Announcing the Nolus Delegation Program
Through a delegation program, we can delegate locked tokens to both increase the total value securing the Network and to promote decentralization by distributing voting power among many validators.
Validators are integral stakeholders in any Proof-of-Stake blockchain. They form part of the active set and are responsible for validating and relaying transactions as well as proposing, verifying, and finalizing blocks.
The active set consists of a group of validators ranked highest by their total stake. Validators obtain stake by bonding (or having other entities bond) tokens with their validator. These tokens can be unbonded but have a waiting period before they are liquid again. For Nolus Protocol, the unbonding period is 21 days.
Should a small number of validators accumulate a large amount of stake, this degree of centralization reduces the benefits arising from a decentralized network and can also place the blockchain in jeopardy.
With that in mind, we are excited to announce the Nolus Delegation Program to help bootstrap Nolus Protocol and support decentralization!
Why Is a Delegation Program Needed?
Nolus Protocol, like many other Cosmos blockchains, will launch with a low circulating supply relative to its total supply and increase over time. This means that a malicious entity may find it easier to amass the number of tokens needed to either censor transactions or cause an invalid state transition.
This is especially dangerous for Nolus Protocol, which relies on attracting and utilizing liquidity.
Through a delegation program, we can delegate locked tokens to both increase the total value securing the Network and to promote decentralization by distributing voting power among many validators.
How Has the Nolus Delegation Program Been Designed?
The Nolus Delegation Program will delegate 100M $NLS (10% of the total supply) equally to 25 validators. These tokens will be delegated from the allocation to the team and other contributors.
We have considered several criteria that we believe define high-value validators. These include, but are not limited to:
- Strong record of running validators in the Cosmos ecosystem;
- Strong performance metrics such as uptime;
- Positive contributions across other networks such as running relayers or other infrastructure;
- Participation in Network governance;
- Benefitting decentralization such as avoiding data centers or concentrated geographies.
There will also be a further 30M $NLS (3% of total supply) that is available to be delegated to any validator in the active set. The criteria for this are yet to be determined but will consider validators that have gone above and beyond to contribute to the success of Nolus Protocol.
What Is Required to Maintain a Delegation?
To maintain delegations, validators must meet the following requirements.
- Uptime of at least 99% per year;
- Active participation in governance proposals;
- Maintain a commission rate between 1% and 10%;
- Upgrade within 24 hours of the latest protocol releases;
- No slashing events;
- Providing support to the community — technical or non-technical.
Core contributors to Nolus Protocol will periodically re-evaluate recipients to ensure that they remain compliant with the criteria set out above.
How to Apply?
If you are interested in applying for a delegation, please fill out and submit the following form:
Nolus Delegation Program Form
The deadline for submissions is January 31st, 2023. All submissions will be reviewed, and details of those that have been selected will be announced on Nolus’ Discord server.
Please note that applications will be carefully evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Nolus Protocol will have 40 validators at its genesis and therefore are no guarantees of being accepted into the delegation program.
If you have any questions at all, please feel free to join our Telegram or Discord (linked below), and we would love to have a chat with you!
We look forward to creating the next generation of Cosmos DeFi with you!
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