Welcome to the second week of Validator digest! I am starting off this week by sharing a list I've compiled to track all the EigenLayer AVS that have been announced so far. I am certain there are many that I am missing, so take a look and let me know what I need to add.
Protocol updates
Solana
Frankendancer, the hybrid validator client combining parts of Firedancer and Solana's original client, has been deployed on Solana mainnet. Solana is one step closer to having a second validator client, which would greatly help with network resilience and decentralization.
Aptos
Aptos has voted and executed AIP-94, which reduces how long stake gets locked up from 30 days to 14 days.
Read more here: https://github.com/aptos-foundation/AIPs/issues/488.
Cosmos Hub
Gaia v20 is being voted on the Cosmos Hub. Two key changes are planned for this upgrade.
Chains can permissionlessly opt to become a consumer chain (ICS secured chain).
Consumer chains can accept validators outside of the Cosmos Hub validators.
1/ Voting period is now open!
Proposal #966: "Gaia v20 Software Upgrade"
This upgrade introduces 3 new features that simplifies the process for Consumer Chains and validators to join the Hub.
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Osmosis
Osmosis had a brief chain halt on their latest v26 upgrade. Huge shoutout to the validators who have helped Osmosis resolve this within 2 hours.
The chain has resumed block production after ~2hr of downtime. Thank you to all validators for their swift action.
If you are running an Osmosis node, please upgrade to the v26.0.1 patch to resume your node.
github.comRelease Osmosis v26.0.1 🧪 · osmosis-labs/osmosis
Description fix: tally grpc query (#8718) Changelog See the full changelog here ⚡️ Binaries Binaries for Linux (amd64 and arm64) are available below. 🔨 Build from source If you prefer to build fr...
After the v26 upgrade, Osmosis is seeing a chain halt.
Core contributors are all hands on deck and investigating the root cause.
The chain will be back up as quickly as possible with regular updates provided.
Aleo
Aleo has officially announced its mainnet launch. They have started the network with 16 validators, but plan to expand their set as the network matures. You can check out the current validators here: https://aleoscan.io/validators.
Interesting opportunities
WalletConnect Network
WalletConnect has announced the launch of their own token (WCT) and the WalletConnect Foundation. They require two sets of operators to help secure their network: Service Nodes and Gateway Nodes. They already have slashing and reward mechanisms for Service Nodes designed out in their whitepaper: https://whitepaper.walletconnect.network/WalletConnect%20Whitepaper.pdf.
WalletConnect Network has onboarded Reown (the new brand for WalletConnect), Consensys, Kiln, Ledger, Luganodes, 1kx, Figment, and Sensei Nodes so far.
Story
Story Protocol has been running their testnet (called "Illiad"). Their network is based on CometBFT, which means this will be a good opportunity for Cosmos eco validators to get involved from the ground up.
Random ramblings
I wanted to highlight Chainflow's Solana Validator Discussions newsletter. The Solana validator ecosystem has some of the most active discussions. It could be overwhelming to keep up with them, but thankfully Chainflow's team has been running a weekly newsletter to help Solana validators stay on top of these discussions. I strongly recommend subscribing to their newsletter if you have a Solana validator! https://chainflowsol.substack.com/
Here is a bit of Solana validator math by 0x_Osprey. About 405 validators have more than 99,000 SOL in stake today, which is about 27% of all active validators on Solana. Keep in mind that Solana has a market cap of $70 billion, so this validator math will look uglier as we go down the list of L1s.
It takes ~97,500 SOL (~$14,000,000) of delegated stake for a Solana validator like @7LayerMagik to be profitable
the real critique here should be the amount of sol stake needed to be profitable
IIRC - it's near 7 figures USD but please correct me if I'm wrongThe point above brings up a long standing question: what is the right number of validators for a network? It seems like the right course of action is to limit the number of active validator spots. This would ensure that all active validators are at a minimum guaranteed a sustainable revenue stream. However, on the flip side, this makes it nearly impossible for new validators to enter, limiting growth of the validator ecosystem. What should protocols prioritize first, validator sustainability or validator ecosystem participation?
Please subscribe to our newsletter if you found this useful! You can always send me feedback on X (https://x.com/proofofjk) or Telegram (@proofofjk). Let me know what protocols you want me prioritized or if I missed any important news!
