The SPS validator node software is currently in the internal testing phase and we hope to open it up for public testing within the next few months, with the "mainnet" planned to launch in Q4 of 2022. In the meantime, we wanted to provide an overview of how the system will work as well as to announce the upcoming sale of validator node licenses.
First and foremost, the SPS validator software will be 100% open source and available for anyone to download and run without any costs or restrictions. We expect that it will have relatively minimal hardware requirements and we plan to initially release it as a docker container that can be run on Linux machines with Windows and Mac versions to follow. Exact system requirements and setup instructions will be provided as we get closer to the open beta launch.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
The SPS governance system will work via a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus model very similar to that of networks such as Hive, EOS, BSC, and many others. This means that any account with staked SPS tokens can vote for accounts that are running validator nodes in order to elect the people or entities that will be responsible for validating all of the SPS transactions and who will control the SPS foundation funds. Please note that it will not cost anything or use up staked SPS in any way to vote for validators. It will simply be an additional use for staked SPS tokens and a way for token holders to participate in the governance of the system.
Each block on the Hive blockchain will be randomly assigned to one of the validators running the software based on the amount of staked SPS tokens they have voting on them. When assigned a block, the validator will publish a hash of the data in that block to the Hive blockchain which can then be checked and confirmed by all of the other validators. Once confirmed, the validator will receive a reward in SPS tokens for validating that block. The more staked SPS that is voting for a particular validator, the more blocks they will be assigned, and the more rewards they will receive.
SPS Validator Node Licenses
One potential issue with the above system is that there are only a relatively small number of accounts that will get the majority of the votes, and therefore the majority of the rewards. This means that there will not be much incentive for other people to run validator nodes. In order to try to address that issue we will be offering "licenses" which will allow anyone to earn rewards for running a node without needing to have any staked SPS votes.
The SPS validator node licenses will be purchasable with a combination of SPS tokens and VOUCHER tokens based on the pricing schedule outlined below. 80% of the SPS tokens and 100% of the VOUCHER tokens spent on node licenses will be burned and the remaining 20% of the SPS tokens will be put into the SPS foundation and be reserved specifically to be used to continue to incentivize SPS validator node operation when the 3B SPS token cap is reached after roughly 5 years.
The licenses will be NFTs that can be freely bought/sold/traded on secondary markets, and it will be possible to utilize multiple licenses with a single SPS validator node software instance - meaning that if someone were to purchase multiple licenses, they only need to run the validator node software once to earn the rewards for all of their licenses.
This system is similar to the node license structure used by a number of other projects, which have generally been very successful, and in this case all of the value from license purchases goes directly into the SPS token ecosystem. With this system we hope to have many thousands of validator nodes running all over the world which will help decentralize, distribute, and secure the system as well as provide significant additional value for the SPS and VOUCHER tokens.
Rewards
As mentioned in the SPS Whitepaper, there are 3,750,000 SPS tokens per month allocated to a reward pool for SPS Validator Node operators. 10%, or 375,000, of the monthly total will be allocated as block validation rewards for the accounts that receive staked SPS votes and are assigned specific blocks to validate, and the remaining 3,375,000 SPS / month will be split equally between all of the license holders that are actively running the node software.
While at first it might seem that only a small amount is being allocated to the voted validators, please keep in mind that there will only be a relatively small number of validators that receive the lion's share of the votes, so this 375k SPS / month will be split among a small group of accounts. Likely no more than 50 - 100 in total, with the top 10-20 receiving the majority of the rewards. If we assume 50 validators are splitting that equally, then they would each get 7500 SPS / month. In reality, the top voted validators will receive significantly more than that, as the rewards are proportional to the number of votes received.
Please note that it will also be possible to earn from both pools if you have one or more licenses and some staked SPS voting for you. It is expected that many, if not all, of the top voted validators will also hold licenses (though it is not required).
License holders will receive an equal share of the 3,375,000 SPS / month rewards per license they hold in their account as long as they are running an active validator node. The validator node software will periodically publish transactions to the Hive blockchain that will prove that the software is being run in order to receive the rewards.
In addition to the SPS rewards, a new pool of 20,000 VOUCHER tokens per day will be created and allocated to SPS validator node license holders in order to provide further incentive for purchasing licenses and running nodes. This pool will also be allocated equally per license to all holders that are actively running a validator node.
License Presale & Pricing
The licenses are planned to go on sale in the Splinterlands shop in approximately one month. The exact date will be announced as soon as it is available. This will allow players and community members to begin purchasing licenses before the SPS validator node software launches (currently targetting Q4 2022) if they choose and secure a cheaper price. The licenses will be NFTs similar to Splinterlands booster packs or land claims and will be transferrable in-game as well as on the Hive Engine platform initially, with other platforms such as AtomicHub planned to be added in the future.
The pricing for the licenses is shown in the table below. There will be 60,000 licenses available in total, and as each phase sells out, the next phase licenses will be available at the increased price point. Please note that there will be no difference between licenses sold in the presale phase or any other phases other than the purchase price.
| Phase | Quantity | Price | VOUCHER Discount Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Presale | 2,000 | $1,000 of SPS + 500 VOUCHERs | N/A |
| Tranche 1 | 3,000 | $3,000 of SPS | $3.00 |
| Tranche 2 | 5,000 | $5,000 of SPS | $5.00 |
| Tranche 3 | 10,000 | $7,500 of SPS | $7.50 |
| Tranche 4 | 10,000 | $10,000 of SPS | $10.00 |
| Tranche 5 | 10,000 | $15,000 of SPS | $15.00 |
| Tranche 6 | 10,000 | $20,000 of SPS | $20.00 |
| Tranche 7 | 10,000 | $40,000 of SPS | $40.00 |
While the presale phase may sell out rather quickly, we have structured the pricing model so that node licenses will be available for sale for many years to come. Initially, the market price of the SPS and VOUCHER tokens that each license will earn may not justify some of the higher pricing tiers, but if market prices increase over time then those tiers will start to become attractive.
It's important to note that licenses do not expire, so they are eligible to continue earning SPS and VOUCHER token rewards indefinitely. This means that the earlier you purchase licenses the lower the price you can "lock in" ahead of time and then take advantage of any price increases in the tokens for as long as the project is running.
While the presale will require 500 vouchers for each license purchase in addition to the $1,000 of SPS cost, the subsequent phases will not require vouchers but instead allow vouchers to be used to receive up to a 50% discount on the price. For example, in Tranche 1 the voucher discount rate is $3.00, which means that each voucher token spent will reduce the price by $3.00. Since the maximum discount is 50%, that means that you can spend up to 500 vouchers to reduce the price from $3,000 to $1,500. This allows voucher tokens to always have value when it comes to buying licenses, while also not making them required.
Value to the Ecosystem & Community
Overall this system lays out a path for nearly a billion dollars worth of SPS and VOUCHERs to be burned over a number of years, which is many times the entire current market cap of the token! Additionally, there's over a hundred million dollars worth of SPS tokens that can be earned by the DAO and be used to facilitate trading and additional rewards for node holders over time.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you may notice that not even a single dime worth of value from these transactions is going to the Splinterlands corporation. This is the real power of "web3". Rather than money and value flowing from customers to business owners, as it has in the past, instead money and value now flow into the ecosystem in which both customers and businesses are equal participants.
We invite you to pick up one or several of these node licenses early as supplies are quite limited and prices will increase as more licenses are sold. If you thought land was scarce at 150,000 plots you will realize that with only 60k node licenses ever available that nodes are essentially the scarcest assset type in the game, and they will be able to earn SPS, vouchers, and potentially other rewards in the future for as long as the game is running.
We think this is a great opportunity for our player base and our broader community of partners and supporters that want to purchase licences to support the platform and generate rewards for their services. Thank you for helping us secure and decentralize the Splinterlands and we hope you're as excited by this opportunity as we are!
Stay tuned for more updates from the Splinterlands!
Website | Blog | Discord | Telegram | Shop
NOTE: All rewards from this post will be burned.
Excellent job, I hope people realize the vision of this plan and what it means for everyone in the game if that vision gets fulfilled!
Yes, very promising, but at the same time this statement worries me a little bit:
I hope players spread their votes on many different validators, also smaller ones. HIVE is already way too centralized, I hope Splinterlands won't follow this example!
This is a common misconception about how DPoS systems work. The top voted witness/block producers/validators do NOT have much real power in the system. The staked token holders ultimately have all the power. If the top voted block producers or validators do anything that the token holders don't like, they will be voted out very quickly and lose any rewards they were making from being in the top.
The decentralization in a PoS system comes from the distribution of the tokens. The more distributed the staked token supply is, the more decentralized the network is, and vice versa.
I appreciate that you take the time to reply.
Concerning HIVE I think one of problems is that ...
... the block producers are the main token holders (or at least some of them) and in addition they are (at least as I personally perceive it; while I am aware that not everybody will agree here) a - more or less - homogenous group which supports each other mutually since the foundation of STEEM.
I agree that in Splinterlands the number of big token holders is much higher than in HIVE and not all are so closely connected to each other like the HIVE witnesses, so that this might lead to a higher degree of decentralization.
Furthermore, I gladly admit that I still need to read the whole concept of validators more thouroughly and gather more information to be able to build myself a clear opinion on the matter. Experience tells me that normally your projects are well-conceived, and in case of doubt I am optimistic that it will be the case also this time. :)
That doesn't matter - even if the main token holders aren't the block producers, they can change that in a second. This is what happened with the Steem hostile takeover. It didn't matter that Steemit, Inc was never a witness - they controlled the stake so they controlled everything.
So what I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't worry too much about who the top voted validators are or how many, and should focus much more on the distribution of the token, which I think both SPS and HIVE do a pretty good job with especially compared to a lot of the other networks out there.
OK, that's the deciding point, I agree, and right, SPS is distributed rather diverse (there was for example no early mining etc.).
A sufficient number of validators to guarantee enough safety of the network (enough nodes) is reached by the option for everybody to buy licenses to run a node ... I still need to read more about the details, but am looking forward to see how things will finally work out.
As always: thanks again for all the time and hard work you are investing into the success of Splinterlands!
I like you.
;-)
I'm looking at it in the same manner. I hold a bit and might have a little sway, but already know there is a circle that would overpower any chance I would have at being a 'top validator'. Maybe, idk, got a few guilds going and could might pull it off, have to see more specs yet I suppose.
My view is that was the thinking of making the vast majority of the payout (90%) not based on votes received. I agree that it should not be concentrated in just a few player's hands and I'm sure it will be more spread out than HIVE. I believe the DEVs also understand the point you made and why they made this work out this way. How many I don't know, but I think the "relatively small number" was versus the eventual 60,000. So whether its 50 or 100 or more I don't know, but I doubt it will be 10 or 20.
do you really believe that? i think the basic idea is good, but we have seen often enough in the past what happens when whales have a say behind the curtain, just look at the tournaments as they were before weirdbeard arrived. unfortunately, many people, especially when they can still act in anonymity, are terribly greedy egoists whose pocket is more important than the game or anything else!
but I am curious and hope that I will be surprised
@bronko I think you are missing that the ownership of the vast majority (90%) of the validators have NO impact on governance. Only the validators voted on by the staked SPS community will have a bearing on the way things work going forward. This reward will be a much more modest 10% of the total and you will likely now get people that are community oriented (vs greedy egoists) in charge of protecting the community.
The reason I like this is the incentives to run a node for anyone is pretty much the same (with a small bump for the top few), so now people will vote for who helps/protects the community the best instead of worrying about those people being corrupted by the money they are earning.
Plus I love the vision of where they think this will go. If those nodes are ever worth $40,000, then I think our minds will be blown! :)
yes right, I also meant not the possession but the complete system, who has the greatest voting power^^
and if the side where you vote is also hidden for the majority, such as the current feedback page. then the problems will only focus further, I think!
I fully agree that everything should be out in the open, and I'm sure the votes will be on the blockchain and everything will be visible and probably easily attainable from 3rd parties too.
most people dont know what a VN is or what it does let alone why we need them or how to set them up. the info gap is wider than the financial gap in the game. and youre 1000% correct the lack of open info for the masses holds the whole community back imo
Nice!!!
I'm loving the update but I'll be honest it's still not an affordable entry fee especially considering it's still a risk. An entry fee equal to 500$ for a license would've been more attractive. In it's current state, the average player will not be able to afford a license.
I imagine the top stakers will buy up most of the licenses making everything even more centralized...
Is there a limit to which large sps stakers can purchase licenses ?
Does anyone know if the nodes will need to be run 24/7 to receive the SPS rewards... or will it be similar to Gala Games nodes where they just need to be run for a certain number of hours per day to qualify?
I was wondering the same.
Yeah, I don't love the 'buy before testing is complete' model but it seems to be a super popular way for companies to operate at the moment.
This whole thing is mindbogglingly well crafted, kudos to the team.
I expect the presale batch to sell out pretty immediately, so let's see how many licences I manage to scoop up before they are all gone :D
OK. I'll show my ignorance (or my bad math)
Earnings from a license
3,375,000/60,000 = 56.25 SPS/month = 56.25 * 0.12 = $6.75
20,000/60,000 = 0.333 vouchers/day = 10/month = $15
Total = $21.75/month
Presale cost = $1000 in SPS + $750 for vouchers = $1750
PRESALE ROI = 1750/21.75 = 80.5 months = 6.7 years or 15% interest rate
Why would anyone want to buy a license rather than just staking SPS?
Potentially, it would be because they don't expect 60K licenses to be sold -- but, in that case, why is the team offering so many?
The first tranche 4 would have earnings of $65.25/month for a cost of $5500 (assuming vouchers at $1). Again, an ROI of 5500/65.25 = 84 months.
Assuming that tranche 3 sells out, the PRESALE ROI is cut down to 2.2 years but that is still less than a 50% interest rate -- without considering the running cost of a node.
What am I missing here?
As others have commented, you're missing the fact that it is literally impossible for this many nodes to be sold without a tremendous increase in the price of SPS. The system is self-regulating. If the SPS price is low, it won't make sense to buy the higher priced licenses, so they won't be bought and the pool will be split among fewer users, meaning more per user. On the flip side, if the price increases then more licenses will be purchased so the dollar value of the total earnings will go up but will be spread among more people.
Keep in mind that, even if the max number of vouchers are used, it would require the entire current market cap of SPS to be burned for tranche 3 to sell out at current prices.
Your math is off.
If you assume that all licenses sell out right away, you can sell a license for 40.000 dollars making a 38000 dollar profit right away (if you buy during presale)
It will take a long time for all the licenses to sell out. Supply and demand will decide how long it takes to sell out. If few sells you earn a lot per month, if many sells you can sell your license. (withour considering the sps price)
good math broo.. but the sps price there seems stable.
what about it falls to 0.05😂
i think the hope is if SPS goes up in value its gets really attraktiv to hold on to the license.
If 60k licenses are sold immediately then it would be a tremendous amount of SPS burned and sky high SPS prices (not likely in the first year). So I think you would have to account for that dynamic when modeling your ROI DW.
It is not about earnings, it is about supporting the network and make it truly decentralised :-)
No man, seriously, it is well thought out, clearly Mat on the case, can't go wrong!
Another SL game within the game within the game.... product 😄
Sweet! 👍
Reminds me of my land pre-sale trauma. I just hope this time I can be fast enough to grab something in the pre-sale :)
How did you go? Did they sell fast?
They sold so fast the site crashed and when it came back up the pre-sale was sold out. :-D
Of course the later tranches were just as cheap from today's point of view, so no regrets for missing out on that but still a trauma. I think the team leant from those experience and will create a more stable purchasing process for this occasion.
Did you manage to get a node?
I am happy with my node
Yup. With crappy mobile internet on my phone but it went smooth as silk.
The team did a great job
I'm locked and loaded with VOUCHERS and SPS to buy a license first day!
Bought some vouchers a week ago. Bought even more today!
super excited to be a part of this. I hope presale won't end in mere seconds at the start :)
Thank you Splinterlands team :)
voucher price already sky rocketed at +50% lol
I will speak very briefly.. We will dominate the market with SPS.
Well actually I did want a node now I have a strong reason to keep my vouchers :)
The 3,750,000 SPS tokens per month allocation will only be paid out after the SPS validator node software launches.
There is a opportunity cost until Splinterlands launches the software. Basically, the license for node will do nothing for months until Q4 2022 as oppose if you stake more SPS now. It is even worst if there are unforeseen events that cause the software launch postponed to 2023.
Awaiting for the billion market value!!!
Keep up the good work!
Is this maths correct?
3,375,000 SPS/month divided by 60,000 licences = 56.25 sps per licence per month
at current sps values approximately $6.80 a month ?
#spt
Matt answered to this question on another comment. Look above.
Isn't this part counterintuitive if we're looking for decentralization? Shouldn't each license require a new node instance?
What would be the point of that if the same person was running those?
@yabapmatt Can we please have some SPS staking requirement to participate the pre-sale please. Otherwise, I suspect there will be a speculative mad rush and long term contributors who are planning to be there irrespective of the rewards will suffer. Please consider.
The 500 voucher token requirement is effectively that. Players who stake SPS are the ones who get the vouchers for free, or they can choose to sell their vouchers to others who haven't staked as much SPS.
yes, and no... right? Vouchers can be bought from open market, there is no commitment.
But I understand your thought process.
Just something out there so that multi-account bot algorithm can't have any advantage during the pre-sale.
Any setup will be needed in order to run the node?
This is a good question?
I never ran a node before, but I am guess we need to buy a small server instance somewhere?
I wonder if it is possible to run one on one of my mining rigs.
i find it fascinating that we keep getting info on things that are being sold, but not a word about the fact that we've been waiting for a patch since april 5.......
It was announced yesterday on the Town Hall that the planned site updates will be done on Tuesday, and there will be an official announcement in the Discord with all the details very soon.
nice, thank you! unfortunately there was nothing in the summary :(
The date and time is also available on our Public Calendar.
thanks, but not really helpful if it is in a hidden calendar 😁
I had to click "add" to see the contents, which isn't ideal, but the permissions for viewing and sharing that calendar are as open as google will allow.
~~~ embed:1514683181592727558 twitter metadata:ZGl2aWRlbmRlbmNhc2h8fGh0dHBzOi8vdHdpdHRlci5jb20vZGl2aWRlbmRlbmNhc2gvc3RhdHVzLzE1MTQ2ODMxODE1OTI3Mjc1NTh8 ~~~
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
Gas gas
what are the specs to run a node?
Face Melting Pumps coming for $SPS and VOUCHERS
Posted using Splintertalk
I think it could be really cool!
If the execution of a validation node were to be easy to understand, even for a non-programmer but also for a simple user, I would love to be part of it!
Is it already available for download, or is this just an introduction and trial to the SPS token program?
I just heard about it, and maybe I can participate in this program, I also don't know if it's a cryptocurrency based Game or blockchain in SPS tokens.
Someone might be able to tell me about this.
Very cool innovations coming to splinterlands soon, it's making me very excited :). Thanks for the informative article.
Impressive implementation,
(Runs and checks his Voucher supply)
Nice, this is great to see more and more use cases coming to SPS token
Posted using Splintertalk
Nice, this is great to see more and more use cases coming to SPS token
Posted using Splintertalk
oh that is a good news
This is great news at a perfect time. Keeping fingers crossed to be one of the first validators Thanks Matt & Team for making this happen so soon!
So this is what propels Voucher prices up. I don't understand why are so many people dumping vouchers when there is no opportunity to spend them. The price is always higher when there is such an opportunity. And having such an event or an announcement during Easter could be expected.
Anyway, thanks for the good job.
Good luck. I have already liquidated my Splinterlands asseets. Most of them. I don't know if it keeps on appreciating, but I was satisfied with the x2 x3 profits I had, so I left the market.
Well this is super exciting news, and I hope I will be able to get one of these licenses. What requirements are there on the hardware side to run a node?
waiting for more detail about spec requirement
Outstanding info! Glad to be getting closer to this, and I'm excited to hopefully purchase a license 🤑
so, you can only have one validator per account of people will have multiple validators?
Posted using Splintertalk
nah, too complicated
This is awesome. After looking at this I decided to make a diagram of the flywheel effect of various Splinterlands assets. Let me know what you guys think.
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@bravetofu/splinterlands-asset-flywheel-v1-april-2022-edition
this is really well done!
Thank you!
Thanks @splinterlands - setting up a descentralized DPoS node ecosystem is really exciting for me and definitely will look forward acquiring a license as well as stablishing an stable and robust node network for people to Stake SPS in.
Best regards,
- EvM
ain't this killing the use case of buying rift watchers or getting bonus pack with vouchers ?
Es una BUENA opción para invertir y fortalecer la economía de Splinterlands. !hivebits
This will be great for SPS and VOUCHER prices.
If guild members wanted to pool their resources to buy a license, what would be the best way to do it?
Would you have to create an account specifically to run the pool from?
If a number of players within a guild wish to pool resources I order to buy licenses, what would be the best way? Would it be to create a dedicated account for pool members to send SPS/Vouchers to and operate the node from there?
That’s an interesting way of structuring things, how would you manage your pool? Will it be based predominantly on trust? Or will the founders all hold the keys?
Impressive and ambitious, our pool is nearly there but it has been much slower process than I thought it would be
Crypto is down at the moment...
Good work
Good work ,guys!
Look on the market...Hundreds and thousands of new games ,which do not deliver anything.
Just false promises,rugpulls,scams and very poor developments.
Compared cu them,Splinterlands should get 5 millions users...
i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited for this! LFG
I am not so excited!!!
I want SPS to MOON! Something like 10000000000000000x