IOV Validator Program
Written by Jim Kennedy, uploaded by Misang Ryu
How can I be a validator for the IOV Name Service?
Apply for the Validator program
IOV is accepting Validator applications for its IOV Name Service. The service uses a blockchain backed by a proof-of-value network based on the Tendermint consensus engine.
If you are an expert in operating secure infrastructure and represent a corporation or institution, IOV would particularly value your application — this expertise should include having a secure and protected network, a commitment to transparency, proven ability on other networks, and demonstrable scalability.
What is proof-of-value?
Proof-of-value is a consensus mechanism that is based on proof-of-authority with a higher degree of disclosure (done off-chain) with the voting being on-chain. It additionally includes a notion of Quality Score, which is based on performance metrics, for the Validator reward.
Proof-of-authority coupled with Tendermint’s BFT consensus is what builds our blockchain. One of our lead developers, Ethan Frey, was one of the first engineers at tendermint and has spearheaded development efforts at IOV, leading by example with his hands-on approach.
What is the IOV Name Service?
The IOV Name Service is a shared, secure, and decentralized and acts as a registry of human-readable addresses for dapps and wallets.
What is a human-readable address?
IOV’s human-readable address is your personalized address that is kind of like an email. Crypto-addresses are lengthy alphanumeric strings and are difficult to remember — a personalized IOV address is something like alice*iov, which is obviously much easier to remember. Apart from making crypto transactions much easier and safer, a human-readable address solves the problem of human error, such as sending a bitcoin to a wrong address.
Personalized addresses are unique and registered on the IOV Name Service.
How do the IOV and Cosmos economies differ?
IOV’s token economy differs from that of Cosmos in several key ways, the most important of which is that our economy does not have inflation. Other significant differences are that transaction fees for the IOV Name Service are at least an order of magnitude higher than the anti-spam fee, block rewards are not paid on every block, and Depositors earn interest on their Term Deposits.
What about Validator rewards?
Validator rewards are generated by the transaction fees paid by registering and editing human-readable addresses in the IOV Name Service. Knowing that the blockchain turnover may need time to grow, IOV will pre-allocate a subsidy of IOV tokens that is distributed to Validators and Depositors in an algorithmic manner that decreases to zero over time; inflation cannot happen, the total amount of tokens is known from genesis.
The two most important aspects of IOV’s subsidy program are the guaranteed reward to Validators and the incentivization of the testnet.
- IOV guarantees the monthly allocation to Validators for at least one year from the mainnet launch
- IOV incentivizes Validators to use the testnet as a stepping stone to mainnet by migrating the Quality Score built up on testnet to mainnet
The Quality Score for a Validator is evaluated periodically off-chain according to public metrics like their performance in voting for blocks. This Quality Score increases as the Validator delivers good support to the blockchain, rising from an initial 0% to a maximum of 100%. A perfect Quality Score of 100% necessarily takes time to achieve.
For more detail on how rewards are allocated (turnover distributed) in the IOV economy, read this post: IOV Token Economic Cycle — Distribution of the IOV Name Service turnover. The most important point in that post is that Validators can simultaneously be Depositors and the Quality Score — which, for good Validators, is much higher than the Deposit Rate — is used as the rate for the Term Deposit. The IOV Token Sale is open to validator applicants at the time of this writing, so take advantage of it.
How will the testnet be incentivized?
It is important that Validators spend time in testnet before stepping up to mainnet, but since work in testnet is not rewarded in the same way as in mainnet, IOV is incentivizing Validators in testnet by ensuring that the Quality Score built up there, a process that takes time, will be transferred to mainnet when the Validator makes the transition.
How many Validators will launch the IOV Name Service mainnet?
The number of mainnet Validators will depend on the number of applicants to our program and their performance on our testnet. We are after quality not quantity.
When will more Validators be added?
IOV will only add a new Validator when the turnover of the blockchain is sufficient to support the addition while maintaining a minimum reward to all validators. A new Validator can also be added when an existing one is removed by the Validator Selection Committee.
How are Validators chosen?
The Validator Selection Committee, which is overseen by the Governance Board, chooses the Validators that are added or removed from the Validator set based on objective criteria.
What is the role of the Governance Board?
The Governance Board oversees three committees. It is the body that represents the IOV Name Service off-chain. It is a board, like any other, comprising a pool of actors that work together to ensure the correct functioning of the blockchain, drive its global adoption, and shape long-term strategy.
As mentioned, the Validator Selection Committee chooses the Validators in the Validator set. Validators cannot be members of the Validator Selection Committee.
The Technical Committee is responsible for ensuring that the chain runs optimally by adjusting parameters like block time. Validators can be members of the Technical Committee.
The Economic Committee is responsible for setting fees and other parameters that affect the IOV token economy. Validators can be members of the Economic Committee.
