Proposal to reduce the minimum STAKE validator amount to 2,000 STAKE

Mojmir · January 22, 2021, 3:02pm

Hello xDai community!

Following the proposal to reduce the minimum STAKE amount for delegators from 1,000 to 200 which already took place, we are now presenting you another governance proposal.

This time to reduce minimum validator STAKE amount from 20,000 to 2,000. The purpose of this proposal is to make the process of becoming new validator more accesible and affordable.
After passing this proposal we will very likely see an influx of new validators resulting in further decentralization of the network.

The 2,000 amount is following ETH 2.0. staking model with 32 ETH.
As of 22.01.2021 this is market value of ~ $38,000 for ETH and ~ $30,000 for STAKE.

All STAKE holders can now participate in the vote on the following snapshot page:
https://snapshot.page/#/xdaistake.eth/proposal/QmVVCyFPjuJ2CQBvYivPafaxHm9PbHFznoHSXX5pVgM5Na

AndrewG · January 27, 2021, 5:27pm

As we can see from the voting results, members of the community are very interested in further xDai network decentralization and community participation as network validators! The final tally found ~62% of voting weight in favor of reducing validator minimums and ~38% in favor of keeping the current minimums in place.

Yes, reduce: 49.67k STAKE 62.28%
No, do not reduce: 30.08k STAKE 37.72%

Reducing validator minimums is more involved than delegator minimum reduction (which was also voted on by the community with overwhelming support and subsequently implemented by the team).

To facilitate this proposed change from the community, the team will begin preparing for a change to the minimum validator requirements. The transition will proceed in multiple phases to ensure chain security and decentralization.

Phase 1 will incorporate additional processes to decentralize decision making and contract parameter adjustment. A group of co-signers in a multi-sig environment will be setup to provide guarantees that parameters cannot be unilaterally changed by a single entity. We will work to create this group and adjust contract specifications so that changes can be enacted by a multi-signature process from members of this group.

Phase 2 will include an additional POSDAO security audit to identify any potential issues with the changes in phase 1 or the proposed update. Once complete and verified as secure, updated requirements and processes will be provided to community members wishing to become validators with 2000 STAKE minimums in place.

Note: 11 addresses participated in this vote, with 10 in favor and 1 opposed. All proposals are treated as community signaling; they are not automatically enacted but taken into consideration with regards to the current roadmap and technical requirements of the proposal. Snapshot governance is designed to give the community an important voice in the decision making process and direction for the xDai chain. We will continue to work towards the goal of further decentralization and participation in the protocol from a wider group of validators and community members.