Validating on the Lamina1 Mainnet
Right now, validating on Lamina1 is by invitation only, and will be conducted exclusively by 8 primary nodes and 5 subnet nodes managed by the OMF, the Lamina1 core team, and its close partners. Lamina1 will be rolling out validation to the public gradually, across three phases over the next 12 months.
Phase 01: Invitation-Only Nodes Launch; Betanet Validation Continues
On day 01 of Mainnet, the Lamina1 network will operate as two traditional, federated subnets under the Avalanche infrastructure, starting with 8 nodes for the primary subnet,5 nodes for the identity subnet, and additional nodes for Relayers; managed by the OMF, our core team, and close partners. This number is in line with Avalanche’s current recommendations/requirements, and will be purposely kept small during the initial launch window as we launch new functionality and infrastructure to the network.
As such, the primary method to engage in chain governance and earn rewards on Lamina1 during Phase 01 will be through staking tokens. These activities will be accessible to Lamina1 users via a new, dedicated ‘Governance’ tab on the Lamina1 Hub that will make it easy to monitor, lock-up and withdraw L1, and claim your corresponding rewards tokens in exchange for supporting the network.
Phase 02: Mainnet Validation Expands to Select Noderunners Operating on both Lamina1 and Avalanche
After the first 3–6 months of Mainnet has passed, the Lamina1 Core Team plans to extend the opportunity to validate to 8 or more community validators, prioritizing our current cohort of Betanet validators before potentially extending invitations out to the rest of the Lamina1 community. These validators will need to meet Avalanche’s current validator requirements, including the requirement to be holding at least 2000 AVAX to operate a node on the network. These nodes will have smaller stakes compared to the initial 8 nodes launched on Lamina1.
Validators will be selected based on their engagement and performance during the Betanet phase, as well as any past validation activities on Avalanche. Preference will be given to those already running nodes on Avalanche, especially those with good uptimes and reliability scores on the Avalanche network.
We expect this second phase to continue through the end of the first year of Mainnet operation.
Phase 03: Major Validation Expansion, Permissionless and Subnet-Only Validation Begins on Lamina1
Our goal for Phase 03 is to open up validation to anyone interested in supporting Lamina1. This expansion is contingent on two things: First, the status and potential resolution of Avalanche Community Proposals 13 and 77, which aim to overhaul Subnet creation and management on Avalanche to unlock increased flexibility and lower validation costs for Subnet creators; and second, to transition to an elastic subnet within the Avalanche ecosystem, essentially making Lamina1 a permissionless network within it. We’re not sure which one will come first, but have game plans ready for either contingency.
If the Avalanche Community Proposals we’ve been eyeing are approved first, they would allow us and other subnets to essentially separate out subnet validators from primary network validators — removing the 2000 AVAX requirement and moving ownership of Subnet validator set management from the P-chain to the Subnets themselves. The proposal would also introduce a continuous P-chain fee mechanism for Subnet validators that would result in continuous subnet staking, essentially allowing validators to pay a modest “rent” for operating subnets, rather than having to cover a large upfront cost.
If/when the proposal goes through, a message will go out to all existing Betanet validators on Lamina1 and those who said they were interested in validating during Betanet to help expand the validator community and sign up for to operate a Subnet Only Validator (SOV), which you can read more about here: https://github.com/avalanche-foundation/ACPs/discussions/14
Second, if the network reaches sufficient economic value and maturity before the above proposals go through, or if the proposals are voted down or significantly delayed by the Avalanche community, we may transition to an elastic subnet first. This would allow Lamina1 to activate Proof-of-Stake validation and uptime-based rewards using our own token (L1) on our own Subnet, meaning that we can directly set the amount of L1 (and other requirements) noderunners need to validate on the network. Without the Subnet Only Validator improvements, Lamina1 validators would still be required to stake the 2000 AVAX required to be an Avalanche validator. For more information about elastic subnets and how they work on Avalanche, check out: https://medium.com/avalancheavax/banff-elastic-subnets-44042f41e34c
In the meantime, anyone can stake tokens on Lamina1 starting this May to support the network and begin earning rewards, per the plans and parameters laid out in the Governance Whitepaper.
For additional information, see this Frequently Asked Questions post on the Lamina1 Medium.