Return of the Validators

NEAR’s MainNet recently launched into its first phase, called “POA” (see full roadmap). This means that a small handful of validating nodes are currently being run by the core team. In order to progress to the next phase, “MainNet: Restricted”, the operation of the network will be handed off to a large group of node operators called validators.

The goal of Stake Wars: Episode II is to onboard those validators, test the stability of the system and begin introducing some of the unique aspects of NEAR’s delegation system in preparation for the next phase of MainNet itself.

Stake Wars: Episode I occurred in late 2019 as a way of stress-testing the network. It helped to expose key areas for stability improvements and drove improvement of release processes. We hope that Episode II will be similarly helpful for enhancing the stability of the system but, additionally, it is about bringing new and old validators up to speed so they can begin staking immediately at the launch of MainNet: Restricted.

This post will discuss the unique features of validation and delegation on NEAR, show how Stake Wars: Episode II will work and describe the rewards for successful participation.

Contract-Based Delegation

One of the key features that NEAR offers which differentiates it from many Proof-of-Stake networks is contract-based delegation.

“Delegation” is when one token holder lends their tokens to a validating node to use them on the delegator’s behalf. This is important because not everyone wants to — or is able to — run a full validating node. While the minimum requirements for running a validating node are not technically challenging, the operational efforts are multiple. They consist in ensuring that updates are deployed at the same time with other validators; and building a robust infrastructure, optimized for uptime and security. Since these requirements can require a professional level of oversight and expense, more casual token holders generally prefer not to do this.

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https://near.org/blog/stake-wars-episode-ii/