic minimum threshold of Stacks from one address. The minimum is currently 80,000 STX, and it may increase. Stacking via the wallet directly gives users the most control over their stacking experience, especially as related to how many STX they’d like to stack. This can be a better option for those who have larger STX holdings and can safely lock above current Stacking thresholds, given the dynamic nature of stacking threshold minimums. The steps to participate in Stacking directly are listed here: https://www.hiro.so/questions/how-do-i-participate-in-stacking-with-the-stacks-wallet
Non-custodial delegating Stacking can also be done through the Hiro Wallet. A full overview of non-custodial delegated stacking can be found in this link to a forum post covering the delegation feature overview. This feature is especially useful for STX holders with fewer than the dynamically set minimum (currently 80,000 STX) since it empowers them to earn BTC from Stacking with any number of STX on hand. It also keeps STX safe at all times in the desktop Hiro Wallet, especially when used in conjunction with a Ledger device.
Your STX will never leave your wallet or end up in the possession of such third-party services when participating in Stacking directly or through Stacking delegation. In Stacking directly you'll have to sign a stacking transaction indicating your participation. In delegated stacking you’ll simply broadcast a transaction that permits the delegation service to commit your STX to Stacking for up to 12 cycles (or about 6 months).
As with all forms of Stacking, STX are locked up after committed by the delegation service until the final cycle is complete. This means simply that the STX cannot be transferred anywhere or used for other purposes temporarily. However, STX holders can choose to revoke delegation at any time and this will prevent such delegation services from subsequently committing their STX to more cycles.
Custodial delegated stacking provides users an option to stack via a provider that maintains custody of their STX, offsetting some responsibility for holders in maintaining and safe guarding the Secret Keys. Stacking via a custodial provider (such as OKCoin) can provide the most “user friendly” approach in the user experience overall. As a tradeoff, this means users have somewhat less control over their funds as they are relying on a third party for custody of those funds.
The Hiro Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet for managing your STX tokens.
Generally speaking, cryptocurrency wallets enable the sending and receiving of cryptocurrency quantities. Unlike physical wallets for carrying cash, cryptocurrency wallets don’t contain tokens directly inside of them; they merely provide a mechanism for managing them on a blockchain using credentials.
The Hiro Wallet specifically empowers you to manage your STX tokens on the Stacks blockchain, as those tokens are associated with a single publicly-known Stacks address and a single privately-held “Secret Key” (otherwise known as a “seed” or “mnemonic” phrase), which serves as your sole credential.
Your Stacks address is akin to a bank account number, in that it’s known and shared publicly so others can send STX tokens to you.
Conversely, your Secret Key is akin to a password, in that it should be kept completely private and used only to authenticate with trusted software like the Hiro Wallet so you can send STX to others and otherwise manage your own holdings. However, unlike a traditional password, no one can ever reset your Secret Key should it get lost. It’s absolutely vital that you secure your Secret Key since its lost will entail the lost of all associated STX tokens irreparably.
The Secret Key consists of 24 words separated by spaces. The words, spaces and their positions in the sequence are all critically important. Be sure to record them exactly as presented by the Hiro Wallet.
When sending STX from the Hiro Wallet, the software digitally signs a token transfer from your address to another then broadcasts it to the Stacks network. After the network has received and validated this transaction, tokens will be moved from your address to the specified destination address. The transaction will be permanently and irreversibly recorded on the Stacks blockchain.
Using the Hiro Wallet, you can:
Use the Hiro Wallet with a hardware wallet device raises the level of security by keeping your Secret Key away from your desktop computer at all times during initial authentication and transaction signing.
Please see this short video overview for a guide to the Hiro wallet for desktop.
While there are no known issues impacting correct, well-formed transactions, some transactions can be pending for a long time. Pending transactions will be discarded after 256 blocks or ~48 hours — a transaction that is not confirmed, by definition, has no impact on your assets and can be re-sent by the original sender.
More details on transactions in mempool can be found in this forum post on transactions in mempool: best-practices and known issues.
The Stacks app for Ledger empowers users to connect their Ledger devices to the Hiro Wallet (MacOS, Windows and Linux) for securely managing their STX holdings and participating in Stacking.
The Stacks app is available in Ledger Live. You'll need to install it there before proceeding to connect your Ledger Nano S or X device to the Hiro Wallet for authentication.
Important:


Please email us at wallet@hiro.so or join the Stacks Discord if you have any issues while using your Ledger device with the Hiro Wallet.
The Hiro Wallet unfortunately no longer supports authentication and transaction signing with Trezor devices. This is due to how Trezor supports integrations, in which the company's availability and engagement is required to set them up in contrast to Ledger's open model.
If you've used a Trezor device with a previous version of the wallet, you have two options going forward:
Warning: We highly advise that you continue using the Hiro Wallet with a hardware device, even if you can no longer use your Trezor device, to ensure the same level of security to which you're accustomed. As such, option #1 above is recommended over option #2 despite the extra cost and time required.
If you have a Trezor device with a passphrase, you will need to migrate both your recovery phrase and passphrase to a new Ledger device for use with the Hiro Wallet going forward. There is no way to enter the combined recovery phrase and passphrase directly into the Hiro Wallet without a hardware device.
See "Advanced passphrase security" from Ledger for details.
We hope to support Trezor again some day soon, but there is currently no timing expectation available. We will update the community if and when this work gets underway.
Follow these instructions to install the Hiro Wallet:
To participate in Stacking directly via the Hiro Wallet, you'll need at least the minimum number of STX in your Hiro Wallet balance. Stacking is otherwise available through one of our partners at stacks.org/stacking.
A few things to note when Stacking directly:
1) Stacking directly requires meeting a dynamic minimum threshold of STX that changes based on participation. The amount of STX required to participate has been steadily increasing since Stacking was initiated on mainnet.
2) Stacking is irreversible and once STX tokens are locked, they will not unlock even if the dynamic minimum increases and the STX are no longer eligible for rewards.
3) There is a "cool down" cycle between Stacking cycles. After your chosen Stacking duration, you’ll have to wait one cycle before you can stack from the same address again, regardless of how many cycles you stacked
We recommend most users pool their STX. See more recommendations here: https://stacks.org/stacking-near-minimum-recommendations
If you've decided to Stack directly through the Hiro Wallet, see the steps for participation below.
Once you've authenticated into the Hiro Wallet with either your Secret Key or hardware device, you'll see an option on the right-hand side of the home screen to "Get started" with Stacking:

Selecting this option will take you to the "Start earning Bitcoin" screen:

On this screen you can see when the next Stacking cycle will begin.
First, determine how much out of your total STX balance you'd like to commit for Stacking:
.png)
Then determine how many cycles you would like to commit this indicated amount of STX:
.png)
The estimated total duration of those cycles will be shown on the right-hand side of the screen so you know how long your committed STX will remained locked up before getting automatically released again for other purposes.
Enter the Bitcoin address to which you'd like receive rewards from Stacking:

Finally, select "Confirm and lock" to initiate Stacking with the amount, duration and Bitcoin address you've entered.
You will be prompted to enter your password, if you are using the Stacks Wallet with a Secret Key:

Otherwise, if you are using the Hiro Wallet with a hardware device, you will be prompted to confirm the transaction with it:
.png)
You should now see a pending transaction on the home screen for "Initiating Stacking". Your indicated amount will become locked on the Stacks blockchain once this transaction is confirmed.
You can follow the Stacking process on the right-hand side of the home screen as well as see how much BTC you have earned as a result:

It is important that you understand how to keep good security for your Hiro Wallet software.
Your wallet Secret Key or seed phrase is a cryptographic key with which you need to use the strictest security available to you.
The Cryptocurrency Security Standard publishes guidelines for key storage. These guidelines are presented from least (Level I) to most secure (Level III). We recommend you store your keys with at least Level II security. This level states that you should:
You are responsible for recalling and protecting your keys. Blockstack does not store your seed phrase and cannot help you recover it. If you lose your seed phrase, you lose the key to your STX tokens, which can be a very costly mistake.
Secret Keys are 12- or 24-word phrases that authenticate you to products built with the Stacks blockchain such as the Hiro Wallet.
They are otherwise known as "seed phrases", "mnemonic seed phrases", "recovery seeds" or "recovery phrases".
Secret Keys are like strong passwords in that they protect your identity and STX holdings. However, unlike passwords, they can never be recovered – by you or anyone else – if lost. So be sure to always back up a copy in a very secure place that you remember!
See our instructions for securing Secret Keys.
Always double check that you trust any downloaded software or website that prompts you for your Secret Key before proceeding to enter it!
Never give your Secret Key to anyone online, no matter how trustworthy they seem. Beware especially anyone who claims to need your Secret Key urgently for any purported emergency, financial or otherwise.
It's common for cryptocurrency users to suffer phishing attacks that fool them into providing their Secret Keys to malicious actors. Once your Secret Key is stolen by "bad" websites or software, there are no guarantees that you will get your associated STX or other digital assets back. And you will surely have to generate a new Secret Key for future usage since the original one will have been compromised forever.
The desktop Hiro Wallet has always generated 24-word Secret Keys for new users, whereas other products such as the Blockstack Browser and web-based Hiro Wallet have generated 12-word Secret Keys for new users.
Generally speaking, if you purchased STX before 2021, your STX holdings are almost certainly associated with a 24-word Secret Key or hardware device such as Ledger or Trezor.
If you have a 12-word Secret Key and never used Trezor or Ledger, you most likely generated it when trying separately to use apps built with Stacks (previously known as "Blockstack") in a web browser. Please ensure that you are entering a separate 24-word Secret Key into the desktop Hiro Wallet to view and manage your balance.
Secret Keys generated by certain Trezor or Ledger devices constitute an exception to this general rule since they may contain 12 or 18 words. You can enter Secret Keys with 12 words directly into the Hiro Wallet to view your holdings if you used a Trezor or Ledger device originally to set them up. Any other lengths such as 18 words must be loaded onto a Ledger device and cannot be entered directly into the Hiro Wallet. However, we recommend you maintain Secret Keys of any length on a Ledger device and connect with that instead to maintain a higher level of security.
You can use 12- or 24-word Secret Keys across both the desktop and web versions of the Hiro Wallet. However, we generally recommend that you generate and use a separate Secret Key for entry in the web browser since it's a less secure environment than desktop software.
Secret Keys originally generated and held on Trezor or Ledger devices can be entered into the Hiro Wallet directly as long as they have 12 or 24 words. However, we highly recommend that you continue using a hardware wallet to connect with the Hiro Wallet to ensure the same level of security to which you're accustomed.
If your Trezor or Ledger device has an additional passphrase, you will need to send your STX to a separate address without a passphrase before entering its Secret Key directly into the Hiro Wallet. There is no way to enter a Secret Key with a passphrase directly into the Hiro Wallet.
Trezor users with passphrases can migrate their underlying Secret Keys and passphrases to Ledger devices for use with the Hiro Wallet. This is the only option for Trezor users with any number of words (e.g. 18) aside from 12 or 24. See our Trezor guidance for details.
Secret Keys generated by the Hiro Wallet are BIP39 compatible and in English.
All Secret Keys entered into the Hiro Wallet must also be BIP39 compatible and in English.
Check if your Secret Key is compatible by cross-checking all of its words against the corresponding list by language.
Note that small transcription errors can lead to problems authenticating with your Secret Key. You may want to check in the lists above for possible variants of the words you've transcribed to correct such errors.
Also ensure that your Secret Key conforms to the following upon entry:
Follow these instructions if you've already locked STX for Stacking in the Hiro Wallet but wish to increase the amount of STX locked for improved chances to receive BTC rewards. Currently, the Hiro Wallet requires locking STX in increments of 90k or more.
Note: These instructions require you set up STX holdings across two separate Ledger devices or software wallets. Please proceed only if you feel comfortable dealing with multiple devices or Secret Keys. We highly recommend you do so with two Ledger devices and not two software wallets, for security purposes.
You will now participate in Stacking with the total STX locked by both of your wallets for any given cycle in which they are both still locked.
Alternatively, you can simply wait until your STX unlock for your single wallet after the total number of cycles in which they've been locked transpire. You'll then be able to reinitiate Stacking with a new total using the single wallet instead of creating a new one for adding STX before those cycles transpire.
Important note: These instructions involve the installation of a third-party wallet that is not created or supported by Hiro PBC. We make no guarantees as to its security or functionality. Please proceed at your own risk.
The third-party Electrum wallet can be used for withdrawing your BTC as previously deposited into the Stacks Wallet. The instructions below must be followed using the same Secret Key / seed phrase or hardware device as used to set up the Stacks Wallet originally for managing your STX and depositing BTC from elsewhere.
Please double-check that you have the same phrase or device on hand, then follow these instructions very carefully:





Then select “Options” and check “BIP39 seed” before continuing to select “OK” and “Next”:




You’re all set! All of your BTC has been withdrawn from the Stacks Wallet using Electrum.
Just as you don’t keep all the money you have in your bank in a physical wallet, you shouldn’t keep large numbers of tokens in your cryptocurrency wallet. Instead, if you have a large number of crypto assets, you should store them with a custodial service. Custodial services protect your token holdings using high-security systems.
Custodial services have different techniques for storing crypto assets. The techniques vary according to factors such as the liquidity level you want to maintain or the security you would like. If you own large numbers of token assets as an investment, you should choose a custodial service as if you were selecting any investment service. Consider your needs, the firm’s reputation, fees, and so forth.
The Hiro Wallet is not recommended for institutional holdings. Blockstack suggests a firm such as Coinbase Custody for institutional holders. Coinbase Custody charges its clients a management fee based on assets. Of course, like any responsible asset holder, you should do your own research and select a service that meets your needs. The Investopedia's article What Are Cryptocurrency Custody Solutions? is one place to start.
Stacks holders provide the Stacks blockchain with a Bitcoin (BTC) address when participating in Stacking.
BTC is transferred directly to this address via the Proof of Transfer consensus mechanism when the committed STX qualifies for rewards.
You must provide a BTC address in one of two formats:
If you enter a different format while initiating Stacking, you may see the error "only pubkey hash and script hash support".
The "Native Segwit" format (which starts with “bc1”), for example, is not supported.
If you used an older version of the wallet, you should begin using the latest Hiro Wallet with the same 24-word seed phrase from that wallet.
Earlier versions of the wallet required a hardware wallet to send and receive STX. You can connect this same hardware wallet to the latest version of the Hiro Wallet software. Choose “Use existing wallet” upon opening Hior Wallet. You don't need to create a new wallet.
Usernames created on Stacks 1.0 can be used in the new web wallet for testing only on the Hiro Wallet for web. Usernames from Stacks 1.0 will show up in the web wallet, but any usernames registered on stacks 2.0 are not yet visible. All registered Stacks IDs were automatically renewed at the launch of Stacks 2.0 for two years.
Usernames can also be used with the older app.blockstack.org and Blockstack Browser, but only until they sunset on July 1, 2021
The minimum amount needed to participate in Stacking directly is dynamic and based on both the total supply of STX and the total amount of current participation. It is be reported by Stacks blockchain nodes at path /v2/pox with the min_amount_ustx property and denominated in microstacks (μstx).
The value will never fall below 50,000 STX.
In various use cases, users can lock up their tokens but might not be eligible for reward slots (multipliers of 90K currently). For instance:
If you are Stacking near the minimum, you should review these options.
Support is available on Discord and Reddit as well as at support@blockstack.com.
You can find the latest version of the Hiro Wallet for testing against the Stacks Testnet under the "Releases" tab of the blockstack/stacks-wallet repository on GitHub.
Expand the "Assets" section for the latest release and select the version with "testnet" in the filename that matches your operating system (MacOS, Windows or Linux).
