It has been 16 days since Stride launched liquid staking on the dYdX Chain, and there’s been a lot to be excited about in that time, including swift growth in stDYDX use cases across the interchain, as well as Stride’s ongoing 150,000 STRD airdrop to stDYDX holders.
After successfully launching stDYDX with 10 high quality validators to ensure stability of the initial validator set post-launch, we’re excited to announce the next cohort of validators to be added to the set of validators receiving delegations from Stride’s stDYDX.
How Stride Handles Delegations on dYdX Chain
As set out in a previous post, Stride is effectuating a phased rollout of delegations to validators on the dYdX Chain. Stride initially launched with 10 validators in order to minimize the likelihood of a selected validator falling out of the rapidly changing dYdX active set. Additionally, Stride committed to periodically add additional validators to the set 3-4 at a time until Stride’s traditional 32 validator active set was reached.
As with the initial 10 validators, subsequent validators are chosen according to factors that are most important to the health of the protocol in this bootstrapping phase. These factors were inspired heavily by the dYdX Foundation’s published guidelines on best practices for dYdX validators and stakers. A few non-exclusive examples include:
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The validators’ respective contributions to dYdX in testnet and mainnet so far, including node and infrastructure operation, testing, maintenance, bug reporting, engineering contributions, dashboard and tooling maintenance, and more.
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Validator operations and security, to the extent that this is easily discoverable using publicly available means.
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Position in the active set. Because 33% of vote power is currently concentrated in the top 2 validators, no stake will be delegated to the top 33% of vote power until such time as stake weight distribution across the set improves
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Node performance and latency. Note that for now this does not include uptime / missed blocks, as the shorter blocktimes for the dYdX chain tend to result in more missed blocks on average than other chains.
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Governance participation.
This model helps ensure minimum downtime for a validator to which Stride delegates and ensures maximum alignment with the dYdX’s protocol’s needs. Stride wishes to be a strong decentralizing force for the dYdX chain, and the validator selection process reflects those goals.
The Next Cohort of Validators
This round, Stride has selected 4 validators to add to the host-chain delegation set, bringing the total number of validators in the set to 14. The 4 validators that have been added to the set are:
With the addition of these 4 validators, the full stDYDX host-chain validator set is:
- Imperator
- Polkachu
- Kingnodes
- PRO Delegators
- Crosnest
- Strangelove
- Cryptocrew x Defi Dojo
- Enigma
- ECO Stake
- Smart Stake
- Lavender.Five nodes
- Kiln
- Meria
- Cosmostation
Validators in this set should notice changes to their delegations in the next several days to accommodate these additions. After allowing for another ~2 weeks, 3-4 additional validators will be added to the set. Be on the lookout for another forum post around that time announcing the next cohort of selected validators.
Liquid Stake your dYdX With Stride
If you’re new to the concept of liquid staking or are unfamiliar with Stride, DYDX token holders can liquid stake their Stride today by visiting https://app.stride.zone/?chain=DYDX. By liquid staking, you can continue to earn DYDX’s 16.8% staking APR without being subject to the 30 day lockup period. You’ll also be eligible for Stride’s 150,000 STRD airdrop for stDYDX holders. More details on how to qualify here: https://www.stride.zone/blog/airdrop-to-stdydx-holders
Helpful Links:
- Website: https://www.stride.zone/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stride_zone
- Security and Audits: Stride · Safety & Security