Author: HHA | OtterSync

Sifchain’s Validator Delegation Program Phase 2 Award Announcement

Dear Sifchain Community:

We are officially announcing Sifchain’s Validator Delegation Phase 2 Awards. Thank you to all validators who applied for a delegation. We continue to build upon the previous phase to improve the delegation process experience for the applicants, the Validator Delegation council, and the core team, and we look forward to collecting your feedback to incorporate in future phases.

SUMMARY

• The validator delegation program is intended to decentralize and secure the Sifchain protocol while encouraging the growth and contributions of a dedicated and active validator set
• The Validator Delegation Council verified eligibility criteria published in the application announcements, and scored validators based on integration, technical contributions. community contributions, and rules/governance participation.
• We are delegating a total of 40,000,000 ROWAN to validators that fall into 2 categories:
  • Tier One: 16 Validators
  • Tier Two: 25 Validators
• Final delegation results can be found here.

BACKGROUND

Sifchain is taking steps to usher in further decentralization by re-delegating most of its tokens currently staked by the Ecosystem Fund to its Validator ecosystem. ROWAN generated from these delegations will go to the Ecosystem Fund.

Sifchain’s Validator Delegation Program is designed to further strengthen the validator network that powers the Sifchain platform, as well as increase network security and foster the growth of an active and committed validator set. The program was first announced on Nov 4, 2021.

We’ve designed a delegation framework with the aim of aligning the long-term health of the ecosystem with a decentralized set of validators who contribute to the community in a meaningful way beyond their validation service. The delegation will be periodically re-evaluated as often as each weekly council meeting, based on validators’ merits, regardless whether they are large or small,  institutional or independent, and well-established or new to the Sifchain ecosystem.

Throughout the process we have consistently attempted to use a fair framework despite occasional hiccups, and we have done our best to fulfill this promise and our commitment to the dedicated validator community. While our solution is not perfect, we are committed to a fair and transparent process and always encourage community input to improve the program.

DELEGATION CRITERIA

To be eligible for the Delegation Program, the validator must have fulfilled the following initial eligibility requirements:

• Applicant must have submitted the application form before July 26, 2022 (the announced deadline).
• Applicant’s validator node must be set up and active on Sifchain before submitting an application.
• Applicant must maintain a validator, on any chain, active and online for a full 90 days prior to July 1st 2022 in order to show UPTIME.
• Applicant’s validator node must be active on the Sifchain network at the time of delegation, as the foundation delegation should not kick out an active validator at no fault of their own.