The Continuing Evolution of KILT Protocol: Limited Delegated Proof of Stake

By Ingo Rübe, founder of KILT Protocol and CEO of BOTLabs

KILT Protocol is designed to be a fully decentralised permissionless blockchain network. That means we are building KILT to evolve into a blockchain that is run by the community, with decisions being made transparently on chain by KILT token holders.

As is often the case with cutting-edge technologies like blockchain, things can change even before they manifest! Previously I wrote about how I envisioned the KILT Protocol as a Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) network. Since then, we have decided to adopt a different mechanism that better supports KILT in the long term.

There are three major factors we considered:

• Since we plan to run in the Polkadot ecosystem (initially as a parachain on Kusama), security is provided by the Relay Chain on the network
• We want to recognise the importance of the work of the collators on the KILT blockchain
• We want to keep inflation low.

Taking all these factors into consideration, we decided to launch KILT’s parachain on the Kusama network using Limited Delegated Proof of Stake (LDPoS).

Limited Delegated Proof of Stake (LDPoS)

Limited Delegated Proof of Stake (LDPoS) is a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism that limits the number of delegators and the number of collators to whom they can delegate their stake.

In LDPoS, the network will have collators (similar to validators in the Polkadot ecosystem), as outlined in my previous blog. The network will also have delegators. Similar to nominators in the NPoS system, delegators use their KILT tokens to back collators that they trust in the system.

In this way, collators can be supported by token holders in the community while they build up their own stake.

Collators

Collator nodes hold the data of the blockchain, collecting transactions and building blocks. The blocks of data they verify are passed via the validators to the Relay Chain of the wider network (Kusama or Polkadot) to be finalised and become the state of truth.

Running as a collator requires some technical skill, hardware and commitment to the project. Collators will be rewarded for every block they verify. The first group of collators for KILT has been selected, and we will have around 16 active collators at launch. This number will increase in the months after mainnet launch, as the network matures. Stay tuned for more news about the members of this Initial KILT Collator Programme.

Delegators

Delegators would be KILT token holders who choose to back collators with their tokens. In the current model, a delegator will be able to choose one collator to back per account; this may be increased in the future. We’ll be announcing more details about the role of delegators in upcoming weeks.

KILT in the Future

This plan to implement LDPoS is another step in our goal to optimise the design of KILT as a decentralised blockchain, with the facility to evolve and be self-sustainable over the long term. We will present a detailed outline of the economics of this mechanism in our forthcoming document on the token economy. KILT is implementing LDPoS with the aim of maximising long-term viability, ensuring that KILT’s services will continue to contribute to privacy on the internet for decades to come.