As a validator, getting nominations can be hard. To help validators bootstrap themselves, we're launching the Thousand Validators Programme. By applying and following the setup instructions, you will be eligible to receive nominations from Web3 Foundation and Parity Technologies to help kickstart your Kusama node.
We require:
- Validators must never have been slashed
- Validators have a minimum stash in their accounts (10 KSM)
- Validator nodes connect to a dedicated telemetry
- Validators charge no more than 15% commission
- Validators must have a separate Stash and Controller account
- A one-week monitoring period to ensure validator nodes have stable operations.
- Validator stash addresses must get a verified on chain identity.
- All nodes must upgrade to the latest version within 12 hours of its release if it is labeled "critical" or "high" priority and 24 hours if it is labeled "medium" or "low" priority.
- Validator must operate nodes themselves, they may not be run by a third party or staking provider
(together the "Requirements").
Depending on the volume of applicants, Validators with less than 10 KSM self staked will still be considered on a case-by-case basis; they’ll need to make a case for good-intentions.The case for good intentions will be judged based on the following criteria:
https://hackmd.io/@nlWRE-3fQzmUnPRDIXb2Ag/SyvCIMBMd What we we will do:
Validators meeting the above requirements will obtain a rotation of nominations per period of successful operation. The cadence of nominations is relative to their rank in the programme, where upon performing their duty successfully per period, validators will move up a rank.If a validator fails for any reason (slashing, getting kicked out the validator set, not upgrading on time), that validator's rank will be halved. If a validator gets slashed, or receives three halvings they will be suspended from nominations and will need to re-apply.
These rankings will be made public, to help a validator establish their reputation.
In order to participate you must connect the validator node to a dedicated telemetry for monitoring. This can be done by adding the following flag to both nodes:
--telemetry-url 'wss://telemetry-backend.w3f.community/submit 1'
More information on how to get up and running can be found in this getting started guide:
https://thousand-validators.kusama.network/#/getting-started