The Lodestar User Incentive Program: Wrapping Up

Authored by Phil Ngo

The Lodestar User Incentive Program came to a close on August 23, 2023, @ 18:00 UTC to incentivize solo stakers to give Lodestar a try as their Ethereum consensus client.

From all of us at ChainSafe, thank you for trying out our consensus client in your Ethereum staking setups.

As all good things must come to an end, we want to explain the process of how we will analyze and publish eligible validators qualifying for the USD 25,000 prize pool split. The next step is to analyze and eliminate ineligible block proposals between slots 6064198 to 7165798 (the "eligible period").

Eligibility determination process

• First, we will collect all proposals within the eligible slots range, then remove proposals without the eligible graffiti.

• Secondly, thanks to the generosity of Leo and his team at Miga Labs, we will be able to analyze validator data against their dataset of known large node operators to help eliminate ineligible proposals from large staking entities.

• Then, all remaining validators will be cross-checked against any affiliation with ChainSafe and removed.

• The Miga Labs team will help run blocks through Blockprint for analysis. By collecting the eligible blocks in either SSZ or JSON format, we will be able to replicate results against our specific packing algorithm to further verify that blocks with the "Lodestar" graffiti were likely proposed with Lodestar and not another consensus client.

• Next, suppose you proposed more than one (1) eligible block during the period. In that case, we will take the information (e.g., feeRecipient) from your most recent proposal, and the remainder will be discarded as eligible validators are only allowed to be counted once.

• The remaining validators will then be cross-checked with their deposit address and their feeRecipient address (withdrawal credentials for RP node operators) to ensure that each node operator is likely unique and qualifies for only one (1) share of the prize pool. The goal is to ensure each unique node operator only receives one share of the prize pool no matter how many validator indices (up to 320 ETH per unique operator) they run. RocketPool node operators will have their mini-pool withdrawal credentials cross-checked for uniqueness instead of the feeRecipient.

Next steps

After completing all checks, we will publish a follow-up announcement with the eligible validators and their feeRecipient/withdrawal address of where the prize pool money will be sent.

There will be a dispute period of two weeks to allow individuals to claim a prize if they were inappropriately omitted from the prize pool. Stay tuned!

Have questions? Hop into our 👉 Discord.

About ChainSafe

ChainSafe is a leading blockchain research and development firm specializing in infrastructure solutions for web3. Alongside its contributions to major ecosystems such as Ethereum, Polkadot, Filecoin, and more, ChainSafe creates solutions for developers and teams across the web3 space utilizing expertise in gaming, interoperability, and decentralized storage.

As part of its mission to build innovative products for users and improved tooling for developers, ChainSafe embodies an open source and community-oriented ethos to advance the future of the internet.

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