Prop 1051: Reduce Validator Set to 30
This proposal reduces the Osmosis active validator set from 70 to 30.
Motivation
This proposal follows Proposal 976 and Proposal 1017, which reduced the set from 120 to 100 and then to 70.
Osmosis is refocusing on its core product: a secure, specialised venue for cross-chain liquidity. That calls for a validator set sized to the network's security and reliability needs, with each validator able to operate to a high standard.
- Faster coordination. Security incidents and chain upgrades require validators to act quickly. A smaller set means faster responses when something goes wrong, and smoother upgrades when things go right.
- Lower overhead. Fewer validators reduce network communication overhead and hardware demands, and speed up block production.
- Sustainable operators. Several prominent validators have stopped validating on Osmosis this year, including Cosmostation, Informal Systems, Forbole, Nansen and Sentinel. Sharing protocol revenue between fewer validators keeps running a validator viable on real revenue rather than issuance.
Decentralisation Impact
Smaller sets produce blocks more reliably, at the cost of fewer independent operators. The number of validators needed to halt or control the chain depends on how voting power is distributed, not on the set size, and the tail of the current set holds little of it.
| Current set | Proposed set (30) | |
|---|---|---|
| Validators holding 33.3% of stake | 5 | 4 |
| Validators holding 67% of stake | 17 | 13 |
| Validators below the 67% threshold | 50 | 17 |
Validators outside the top 30 hold about 20.6 million OSMO, 11.9% of bonded stake. Delegators to these validators stop earning staking rewards when the change executes. They can redelegate to a validator in the active set at any time, with no unbonding period.
Proposed Change
Set the staking parameter max_validators to 30. All other staking parameters are unchanged.
Forum Post: https://forum.osmosis.zone/t/reduce-validator-set-to-30/4146