Invulnerable Collators

Block production on Encointer Network is done by two kinds of collators. The unpermissioned set is open to anyone who bonds at least 5 KSM. Currently there are 5 slots and candidates can compete by bonding more KSM. The set of Invulnerables, on the other hand, is selected manually by criteria we consider important for the network's security, inclusivity and availability.

Selection Criteria

The Encointer Council has the power to change the set of invulnerables as well as the number of desired unpermissioned slots. The following criteria shall guide their decisions.

Maintainers

The Encointer Association are the maintainers of the Encointer Network and are running invulnerable collators.

Encointer Communities

Active Encointer communities should be granted one invulnerable slot each - up to a reasonable number of communities.

Reasoning:

  • Encointer communities in the global south can't easily afford to compete with their KSM bond. They simply don't have the capital and shall have priority. Power outages and internet service interruptions may happen frequently in some regions. Encointer shall exercise reasonable tolerance for such downtimes.
  • Geographical decentralization: Only very few nodes will be operated on i.e. the African continent if they have to compete with bonded capital.
  • Encointer communities are the main stakeholders of this network and are it's raison-d'être. They should be able to run their own infrastructure to ensure censorship-resistance and availability.

Recommendations for community collators:

  • Run the collator in the physical location of the community to improve geographical distribution
  • Register an identity on-chain with the community's name and a matrix handle.
  • Use a recognizable name for telemetry, including the community name

Candidates with Stable Performance and Contributions

Out of the unpermissioned set of candidates, collators can apply for an invulnerable slot. The following criteria should be considered:

  • stable operation over a longer period with high availability
  • performant public rpc services: collator operators who also run Encointer's collator binary exposing custom rpc methods used by the Encointer Wallet app and other dApps should be prioritized.
  • other contributions to the platform showing commitment to the cause like documentation, tutorials, community building etc.

Compensation

The Encointer Association does not compensate collators. However, the Kusama Network may compensate collator operators for their services to all systemchains - including Encointer - whether they are in the invulnerable or unpermissioned set. A bounty is live on Kusama for this purpose and is curated by a selection of individuals unrelated to Encointer.

The current understanding is that all systemchain collator operators except the main maintainer team are eligible for compensation.