The Fantom Foundation revealed in a new X post that it has reduced the validator self-staking requirement on its layer-1 blockchain by 90%.
The foundation noted that it made the changes following the recent vote and as part of a broader plan to improve security. Let’s discover more about it.
Fantom Lowers Staking Criteria for Validators
The changes reduce Fantom’s staking threshold from 500,000 FTM to 50,000 FTM, or $19,500 now. In addition, the Fantom Foundation claimed that aside from its security benefits, the changes will make running a validator “more accessible than ever.”
1/ Based on a governance vote, we recently reduced the validator self-stake requirement from 500k to 50k FTM, making it more accessible than ever to run a #Fantom validator.
But we've been asked:
"How does an increase in validators impact Fantom?"Well, let's find out 🧵 pic.twitter.com/H8AfnT5Itv
— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) January 15, 2024
The foundation wrote on X: “Firstly, it’s important to know that a key priority for any decentralized network is to increase the number of validators running the network. By having more validators, a network makes it increasingly challenging for malicious actors to launch an attack.”
How does this Affect Fantom’s Network?
Explaining how Fantom achieves consensus, the foundation stated that Fantom validators run by bundling up transactions and exchanging them with other validators. Validators are users who lock a certain number of tokens to handle network transactions and secure the network.
6/ With these points in consideration, we don't believe more validators will slow down Fantom.
As long as new validators are running on quality hardware, the network will be more secure and won't see any downgrade in performance as it maintains the 1–2 second time to finality 🚀
— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) January 15, 2024
Another benefit of increasing validators is that submitted transactions will get to validators more quickly as there are more validators available.
The foundation, however, clarified that the existing large validators will remain the majority of the two-thirds of validators needed to finalize a transaction. Furthermore, the foundation noted that this would ensure that the network performance stays the same even when a small number of validators join the network.
8/ So, how do more validators decentralize Fantom further if the existing validators are still the ones to confirm the majority of TXs?
Well, we're positioning the network for the future. Smaller validators will grow in size slowly and become a vital part of Fantom 🌱
— Fantom Foundation (@FantomFDN) January 15, 2024
Fantom added that a validator’s ability to validate transactions is proportional to its staking amount rather than the number of validators it runs. This means that lowering the staking requirements wouldn’t constitute a security issue.
According to Fantom, a validator possessing one million FTM staked would hold the same power as twenty lesser validators, each with fifty thousand FTM staked.
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