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Gnosis Chain spends $5M on validator incentive program for decentralization

The program offers 388 mGNO to each of the first ten validators that runs in a listed country.

Gnosis Builders, developer of blockchain network Gnosis Chain, has announced a $5 million project to increase the number and diversity of validators through incentive mechanisms. The new project is called “Gnosis VIP,” according to an April 18 announcement from the company.

As part of the new project, Gnosis is launching a “Geographic Diversity Program” that seeks to increase the number of countries Gnosis Chain validators are located within.

The network currently has over 100,000 validators spread across 60 countries, and the program’s goal is to increase the number of countries to 180 by year’s end, the announcement said.

According to the program’s official webpage, for each of the 90 countries listed, the first ten validators that start operating within them will receive 388 meta Gnosis (worth $1,368.18 at April 12 prices) over the course of six months. Meta Gnosis (mGNO) is the wrapped and staked version of the network’s native coin, Gnosis (GNO). Each mGNO can be redeemed for 1/32 GNO.

The first payment of 38 mGNO ($134) will be disbursed after the first 30 days the node operates. The size of the payment will increase each month, and the last payment at the end of the six months will be for 98 mGNO ($345.57).

Related: 1Inch network expands to Gnosis Chain and Avalanche

In an email statement to Cointelegraph, Gnosis CEO Martin Köppelmann expressed hope that the new program will help to improve both the security and performance of Gnosis Chain:

“A diverse validator set is paramount for a resilient and secure network [...] Geographical diversity hedges the network against both natural and jurisdictional disasters [and] can also improve the performance of a network; by having validators located in different parts of the world, transactions can be processed more quickly and efficiently.”

Debates often rage in the crypto community over which networks are the most decentralized, with many experts claiming that a network cannot be scalable, secure, and decentralized at the same time. This conflict in design philosophy is often called the blockchain trilemma.

In his email statement, Köppelmann emphasized that geographical diversity is only one aspect of decentralization, and others are also important to ensure resilience and security.

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TON validators receive single nominator smart contract

Orbs’ single-nominator contract offers independent validation for validators, safeguards against gas attacks and enables stake recovery during emergencies.

Orbs, a public blockchain infrastructure designed for mass usage applications and close integration, has announced the release of the single nominator smart contract for validators in the Telegram Open Network (TON), a decentralized layer-1 blockchain.

In the TON blockchain network, validators can use the single nominator, which provides an isolated cold wallet for securing their validation process. This feature is particularly useful for validators with enough self-stake to conduct independent validation without needing third-party nominators. This feature aims to enhance validators’ independence, security and protection against gas-spending attacks.

In blockchain technology, a nominator is an individual or entity participating in a proof-of-stake consensus algorithm. This is done by staking their cryptocurrency holdings to support the network’s security and transaction processing.

The nominator essentially nominates a validator to represent their stake in the network and earn rewards on their behalf. The validator, in turn, is responsible for validating transactions and adding new blocks to the blockchain. This process is essential to the security and efficiency of the blockchain network, as it ensures that only legitimate transactions are processed and recorded on the blockchain.

Smart contracts typically involve two or more parties agreeing on a set of rules or conditions that must be met before the contract can be executed. These rules are encoded into the smart contract, and when the specified conditions are met, the contract executes automatically, transferring funds or assets between the parties involved.

The single nominator smart contract provides an option for the core team’s nominator pool smart contract. The alternative was developed in-house to provide security for validators who stake their funds. The single nominator tool is now offered to the community as a free, open-source product.

Related: TON blockchain freezes $2.6B worth of inactive tokens

Orbs added that the single nominator contract offers protection against attack methods by keeping the validator node’s hot wallet separate from the principal staking funds. This separation safeguards the funds against gas spending attacks, and the owner can alter the validator address if the wallet is compromised. Moreover, the contract provides the ability to recover stakes during emergencies, such as elector upgrades.

The contract has been audited by CertiK, a Web3, blockchain and smart contract security firm, which recently announced a partnership with TON to audit future projects on the network.

Magazine: Green consumers want supply chain transparency via blockchain

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Solana Blockchain Experiences Technical Glitch Causing Transaction Slowdowns

Solana Blockchain Experiences Technical Glitch Causing Transaction SlowdownsThe Solana smart contract token network experienced a technical glitch on Saturday, February 25, 2023, known as a “large forking event,” causing transaction failures for some users. Solana’s incident report referred to it as “cluster instability” and indicated that a coordinated restart was launched to accelerate block finalization. Solana Blockchain Deals With ‘Large Forking Event’ […]

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Solana faces slowdown in block production, network restarted

The issue is linked to the recent network upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14, which slowed block finalization.

Solana network faced a slowdown in block production on Fev. 25 following the upgrade in the validator software. The incident resulted in disruptions to transactions and led validators to downgrade the software in an attempt to restore network performance. 

The technical issue started around 6:00 AM (UTC), leading validators to downgrade to version 1.13 in an effort to restore transactions in the network. The downgrade, however, was not enough to restore Solana to normal operations, forcing the decision to restart the network on v1.13.6.

"The network experienced a significant slowdown in block production that coincided with an upgrade to validator software. Engineers are still conducting a root cause analysis," noted Solana's compass website.

Related: The state of Solana: Will the layer-1 protocol rise again in 2023?

The issue is linked to the upgrade from 1.13 to 1.14, which slowed block finalization. The Solana network is currently restarting, and to resume operations is necessary 80% of active stake online:

"As more validators complete their restart this number will rise in line with the amount of stake they have delegated: this means larger validators such as CEX have an outsized impact on restart times."

A solution to the incident was discussed among Solana's validators during a few hours following the issue. Infrastructure provider Chorus One noted in a Tweeter that the incident "demonstrated how genuinely decentralized the network is." Chorus One continued: 

"Without all these debates, we would be back up in an hour. But, every decision along the way - whether to downgrade, whether to restart, when to switch from downgrade approach to restart approach - is debated. Voting happens. We end up taking 8-10 hours to recovery, instead of 1."

Solana is an open source layer-1 blockchain. Its third-generation network architecture is designed to facilitate smart contracts and decentralized application (DApp) creation. The Solana blockchain was launched during the ICO boom of 2017. The internal testnet of the project was released in 2018, followed by several testnet phases before the main network was officially launched in 2020.

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‘Decentralized Infura’ may help prevent Ethereum app crashes: Interview

The initial “Dfura” marketplace, which is currently in development, is expected to include up to 10 Web3 data providers.

Infura is developing a decentralized marketplace of data providers that will help to prevent Web3 app crashes in the future, according to a Feb. 6 Cointelegraph interview with Infura researcher Patrick McCorry.

McCorry stated that the new “Dfura'' or “decentralized Infura” will help to ensure that blockchains remain decentralized by distributing data provider services among multiple providers in a marketplace. It will have “up to 10 providers initially” that will “work together to bootstrap the network and then […] Gradually iterate and get more players.” Some potential partners will meet at ETH Denver in late February or early March to discuss the project's next steps.

The new project will not be a new blockchain. Instead, it will be a marketplace that matches consumers of blockchain data with data providers, as McCorry explained:

“There'll be a marketplace where basically the new providers will sign up, they'll have some stick in the system. They can place the resources that they have available, so I can say, I can satisfy these requests at this price. Users could come along and then buy those resources and then it's like a matchmaking service of users.”

McCorry believes this will make the Web3 ecosystem more resilient by allowing users to rapidly switch to a new provider if the one they are currently using experiences an outage. He also stated that the new “Dfura” might be more censorship-resistant than the current service because providers will be spread out over many different geographical areas and operating under different jurisdictions.

Related: Are we still mad at Metamask and Consensus for snooping on us?

Infura is a suite of APIs and developer tools that is used by Web3 app developers to pull data from blockchains. It is used by many different Web3 apps, including Metamask, Gnosis, Aragon, and others. It is also used by many centralized exchanges to track deposit and withdrawal transactions.

Although blockchain networks charge transaction fees to prevent too many transactions from overloading servers, these fees are only charged to users writing data to the blockchain. Infura has emerged as one way to charge developers or users for reading data, which does not usually incur a transaction fee on-chain.

As Infura has become increasingly used by developers, it has come under fire for allegedly being too centralized. In November 2020, the Metamask wallet app stopped working for most users when Infura servers went down, and some centralized exchanges were prevented from getting accurate transaction data from it anymore. This led some critics to question whether Ethereum can be genuinely decentralized as long as developers depend on Infura to provide data for their users.

Parts of this article were based on an interview with Patrick McCorry conducted by Cointelegraph’s Andrew Fenton at Starkware Sessions 2023 in Tel Aviv.

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Ava Labs partners with AWS to offer one-click node deployment

Other new features include a subnet deployment service and GovCloud integration for compliance-friendly Dapps

Ava Labs, developer of the Avalanche network (AVAX), has partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to implement new features intended to make running a node easier, according to a January 11 blog post from Ava Labs.

The new features include one-click node deployment through the AWS Marketplace, AWS GovCloud integration for Dapp developers concerned about compliance, and the ability to create Avalanche subnets with just a few clicks.

In the announcement post, Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer stated that AWS has been an important part of the Avalanche ecosystem in the past, as it has allowed Dapp developers to easily launch nodes to test their software. He expects these new features to make AWS even more useful to Avalanche Dapp developers. He explained:

“It has been a huge boon for both individual and enterprise developers to be able to spin up nodes and test networks on the fly with AWS in whatever legal jurisdiction makes the most sense for them. I’m proud that we’ve implemented a protocol that can accommodate millions of participants with near-instant finality. Our work with Amazon can accelerate the positive impact of Avalanche.”

Related: Defrost Finance explains how it will compensate victims of hack

The response of the Avalanche community to the news was mostly positive. One user posted a tutorial showing how to launch an Avalanche node using the new features:

Others focused on the price action resulting from the announcement:

AWS isn’t the first cloud-computing system that Ava Labs has partnered with. In December, it formed a similar relationship with Alibaba Cloud.

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Ethereum Shanghai upgrade: EIP-3651 to cut gas fees for key network participants

Traders using builders to execute their complex trades could save a significant chunk of their gas fees as they no longer have to pay for failed transactions.

Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, the next major upgrade post Merge, is slated for the second half of 2023. The upgrade would be a key milestone as it would allow holders who have staked their Ether (ETH) for years to withdraw them systematically and make the network more scalable.

Apart from some of the major scalability upgrades, the key event would also tuck in a few minor Ethereum improvement proposals (EIPs), including EIP-3651, EIP-3855 and EIP-3860. Among all the upcoming improvement proposals, EIP-3651, called WARM Coinbase, could be a game changer that could reduce network fees for some of the key network participants called builders.

Coinbase here is the name of the software that builders use to receive new tokens on the network. Every new transaction on the platform needs to interact with the coinbase software multiple times, The first interaction costs more as the software needs to “warm” up, and then the fees decline as the interactions increase. However, with the introduction of EIP-3651, the coinbase software will remain warm to begin with, thus requiring a lower gas fee to access it.

As the name suggests, builders are responsible for packaging Ethereum transactions into blocks, thus called block builders. These transactions are then forwarded to validators, who put them in the proper order in the blockchain.

Related: Vitalik reveals a new section in the Ethereum roadmap: The Scourge

These builders are paid by traders to arrange transactions in a block in a certain order, meaning traders pay higher gas fees to get their transactions validated earlier. Currently, Flashbots is the biggest builder in the Ethereum ecosystem accounting for 80% of relayed blocks.

While validators using builders will benefit the most from the upgrade, traders who use builders to execute their trades could also benefit, as they no longer have to pay transaction fees for failed trades. Traders are currently charged for failed transactions as well because miners need to confirm transactions to the chain whether they succeed or fail.

The testnet version for the Shanghai upgrade dubbed Shandong went live on Oct. 18, and Ethereum developers will be working on various implementations until September 2023.

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T-Mobile Parent Company Says It Supports Ethereum As Giant Launches New Staking Validator

T-Mobile Parent Company Says It Supports Ethereum As Giant Launches New Staking Validator

The parent company of mobile communications giant T-Mobile says it’s launching an Ethereum (ETH) staking validator as part of its support for the world’s second-largest blockchain by market cap. According to a new press release, Deutsche Telekom is supporting Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism into a proof-of-stake one by operating validator nodes through […]

The post T-Mobile Parent Company Says It Supports Ethereum As Giant Launches New Staking Validator appeared first on The Daily Hodl.

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Proof-of-Work Proponents Question Validator Censorship as 59% of Staked Ethereum Is Held by 4 Companies

Proof-of-Work Proponents Question Validator Censorship as 59% of Staked Ethereum Is Held by 4 CompaniesPrior to The Merge, Ethereum used to have dozens upon dozens of mining pools dedicating hashrate toward the blockchain network. That has all changed and most of the miners transitioned or plan on transitioning to other Ethash compatible coins like ethereum classic, ERGO, and the new fork ETHW. Now Ethereum blocks are verified by validators […]

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Square Enix Exploring Blockchain Game Development as Part of Oasys Project Partnership

Square Enix Exploring Blockchain Game Development as Part of Oasys Project PartnershipSquare Enix, one of the biggest Japan-based gaming companies, has inked a partnership with Oasys, a Web3-oriented blockchain project. As part of this partnership, Square Enix will be part of the first 21 validators of the Oasys network, and will explore new possibilities regarding developing blockchain games using this decentralized tech, including user-generated contributions. Square […]

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