Fantom, a permissionless blockchain network, is proposing to reduce the minimum staking requirements for becoming a validator on its network. The move is aimed at increasing accessibility and promoting further decentralization of the network. The current minimum staking requirement of 500,000 FTM was initially set at 3.175m FTM when Fantom's mainnet launched in 2019. The proposal seeks to lower the requirement to 50,000, 75,000 or 100,000 FTM.
By reducing the financial barriers to entry, the proposal aims to make it possible for more people from around the world to participate in validating the network. This increased participation will help the network become more decentralized and promote more distributed ownership. It is an important milestone towards achieving the goal of a truly decentralized blockchain.
One of the main concerns is that the network might slow down if there are more validators. However, the proposal addresses this by stating that with more validators, transactions can be propagated faster, leading to faster event emission. While it may take more time to propagate to reach the required number of validators, the network will not experience any downgrade as long as new validator nodes are running on quality nodes.
Another concern is that the increase in validators might create security risks, especially if some of the validators are malicious. However, the network can detect the presence of malicious nodes, and a reasonably high barrier to entry via self-staking requirements can ensure that any new nodes are high-quality nodes.
The proposal includes a comparison of the staking requirements for other blockchain networks such as ETH, AVAX, and MATIC.
For example, the minimum staking requirement for ETH is 32 ETH, which is approximately $54,000. The minimum staking requirement for AVAX is 2000 AVAX, which is approximately $34,000.
The staking requirement for MATIC is 1 MATIC, but it is restricted to only 100 validator nodes for the network.
The proposal presents three options for the new minimum staking requirements: 50k FTM, 75k FTM, or 100k FTM. The community will be able to vote for their preferred option.
Fantom's proposal to reduce the minimum staking requirements for becoming a validator on its network is a step towards promoting further decentralization of the network. By increasing accessibility, the network can attract more participants from around the world, leading to a more distributed ownership structure.
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