Validator Awards Program
The SCF Validator Awards Program is designed to increase Stellar network participation by helping to cover the costs of initiating Stellar Mainnet validators.
It is designed to encourage recent SCF Award recipients to run a validator to take part in network governance, capitalize on the benefits of clear transaction finality, support the health and decentralization of the network, or for any other reason they see fit. It can help them get validators up and running, and, if they meet the requirements, it can help defray maintenance costs for up to a year.
Why Validator Awards?
By design, Stellar does not provide on-chain financial incentives to run validators, nor does it rely on stake or hash power to secure the network. Rather, organizations that actually use the network run validators, and network security comes from the real-world reputation of those organizations.
For the past several years, a core group of validators have provided the network with stability, consistency, and solid uptime, but few new organizations have joined their ranks. The launch of Soroban and the growth of SCF may be a good opportunity to change that: a new cohort of Stellar projects is launching, and many have expressed interest in running validators. With a little encouragement, what will they do?
If they do choose to run validators, they can increase network fault tolerance, improve decentralization, and help direct the future of the network to ensure it evolves to meet ecosystem needs. Now is the time to see if they're ready!
Award Structure & Eligibility Criteria
There are 20 total Phase 1 awards available on a first-come, first-served basis. After completing Phase 1, recipients are eligible for subsequent phase awards based on specific criteria.
Award Type | Eligibility Criteria | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 Award |
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| Phase 2 Award |
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| Phase 3 Award |
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Phase 1 Award
Eligibility Criteria:
- SCF Award received within the past 24 months
- Live integration on Stellar Mainnet
Amount:
- $6K worth of XLM* to cover the cost of running 3 validators that publish history archives for 3 months
Phase 2 Award
Eligibility Criteria:
- Phase 1 Award in the previous 8-16 weeks
- Organization listed on https://stellarbeat.io/ with 3 Mainnet validators running the latest Stellar Core release
Amount:
- $6K worth of XLM* to cover the cost of running 3 validators that publish history archives for 3 months
Phase 3 Award
Eligibility Criteria:
- Phase 2 Award in the previous 8-16 weeks
- Organization listed on https://stellarbeat.io/ with:
- 3 Mainnet validators running the latest Stellar Core release
- 99% uptime for at least 3 months
- History archives with no warnings
Amount:
- $12K worth of XLM* to cover the cost of running 3 validators that publish history archives for 6 months
Evaluation Criteria
Eligible submissions will be reviewed by a panel of SDF and community members based on readiness and motivation including the following:
Does the applicant have a reasonable plan to host validator infrastructure?
Has the applicant done a sufficient amount to scope the costs for running validator infrastructure?
Does the applicant seem capable of maintaining validator infrastructure?
Does the applicant have sufficient innate motivation to run validator infrastructure?
If you have trouble accessing the embedded form, you can use this link as well.
*The USD valuation of the budget request in XLM will be calculated using the CF Stellar Lumens-Dollar Settlement Price on the day of payment as administered, maintained, and reported by the cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks Ltd. (using the ticker XLMUSD_RR) (available at https://www.cfbenchmarks.com/indices/XLMUSD_RR).
