#1

This is the final proposed draft for the upcoming testnet which is based on the community feedback to previous iterations, and of insights from running the rewards calculated based on the last two weeks of the testnet.

The data used for the rewards calculations can be viewed here along with:

  • A reward lookup tool to enable all testnet participants to check their rewards eligibility (if you suspect or have any data to contradict this data please reach out and let us know).
  • An overview of the eligible users of the testnet with a breakdown to the allocations.
  • A tiered rewards distribution breakdown.
  • Different distribution amounts simulations through various user benchmarks.

For transparency, a similar spreadsheet will be available and shared with the community per testnet round.

TLDR

  • 64k SSV tokens are to be minted as rewards.
  • The testnet will run for ~2.5 month through 5 rounds starting from 24.01.22 until 04.04.22
  • Rewards will be calculated per round but distributed in aggregation at the end of the testnet on the Ethereum mainnet.
  • Users eligibility and reward calculation will remain as outlined in the previous proposal, except for operators rewards calculations which is updated to use a logarithmic function.

Testnet snapshot overview

Running the calculations on the previous two weeks of the testnet (epochs 62332 - 65732) presents the following:

  • There are 756 users eligible for rewards.
  • Out of 5,214 validators, only ~1.7K validators are “should be attesting” (not exited, with at least 3 active operators), out of which 1114 are eligible (attestation rate > 85%).
    • ~500 Blox’s validators were excluded.
  • Out of 838 operators, 284 are eligible, out of which 50 are verified.
  • There are 27 SSV holders with 42K SSV “staked”.

Testnet duration

  • The testnet will run in 2 phases - the 1st will last for 5 two weeks rounds (~2.5 months) from 24.01.22 until 04.04.22, which will be followed with a longer lasting and higher rewards testnet (2nd phase) in alignment with the release of our v2 contracts in hopes to capitalize on a version that better showcases our product with the incorporation of the SSV token as the payment layer of the network and offer validator and operator management capabilities.
  • The discussed and proposed terms apply for the 1st phase of the testnet and a dedicated proposal will be up for the 2nd phase due time.

Rewards distribution

  • To lower overall transaction costs for our users and to reduce overhead associated with claiming rewards on a cheaper network (e.g. xDai as initially suggested) like bridging assets and acquiring a native token for gas, the rewards will be distributed once at the end of the testnet (first phase) on the Ethereum mainnet.
  • The distributed amount will be the aggregation of rewards calculated per round in order to incentivize engagement and increase chances of user eligibility throughout the testnet duration.

Operators reward calculations

  • A logarithmic function c0.01 will be used to calculate operator rewards instead of the previous linear function, to flatten the curve and spread the rewards more evenly between the majority of the participating operators.

Next steps

If there are no special objections to the presented above, this proposal will be up for a vote on Monday the 17th.

8 Likes
#2

Could you please confirm that vested SSV (DAO Partners) was not included in the sample data but will be included once we go live?

Everything else looks good to me! Well done. Let’s do it.

#3

I think this is great overall. Just one comment: we should write out the function for the operators reward calculation, since the “c” coefficient isn’t a standard notation. Taking the version from the other proposal and modifying:

val_i – amount of validators the operator is assigned to
score_i – operator’s score for the entire distribution duration
wi = log(0.01 * val_i + 1) * score_i – operator’s weight in rewards
W = ∑wi – sum of all operators weight
R – total rewards
ri = wi/W*R – operator rewards

2 Likes
#4

The reward distribution does not make sense at all to me for a testnet incentive which main purpose is to test drive and tune up the SSV codebase.

Following the calculator linked in the proposal, more than 50% of all rewards will go to a single wallet which is not even running the SSV software, the only reason that they will get most of all rewards is for the only reason that they invested a large amount of their money to acquire over 41,000 SSV tokens. In total they will receive over 31,000 SSV tokens, that’s over 260,000 USD for doing no work or testing at all. Of course that’s an anonymous wallet.

Adding over this, it is mentioned that this proposal will be voted, which I guess will be done through holding SSV tokens. It is pretty clear who will have the upper hand on accepting or rejecting a proposal that benefits them the most and which will allocate them over 6,000 SSV token per round, thus also increasing their voting power at every round.

As a DYI operator, I have invested many hours looking through issues occurring with SSV software, reaching to at least over 15 of the top 100 operators to help them fix issues and allow the network to recover. I have also invested 1000 USD in SSV token, which as since lost 30% in value. The only reason I don’t regret having acquired SSV token is that it allocates me a reward which can at least pay for the energy spent in running and supporting SSV. Also I can at least vote against this proposal even though there is 0 chance for this proposal to be rejected if the vote is done through SSV token.

Finally, if anyone here has been running SSV software without investing in SSV token, don’t even think of covering off your hosting and/or electricity cost with the reward, you are actually paying for someone else to get a juicy reward.

I am overall pretty disappointed by the final draft despite the callouts about this particular issue that had been brought up in almost every previous iteration of this proposal. It is pretty clear that the financial investment is what this testnet is rewarding, not time investment in actually testing the network, which is pretty ironic since this is an “incentivized testnet”.

In the previous iteration, I had said that if the reward was low “I won’t be too mad either because this is just an incentive and this is not reason why I am here”, though given that a single non-operator will receive over 50% is really telling me there might be something actually suspicious about the whole testnet incentive and losing faith that people calling the shots here are putting their best intentions toward building SSV.

#5

If you can’t make it clear how your conclusions were reached, I would consider your statement to be extremely irresponsible.

#6

You are right, I did not explain clearly how I found those numbers, thank you for calling this out. They are available in the rewards simulation spreadsheet which is linked in the second paragraph of the proposal.

There you will find that wallet 0xe1e550357dd309e360b045de0713b13066efd701 which runs no operator and holds 41,781 SSV will receive 6,234 of the total 12,800 SSV allocated for the first reward round which is a little more than 48%. I was indeed wrong to say “over 50%” since it is a little below, though I think that it changes nothing to the point I am trying to highlight.

#7

Oh my friend. That’s just an emulator. Most people weren’t ready, and he was. That’s all. When the testnet was launched, everyone was ready, and the situation was different.

1 Like
#8

image

This address has 41781 ssv staked. And the total pledged amount is 43481 ssv. I think you should be able to understand why he can get such a high reward? my friend.

#9

Now I don’t understand this. A couple of things confuse me in the simulation. First of all, there is an article in the simulation file: input the wallet address used to register Operator/ validator. and wallet address.

is this about us? I joined as a validator. Do I need to register somewhere extra?

#10

Once this proposal passes people will join and put SSV into their registering addresses so the total amount of SSV will be much higher.
SSV is calculated between the periods not whoever has SSV now.

#11

I think we should copy along (maybe edit the first post on this topic), the “Motivation” for this incentivised testnet, from @Adamefr 's initial post in November:

There’s also another reply by @alonmuroch on the V3 version, about one of the objectives…

It is clear to me that this incentivised testnet is very ambitious, with a broad spectrum of objectives, and these objectives need more visibility.

I am in favor of LAUNCHING IT as soon as possible.

The team needs feedback.
Codebase needs to be tested in as many scenarios as possible.
The interaction between validators and operators also needs to be tested.
The network economics is a huge factor, and I think it cannot be really tested without an incentivised testnet.

While this may not be perfect, IMHO, launching it will greatly benefit the project.

#12

After running my ssv-operator for several months now, giving major CPU/Internet Bandwidth and some time to check and fix things to the project, I find it kind of embarrassing how relatively low operators are going to be incentivized according to this proposal and the linked calculator especially in relation to importance of just holding the token. Operators are those doing all the work in the end and I hope this is fixed in a fair way in relation of work on the network that has already been done.