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Validator SDP Challenge

Set up a validator node, register it on the Piccadilly testnet and participate in a Stake Delegation Programme (SDP) challenge over the course of Round #6. Be active in the consensus committee and score points proportional to your SDP stake delegation amount. There are up to 200 winners for the Validator SDP Challenge!

Synopsis

In this task you will set up and operate a validator node in the Piccadilly testnet, and take part in a Stake Delegation Program (SDP).

Your goal is twofold: to achieve and maintain the maximum stake allocation allowed by the programme, and to be active in the consensus committee.

To maximise stake delegation to your validator from the SDP, maintain the SDP qualification criteria, and your node will receive an SDP stake delegation per the SDP’s allocation criteria.

Don’t expect your SDP delegation to be a static amount. The SDP rebalances over time and as validators join the programme SDP stake delegation is periodically redistributed across the validator set taking part in the SDP.

Keep your node live, maintain the qualification and allocation criteria continuously, and be active in the consensus committee for the duration of Round #6.

There are risks if you fail to meet the qualification criteria. Failing qualification checks will result in SDP delegated stake being unbonded from your node and you will be temporarily barred from participating in the SDP for 3 rebalancing periods! (One rebalancing period is 3 days.)

Resources on the SDP

To find out more about the SDP and how it functions, see the resources:

  • the Autonity SDP pages detailing how to join and the SDP critieria
  • the autonity.org Validators page providing information for Autonity validators

Use your CAX funding to purchase NTN sufficient to achieve the self-bonded PAS Ratio for SDP qualification and allocation criteria.

To maximise your chance of consensus committee selection, monitor the seat price and be sure to maintain enough stake to be eligible for selection to the consensus committee. (You can view the current seat price on the community validator dashboard https://stakeflow.io/autonity-piccadilly/validators.)

Throughout Round #6 the validator committee size will fluctuate, moving lower and then back to 100. This is to force-simulate mainnet conditions of committee size variance as validator nodes move through their lifecycle and the stake participation rate varies.

Validator reputation is a key element of due diligence as a stake delegator. So, a good baseline for attracting stake is a high score in this task and not getting slashed!

Maintain a good validator reputation and competitive commission rate to attract delegated stake and increase commission and staking reward revenue!

To raise your validator profile, make sure it is on Autonity validator dashboards. See awesome-autonity - Tools section! Tools like the Stakeflow dashboard allow you to provide additional metadata for your validator - see https://github.com/stakeflow/network-registry/blob/main/TUTORIAL.md”

How to enter

How to enrol in Validator SDP Challenge

  1. Set up an Autonity node (docs).

Running an Autonity node requires maintaining a static ip address as described in the docs guide Install Autonity, Networking section.

If using a cloud provider for node hosting, then a static IP address for your cloud space should be a stated hosting requirement. Cloud vendors typically don’t supply a static IP address unless it is purchased explicitly.

  1. Set up an Autonity oracle server (docs) to serve your node with price data

  2. Register your node as a validator on Piccadilly testnet (docs)

  3. Join the SDP. Submit the SDP joining Form on the Autonity Stake Delegation Program website.

    Provide the following data:

    • The Username and email address given when registering to take part in the PCGC
    • Discord and Telegram handles for validator-related communication during the game
    • The validator address of your validator node
    • A signature of the string “Application for the stake delegation program” signed using the private key of your validator address. See beneath for how to create this signature.

You can generate the signature using aut. Install and configure aut on your system. Then:

  1. Extract the node key from your node’s autonitykeys file:

    head -c 64 <DIR_PATH>/autonitykeys

    where <DIR_PATH> is the path to your autonitykeys file.

    This will print the private node key from the autonitykeys file to terminal.

  2. Import the node key into aut. See Import your account into aut and aut account import-private-key --help.

  3. Create the message signature. With aut configured to use your node key as the signing key, sign the string Application for the stake delegation program using aut. See aut account sign-message --help.

Award

The task has an award pool of 20,000 Award Tributes and up to 200 winners.

The award pools are distributed according to the number of participants that took part in the task and adjusted based on individual score for the task. Higher the score, higher the share of the award pool…

Scoring rule

Scoring for the task uses a methodology based on:

  • an award pool of a fixed amount for the task
  • the validator being an active member of the consensus committee and the amount of stake delegated to the validator under the SDP. The amount of SDP stake a validator has is dynamic and is periodically rebalanced per the SDP qualification and allocation criteria
  • a floor and ceiling for participant score achieved and winner numbers to calculate winner award allocations:
    • a significance threshold \(R\) of 95%. The top ranked users that accumulate 95% or more of the total score for the task are eligible for an award.
    • a floor of 5% of the maximum score (the maximum score is achieved by maintaining the maximum SDP allocation and being in the consensus committee for the duration of the round.)
    • a minimum number of participants below which a partial distribution of the reward allocation takes place - \(N_{fb}\)
    • a maximum number of winners for the task - \(N_{max}\)
  • points are scored for task completion by stated scoring criteria
  • winners are judged by scoreboard position with tie-breaks resolved by scoreboard ranking. In the case that participation is higher than \(N_{max}\), the top scoring participants up to \(N_{max}\) will be chosen as winners.
  • awards from the pool are distributed to the winners. Each winner’s award amount is calculated according to their score and the total number of winners.

The \(N_{fb}\) floor allows for a low participation scenario resulting in the entire award pool going to a few participants rather than the wider community. If this scenario were to happen, then the remaining reward allocation is carried forward for future incentives.

Scoring parameters for the task are set as:

\(N_{fb}\) \(N_{max}\) \(R\)
\(50\) \(200\) \(95\%\)

Where:

  • \(N_{fb}\): the minimum number of task participants below which a partial distribution of the reward allocation takes place,
  • \(N_{max}\): the maximum number of winners for the task,
  • \(R\): the significant participant threshold for the task.

Points are earned by participants each epoch when they are a member of the consensus committee proportionate to their SDP stake delegation amount for that epoch.

Your node gets 1 point for each 1 NTN of SDP stake delegation when your node is a member of the consensus committee.

Epochs are \(\approx\) 30min each and Round #6 lasts 6-weeks. So the maximum point score that could be obtained is $ 201.6 Mlns when a validator succeeds in being in the CC for 6 weeks (48 epoch per day), and getting a maximum SDP allocation of 100 000 NTNs!

Points will be allocated daily, after 00:00:00 UTC. The task scoreboard can be viewed on the Leaderboards page.