It’s almost time for an important update to the Gala Node ecosystem that will enhance rewards for the most active operators.
As the Gala ecosystem was building its infrastructure and first proving viability, Founder’s Node operators were rewarded for operation based on their ability to meet the minimum 6-hour uptime requirement during each 24 hour distribution period. This system should be familiar to all Founder’s Node operators today, as it is the system we have used for several years.
In this current system, 1 point is awarded to each Founder’s Node that has met its minimum uptime requirement for the day. Then the $GALA generated for the day is distributed proportionally to the allocation of the points. This straightforward system provides no incentive for Node operators to support the network by operating their Nodes for longer than 6 hours each day.
We’re looking for node operators who support our vision of building the largest decentralized network in the world, so we devised a solution that would a) remove the minimum uptime requirement, and b) reward those who run their Nodes around the clock.
The Long Term Plan
In 2021, it was first announced HERE (and decided through a decentralized governance vote) that the network would eventually shift to such a system. Amid the excitement of opening GalaChain to external development via tools like the GalaChain SDK and the Gala Creator Portal, as well as the web3 buzz surrounding the March 20-21 GalaChain Hackathon GDC competition, we’re thrilled to announce that the time has come.
These updates will go live soon, switching to the new distribution system and rewarding node operators based on a new point system, described in more detail below.
The Point System
The original point system was “pass or fail” with the operator receiving either 0 points for not meeting the requirements or 1 point for meeting the requirements.
The new point system allows operators to earn partial points, creating a more accurate reward structure based on actual operation time.
Every 6 hour period equals 1 point. Therefore the max points for a 24 hour day is 4.
Another way of phrasing this is through the following formula:
Points = (Seconds Online ÷ 3600) x (4 ÷ 24)
While this point structure is changing, the total amount of $GALA available in the daily distribution will not change, except when a dynamic supply event occurs as described in the Gala Ecosystem Blueprint.
The founders distribution still follows the same formula:
Point Value = Distribution $GALA Amount / Total Points
Reward = Points * Point Reward Value
Founder’s Nodes and Common Ground World Nodes
This change will initially only affect the distribution of $GALA from Founder’s Nodes and $DIRT from Common Ground World Nodes.
For Common Ground World Nodes, the 1 $DIRT received per day for an active node will now be the maximum that a Common Ground World Node will generate when active for 24 hours in a day. A Common Ground World Node that is active for 6 hours will receive .25 $DIRT, and so on.
Next Steps
This update is an important step in the process toward making tokenized licenses called Node Workload NFTs, which will allow Node operators to transfer their Node licenses to other users. Shortly after the start of this new distribution structure, we will convert Common Ground World Node licenses to the ecosystem’s first Node Workload NFTs. The tokenization of Founder’s Node licenses will follow shortly after.
Running the Newest Client
With a future update to this system, modifiers will be implemented that reward additional points to operators who run the newest version of the Node client or reduce points for running a deprecated version of the Node client. These details are still being fine tuned and we will share updates as they become available.
Thank you for supporting the decentralized Gala ecosystem, and we look forward to many more years of building and innovating through the power of GalaChain!
