Reducing Validator Staking Requirements

Validating & Staking
#1

TL:DR - Reducing the minimum staking required to become a Fantom validator to 50k, 75k or 100k FTM.

Context

Increasing the accessibility of running a Validator on Fantom is an important milestone towards further decentralization of the network.

When Fantom’s mainnet first launched in 2019, the minimum staking requirement for a validator was 3.175m FTM, it has since been lowered to 500,000 FTM and today we are proposing to reduce it to 50,000, 75,000 or 100,000 FTM.

Ensuring more participants across the world can validate the network through lowering financial barriers to entry, Fantom is positioning itself as a leading permissionless blockchain.

Addressing Concerns

Will the network slow down?

When there are more new validators, transactions will be propagated to one of the validators faster, and thus it can result in faster event emission. But it also means that it may take more time to propagate to reach 2/3 W from validators. As long as new validator nodes are running on quality nodes, the network will not see any downgrade.

Will this create security risk?

When people add more new validator nodes, there exists the possibility that some of these validators are malicious. That being said, the network will be able to detect the presence of malicious nodes. It’s best to maintain a reasonably high barrier to entry via the self-stake requirement to ensure that any new nodes are high quality nodes.

Market Comparison

ETH: 32 ETH = ~$54,000
AVAX: 2000 AVAX = ~ $34,000
MATIC: 1 MATIC, *restricted to only 100 validator nodes for the network

Voting Choices

This proposal will be presenting the following options

50k FTM
75k FTM
100k FTM

Feedback is appreciated!

10 Likes
#2

“As long as new validator nodes are running on quality nodes”

How will this be achieved? Specifically what measures can be put in place to ensure new (and all) validators are running quality nodes?

Thank you!!

5 Likes
#3

TLDR at the top shows 75k or 100k.

Voting choices at the bottom are 75k or 50k.

In regards to the proposal I am all for it

5 Likes
#4

I am 100% on board here. I personally think it should be 50K and I hope that we can do that

5 Likes
#5

Finally! 50k will be perfect.

4 Likes
#6

50k could be awesome! Decreasing the amount in addition to increasing decentralization would popularize the network making it more accessible. I think it is a great idea

4 Likes
#7

I do not have great knowledge about blockchains and crypto, so what I wrote might be totaly wrong, but thats why I am writing here to learn. I wanted to set up a node to earn as a validator but when I calculated the income roughly, I saw there is not enough incentive to set it up. 1) I can earn 6% staking income without setting up a node, 2) There is no guarantee other ppl stake over me to get 15% over their income 3) income from validation is low and barely paying for expenses of the node. As a result decreasing validator staking req to 50k will not allow me to set up a node, first a validator need to earn something as a motivation. So if I am wrong what I wrote above, can you please inform me what I am missing? Thanks.

2 Likes
#8

Hey @Serro – Thanks for reaching out.

To an extent you are correct, if you’re planning on using a service like AWS and not able to obtain enough delegators the 50k self-stake will not cover the current* upkeep expense.

However, with the upcoming FVM upgrades, the costs of running a validator are expected to reduce (e.g Storage to be reduced up to 98% => https://twitter.com/b05crypto/status/1618715171769454592?s=20&t=UdIIUZH2r6yzLxSqSTXUfw ) and will continue to become more efficient over time. This vote is in preparation for the expected upgrades as well as reducing the barrier for those who are able to find cost-efficient hardware or delegators.

3 Likes
#9

I was told

" 1. If FTM $ value is > fUSD debt no liquidation will occur, when you pay back the debt you can claim it again" ie a c-ratio over 100%

I guess this makes me wonder if sFTM is no longer a thing?
if so what happens to minters who used sFTM to mint fUSD… are they liquidated regardless of c-ration position?

if sFTM is still around why are we being locked out of claiming rewards at the moment? (rewards that could be used to pay off fUSD debt…)

side question:
has the 6% APY for c-ratio above 500% been stopped yet?

2 Likes
#10

Hey @Hosampor – Thanks for jumping on the forum!

=> If the dollar value of sFTM is less than your outstanding fUSD, a liquidation will eventually occur. We are decommissioning the current fUSD architecture, as such, it is recommended that you settle your fUSD debt, then burn your sFTM before you can claim / relock / unlock your stake.

=> Liquid staking is still a thing, check out third parties like Stader or Ankr!

=> To claim rewards you will need to settle your fUSD debt

=> Yes it has been stopped, regarding the 6% APY for 500%+ c-ratio

Please be sure to follow the Fantom blog and official twitter and/or telegram for updates.

4 Likes