Since the start of 2022, KYVE’s Engineering Team has been head-down, constantly building and improving the KYVE network, from launching a Cosmos-based chain, to releasing several major protocol updates. Today, we are thrilled to announce the next chapter of KYVE’s growth, releasing the sixth protocol update! V6 focuses on improving pool security, validator roles, the overall user experience on theKYVE App, and more!
What’s New From v6?
Protocol update v0.6.0 has brought on a few changes for KYVE protocol nodes, the first addressing commission changes. Previous to this update, those running protocol nodes were able to change their commission amount in an unlimited amount of time. Our community brought to our attention that this lacks transparency between the network participants. For example, a protocol node runner could set a commission of 1% to attract delegators to get a lot of delegation, then switch to 99%, in the end barely paying delegators any commission.
Now, if a protocol node runner wants to change their commission, it will take five days for the change to become active, and it will be noted on their profile that they are currently changing commission. This way, the changes are more transparent, giving an equal advantage to all participants.
In the case of a user not liking their new commission, they now have the ability to use a redelegation spell button. Found on the User Profile, this button will allow users to redelegate their delegated tokens to any node. There are five total redelegation slots available. Once all slots are taken, users will need to wait five days until the oldest redelegation spell expires and a new slot becomes available.
Another new update is in regards to inactive nodes. When a node doesn’t upload data in time, typically it would get slashed and kicked out of the pool. However, after studying other options on how to go about this situation, our team found it better to not kick the node out, but rather put it in an inactive state.
Why make this change? Prior to this update, the timeout slash was at 1%. If a node runner wanted to withdraw immediately from a pool, they could just take their node offline, pay that 1% fee, and get 99% of their tokens back. Now with v6, if the node is inactive it will not get slashed, however, it will also not be able to participate in voting on bundles, nor uploading, and the node operator will have to do a command to reactivate it. Keep in mind, if the node operator decides to unstake, the unbonding time still applies.
Lastly, voting power has also been updated for participants on the KYVE app. Previously, all fifty validators in a pool had the same voting power, if a majority voted yes or no, the bundle was created, or not, accordingly. However, this could lead to users more easily taking over a pool. Therefore, to increase pool security, voting power has now been updated to be proportional to the number of tokens staked per validator. You can check a validator’s voting power by checking the pool’s validator tab, under the “Active validators” section.
In this way, if a user wants to try and take over a pool, they would need to stake more $KYVE than 50% of the total pool stake, which is a lot less likely to occur. To reflect this update, the KYVE app will now show a percentage of votes valid rather than a number of votes.
To add to pool security, we have also implemented a minimum total stake amount per pool. Before, it was possible for a pool to run containing nodes with little tokens staked, which made it easy for the pool to get overtaken. Now, a pool can specify a minimum amount of tokens staked in order to run. In other words, userswill need to stake in total at least the minimum amount required into the pool, otherwise, the pool will pause and stop archiving until at least the minimum amount required has been staked.
Adding this minimum stake amount makes it so that a user would need to stake at least half of the minimum required in order to overtake the pool and upload invalid data. As a result, pools will produce more reliable data and activity.
KYVE’s Governance participants have new power and responsibility in ensuring pool security. In case of a pool endpoint hack, a fork on the blockchain, or the uploading of invalid data, the Governance can now vote to reset the block height prior to the maleficent event, dropping the invalid bundles and restoring an earlier state of the pool. In this way, the Governance has a say over what is valid or not.
Lastly, the KYVE team has implemented Cosmostation, an industry-leading non-custodial wallet designed for PoS blockchains. This way, users now have the option of either using Keplr or Cosmostation when participating on the KYVE App. To switch to the Cosmostation wallet, simply disconnect and reconnect your account, then select the “connect your wallet” button. A popup will allow you to either connect your Cosmostation or Kelpr wallet.
Continuous Growth
To accompany this protocol update, our team has also released an updatedKYVE SDK. Now, developers can more easily interact with KYVE, helping the network grow and discover new possible use cases. Interested in participating in the KYVE Network? Be sure to join in on our incentivized testnet,Mission Korellia, in order to test out these new features and contribute to the evolution of KYVE!
About KYVE
KYVE, the web3 data lake solution, is a protocol that enables data providers to standardize, validate, and permanently store blockchain data streams. By leveraging permanent data storage solutions like Arweave, KYVE’s Cosmos SDK chain creates permanent backups and ensures the scalability, immutability, and availability of these resources over time. KYVE’s network is powered by decentralized uploaders and validators funded by $KYVE tokens and aims to operate as a DAO in the near future. This past year KYVE has gained major support, currently backed by top VCs, including Hypersphere Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Distributed Global, Mechanism Capital, CMS Holdings, IOSG Ventures, and blockchains such as Arweave, Avalanche, Solana, Interchain, and NEAR.
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