Phase 1: Staking on Flare Overview
New Staking Model.
Flare is undergoing a transition, slowly exiting beta and adopting a staking model where the network validators also take on the responsibility of supplying data to the network. This introduces a combined role known as Infrastructure Providers (IPs), who are accountable for both validation and data provision. At present, Data Providers (DPs) who do not operate observation nodes solely earn rewards through the FTSO rewards.
Unfortunately, there have been cases where certain DPs exhibited malicious intent by colluding, which may be harmful to the network. To address this, the introduction of the FTSO Management Group has proven to be an effective measure in monitoring and deterring these bad actors.
However, with the new staking model, decentralisation will be further enhanced by reducing the incentives for collusion. This will be achieved by enabling IPs to earn a base income.
"The stake required to perform the infrastructure role vests the economic interests of the infrastructure provider to the network, increasing the incentive for an infrastructure provider to submit accurate data beyond the current data provision reward system".
There will be two types of Stake:
Self bond stake, which refers to the stake contributed directly by an IP.
Delegated stake, which is the stake delegated/entrusted to an IP by token holders.
The transition to staking is planned in progressive stages, enabling FTSOs to become IPs gradually. This approach ensures that they can acquire the necessary FLR for future self-bonding while safeguarding the interests of token holders and avoiding any negative impact on them.
Staking phase 1 key points (retrieved from Flare docs):
Initially, 33 FTSOs have been selected to receive stake from the Flare Foundation.
The Flare Foundation is unlikely to stake to IPs that have had their FTSO chilled previously by the FTSO Management Group.
There will be a minimum self bond stake requirement per validator of 10M FLR. This self bond will be staked by the Flare Foundation on behalf of FTSO validators.
The FTSO validators will not be able to receive these amounts nor claim them at the end of the staking period.
Professional validators, IPs and observation nodes run by FTSOs will continue to receive the same amount of incentives as during network Beta.
The validators run by the foundation will receive no incentive.
Thanks for reading, have a great day Flare fam :) ☀️
The original tweet thread with sources linked here.