Pastel SuperNode Founder Program

We are pleased to announce the SuperNode Founder Program — become one of the first SuperNodes activated on the network, gain increased credibility in the validator community, and earn additional exclusive rewards from the foundation.

Existing SuperNode Use-Cases and Incentives

Pastel has made every effort to permeate decentralization and democratization across all aspects of our ecosystem. Having a network of reliable, redundant SuperNodes is key to powering NFT capabilities — such as registration, activation, and validation — along with providing enhanced security, reliability, and governance. By staking 5 million PSL and dedicating computational resources to the network, SuperNodes are instrumental in running both Sense and Cascade protocols, and ensuring such functionality is easily accessible in a trustless fashion via open Web APIs.

The SuperNode Founder Program was created to reward early network participants for their contribution and activity in the ecosystem as well as encourage long-term decentralization. As it stands, the SuperNode Network receives 1,250.00 PSL of each Block Reward, which is randomly distributed to any given SuperNode per block (assuming the SuperNode is in good standing with the network and is not slashed for failure to act or malicious behavior).

At the time of writing, the implied Block Reward APR for simply operating a SuperNode is ~49.58% based on a current block time of 2.5 minutes, 106 active SuperNodes, and 5 million PSL collateral required.

Additionally,  SuperNode operators are able to earn additional Transactional Rewards for performing various network functions such as registering NFTs or performing Sense requests. As more partners like Nervos and TomoChain integrate with Pastel, SuperNodes should expect to see dramatic growth in overall transaction throughput on the network and thereby healthy growth in Transactional Rewards.

Please see documentation on how to run a SuperNode here.

Read about our SuperNodes and the operator rewards in the “About SuperNodes” section below

Founder Program and Other Incentives

The Founder Program is intended to incentivize early SuperNode operators with additional rewards for participating in the network, providing enhanced performance, ensure network security, and encourage long-term decentralization. The first 250 SuperNodes activated on the Pastel Network will become members of the Founder Program, tracked by their unique PastelID and Address. In addition to receiving Block and Transactional Rewards, Founder SuperNode operators will also become eligible for random PSL or NFT airdrops.

In the future, we will be devising a leaderboard system that tracks various transaction activity per Founder SuperNode — such as the number of NFTs registered or the amount of Sense and Cascade requests processed. Each month, we intend on rewarding the top 10% of SuperNodes with additional awards like fresh NFT mints or other perks from new network partners.

Note that Founder Program rewards are not, nor will ever be, the main incentive to running a SuperNode. They are a bonus reward from the foundation as a ‘thank you’ for becoming an integral part of our ecosystem. Founder Rewards are separate from the Pastel Protocol and administered by the Pastel Foundation on a best-effort basis. While this administration adds a small degree of centralization to the Founder Program, this is mitigated by the fact that it is optional and has no impact at the protocol level.

About SuperNodes

To handle the requirements of running an application-specific blockchain while preserving maximal decentralization and ensuring that the system is scalable over the long term, we leverage the concept of a SuperNode. Rather than having every full network node in the Pastel system independently verify and handle all the functionality of the system, we have a class of special SuperNodes which are dedicated, high-performance machines that can handle the demanding storage and computational requirements of verifying and serving digital NFT files.

SuperNodes are powerful servers operating at static IP addresses with 24/7/365 expected uptime, backed by collateral held in PSL and are designed to provide advanced transactional services, verification, and governance on the Pastel blockchain. Anyone around the world can launch their own SuperNode — all they need is a fast, internet-connected computer, a modest level of technical knowledge for set-up, and 5 million PSL to serve as collateral. This structure ensures that the system remains fundamentally permissionless: the user does not need to ask anyone’s permission to run a SuperNode. The network can continue to achieve decentralization, with the capability of performing more work and being much more flexible.

The other benefit of SuperNodes is that they create a healthy financial alignment between the custodians of the machines that operate the network and the owners of PSL coins, which creates a virtuous cycle of incentives. SuperNode operators are provided with 20% of the block reward and are also given the opportunity to vote on up to 10% of the remaining block reward to fund community initiatives to support the Pastel ecosystem. Key PSL stakeholders have a direct incentive to make sure their SuperNode is operating properly and not damaging the system.

We have also designed various mechanisms such as Storage Challenges to detect, prevent, and harden against attack vectors or malicious SuperNode operators. Furthermore, the system tracks the reputation of nodes over time in a decentralized way so that nodes observed manipulating or damaging the network can be voluntarily banned or ignored.

Founder SuperNodes are by no means different from other SuperNodes in the way they interact with the network; they are not trusted more than other SuperNodes, and they earn the same economic returns from the Pastel Network as any other SuperNode in good standing.

About Pastel Network

Pastel is the world’s preeminent protocol standard for NFT technology. Pastel also allows for the development of third-party applications to sit on top of its Network, enabling developers to enjoy the scalable registration features, storage processes and security of the broader ecosystem. Lightweight protocols such as Sense — which was built to assess the relative rareness of a given NFT against near-duplicate metadata — and Cascade — which conducts permanent, distributed storage of underlying NFT data — can be integrated across any native L1 blockchains or L2 marketplaces.

Pastel is an entirely native blockchain supported by SuperNodes, which provides computational resources to the network to support asset registration, distribution, and permanent storage. Pastel is managed by world-class developers, cryptographers, and technologists, supported alongside an experienced and extensive network of marketers, influencers, and third-party agencies. Pastel is backed by key stakeholders including Innovating Capital, a prominent venture fund.

This article was first published by our team here.

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