How to Redelegate for Decentralization

Dear Fetch.ai community,

Recently we have brought attention to decentralization as a key problem that we as a community need to tackle in order to provide more security to the network and move forward with the roadmap laid out for Q4 of 2021. As part of this, we have requested that everyone currently staking on the Fetch.ai Mainnet check to see if they are only staking with a single validator or if they are staking within the top 10 validators. You can tell if your validator is in the top 10 validators by going to the Validator Voting Power Distribution List. If this is the case, then we would greatly appreciate it if you followed this guide on the importance of redelegating part of your stake outside the top 10 validators and how to do it.

Disclaimer — please note the following:

1. We are asking you to re-delegate your staked $FET, do not undelegate your $FET to transfer from one validator to another, otherwise this process will cause you to lose out on staking rewards for 21 days while you wait for the unbonding period to end.
2. Redelegating, unlike undelegating, is an instant way for you to move part (or all) of your delegated $FET to different validators. Doing this is a very easy process and is what we will be outlining in this article.

Steps for those redelegating on Cosmostation App:

1. On the main screen, click “Delegate”
2. Select the validator you’re staking with that you wish to move your stake from
3. Select “Redelegate”
4. Enter the amount of $FET you wish to redelegate and select “Next”
5. Choose a validator outside of the top 10 that you wish to redelegate to and select “Next”
6. You’ll be prompted to enter an optional memo, but you can leave it blank and hit “Next”
7. Choose the transaction fee for redelegating (low is fine) and hit “Next”
8. Review the details of your redelegation and hit “Confirm”
9. Select “Yes” on the popup, enter your PIN, and then you’re done!

Steps for those redelegating on Keystation/Cosmostation Web Wallet:

1. Connect your Fetch.ai wallet to the Cosmostation web wallet
2. Select “Reward” from the options on the left side panel
3. Scroll to “My Validators” and select “Redelegate”
4. Pick the validator outside of the top 10 that you would like to Redelegate to
5. Enter the amount of $FET you’d like to redelegate to them
6. Leave the memo blank, and click “Generate & Sign Transaction”
7. On the pop-up select “Allow”, enter your PIN, and then you’re done!

Steps for those redelegating with the Fetch.ai Browser Extension Wallet:

1. First you must ensure that you have the Fetch.ai wallet that you’re staking with connected to the Fetch.ai Browser Extension Wallet
2. Head over to the Fetch.ai Validator Explorer page and click the “Connect” button in the top right of the web page
3. Once you’re connected, click on your wallet address that is now listed in the top right on the web page
4. From there scroll down to the “Delegations” section, find the validator you’d like to redelegate from, and click “Transfer Stake”.
5. In the pop-up that appears, select a validator below the top 10 that you’d like to redelegate to (please keep in mind they are not in order on the drop-down, so you will need to have the Validator Voting Power Distribution List open in another tab to see the order)
6. Enter in the amount of $FET you wish to redelegate to this new validator and select “Transfer Stake”
7. You will then be prompted by a transaction request, choose the gas fee (Low is fine), and hit “Approve”, then you’re done!

Why redelegating is important right now:

At the time of writing this blog post, the top 5 validators on the Fetch.ai network control more than 56% of the total $FET staked, and within the top 10 validators there is roughly 72% of the total $FET staked. This is a big problem because for the Fetch.ai network to be as secure as possible, we shouldn’t have more than 33% of delegated $FET staked within the top 10 validators. Essentially, when it comes to crypto, the term “the more, the merrier’’ does not apply to staking with a validator.

It should be made clear that lists of validators on block explorers are not the highest to lowest for reputation or benefits, it’s simply outlining who has the most $FET staked to them, that’s it. When it comes to reputation or how the validator has performed, it’s up to you as a delegator to find that out. Delegating is meant to be an active role between you and a Validator (although commonly perceived incorrectly as “passive income”).

When you select a validator to delegate with, that is essentially your vote to the network saying they are trustworthy, and you are given staking rewards for that. So please ensure that you do your due diligence in ensuring you know as much about a validator as possible.

What should you look for in a validator?

People always ask what they should be looking for in a validator. So here is a short list of things you, as a delegator, can look for online or ask validators themselves.

• Do they have a website?
• Do they have social media? (Twitter, Reddit, Instagram)
• Are they easy to contact? (Discord, Telegram)
• Do they have $FET self-bonded to their node?
• Are they active in the community?
• Do they have a good uptime?
• Do they offer slashing & double sign protection?
• Do they vote on proposals?
• Do they have a mission and principles that align with your own?

Some of these questions can be answered through one of the Fetch.ai block explorers, such as our Native Block Explorer or Mintscan. But other things on this list will require you to reach out to validators for answers, which is a good opportunity to see if they are active frequently or not. It should also be noted that not every single one of these questions needs to be answered “yes” but if they are, then it’s extremely helpful.