The goal for Incentivized Testnet is to stress test the network to ensure Mainnet is reliable and optimized for high-performance.
By adopting NEAR’s contract-based delegation, validators leverage differentiation to secure the network and attract delegators.
Participating in Stake Wars is the best way to explore what you know, and what you need to know
By adopting NEAR’s contract-based Build your own delegation and marketing solutions, and deploy them to attract your community of delegators.
Stake Wars is back, and this time it’s all about Chunk-Only Producers. Chunk-Only Producer is a more accessible role for those who may not have the $NEAR required to run a Block Producer node.
Validators are technical teams who run nodes and build NEAR’s network infrastructure. Delegators are users who own $NEAR and want to support network security by delegating their tokens to Validators.
Validators have to run their node 24/7 and need to ensure they never miss a network update. Any potential validators should join the Stake Wars community on Discord to coordinate with other Validators and follow @PagodaPlatform on Twitter.
Delegators meanwhile, stake their tokens to Validators and use their services to earn protocol rewards. Delegated tokens help support validators to generate more blocks.
Stake Wars III is an opportunity to gain confidence and learn how to work with contract-based delegation, with the goal to join the network as a Chunk-Only Producer, and be ready to launch your service on Mainnet.
NEAR uses a Proof-of-Stake mechanism to ensure that transactions are validated correctly and ensure the network is robust enough to repel any attacks.
For this reason, validators must stake tokens in order to produce and verify blocks, and in return, they earn rewards that come from token supply and transaction fees. Delegators provide additional stake to support the validators they think are better for the reliability and security of the network.
Stake Wars runs on a simple delegation smart contract, called Staking Pool, built to allocate tokens to Validators and test the network before using real NEAR tokens. Validators can deploy this reference, open-source Staking Pool smart contract from Github, to test their systems and get confidence with contract-based delegation. Validators are also free to customize their delegation contract, build their web applications, and integrate the Staking Pool into their existing systems.
The Stake Wars gives everyone the opportunity to join the MainNet, and receive delegated tokens from anyone who already has NEAR tokens.
A leaderboard of Validators will be maintained during Stake Wars III, highlighting those validators with the most consistent uptime.
Stake Wars is a program that helps the community become familiar with what it means to be a NEAR validator, and gives them an early chance to access the chunk-only producer. The rewards offered by the Stake Wars program supports new members that want to join mainnet as a validator starting from the end of September 2022.
To make thinkg fun, we designed the first Stake Wars challenge in such a way to guide you through the basic steps of running a node. Check it out here: https://github.com/near/stakewars-iii/tree/main/challenges
Stake Wars is a community driven program, supported by Pagoda, Meta Pool, LiNEAR, Everstake, Open Shards Alliance and the NEAR Foundation.
If you are an existing mainnet validator, Stake Wars offers you the opportunity to get early access to the chunk-only producer (more details here), understand how it works, and offer feedback around experience of using it.
If you don’t have a validator seat on mainnet today, and would like to get one, Stake Wars can support you to improve your skills and competences of running a NEAR node, and gives you access to rewards that will support the economics of your validator.
If you are new to the community, and would like to learn more about what it means to run a validator node, Stake Wars offers you a guided playground and support that will help you become more familiar with NEAR.
Stake Wars is made possible by a partnership between Pagoda, Meta Pool, LiNEAR, Everstake and Open Shards Alliance. Together we are driving the program and supporting the participants.
Stake Wars gives participants challenges, mainly focused on technical deliverables, and offers them support as they progress throughout the technical work. Solving challenges gives participants rewards, shaped as NEAR tokens granted or delegated.
Stake Wars launched on Wednesday July 13th and continues until Friday September 9th. You are welcome to join at any moment, but we encourage you to join as early as possible to take more advantage of the program.
Challenges will be announced throughout the entire period of the program, so stay tuned to address them quickly. Some challenges will have a limited timeframe when they can be solved.
We encourage anyone to join Stake Wars, solve the challenges, learn and be part of the program. However, there are a few restrictions related to reward eligibility: existing mainnet validators (as of July 13th 2022) are not eligible to receive rewards shared as delegated NEAR tokens. Members of Pagoda, Meta Pool, LiNEAR, Everstake and Open Shards Alliance are not eligible for any type of rewards.
Stake Wars is composed of technical challenges that you are encouraged to solve. Each challenge gives you access to rewards that can include:
Keep in mind that receiving the rewards may require identity verification.
Stake Wars is an online-only event, and participant support will be offered through Discord.
The challenges proposed by the program will take place in the dedicated NEAR shardnet network and in the already existing NEAR testnet network. The tokens used during for operating nodes during Stake Wars are test tokens, unrelated to the mainnet NEAR tokens.
