Elrond Staking Phase 2, Mainnet Upgrade is coming

Elrond is preparing for its first mainnet upgrade since staking went live, scheduled to happen December 1st. The upgrade will increase the amount of validators in the network, along with enabling additional functionality.

Elrond Staking Phase 2: Validators Queue

Elrond is rolling out staking in four phases, where the first phase is a closed off system. Meaning not everyone could become a validator. It’s a bootstrapping process which ensures the network has sufficient eGLD locked into staking. The idea is it will keep the network secure and deter malicious actors. However, phase 2 enables anyone to launch a validator by staking their eGLD and joining a queue.

The queue is a list of new nodes that want to join the ecosystem. Essentially, if any validator chooses to un-stake they will immediately be replaced. It’s another security measure to ensure Elrond’s node count cannot fall below a critical level. To summarize quickly, you can enter the validator queue by staking 2500 eGLD.

Why enter the Validator queue?

Once the upgrade is complete and the validator queue launches, a weekly reward pool of 5000 eGLD will go live. Everyone staking eGLD in the validators or delegation queue will be eligible to receive a proportional amount (to their stake) of these rewards. Meaning that even if your validator never moves from the queue into the protocol, you can still earn eGLD.

The APR will be capped at 20%, above is a little breakdown that estimates returns depending on how much eGLD is staking in the queues.

What’s next for Elrond?

Staking Phase 3 and 4, which should happen early 2021, include features such as: increasing the total number of nodes, staking more than 2500 eGLD per validator, and open delegation going live. There is also talk of the first on-chain community voting happening to finalize the upgrades.

Developers… CEO Beniamin Mincu highlights in a recent blog article that it’s time to start building on Elrond. Smart contracts with 30% gas royalties that are fast and upgradable on a chain with 16,000 TPS, can’t be found anywhere else!

Elrond’s dev kit is ready to deploy DeFi and decentralized products quickly to help teams keep development time and costs low.

Smart Accounts… Elrond accounts have key-value storage, meaning they can store more information than just an address and balance. Think email, BTC address, social networks, KYC status, citizenship – all stored safely in an encrypted form. Developers can leverage these features to unlock a whole new wealth of use cases for blockchain.