Foundation Nomination

As a Nominated Proof of Stake (NPoS) based blockchain, Ternoa has been leveraging the contributions of both nominators and validators since its Mainnet launch in April 2022. These roles are critical for decentralization, enhancing security, and promoting active participation across the platform.

1. Validators: Validators are network participants responsible for creating new blocks, confirming transactions, and maintaining the blockchain’s integrity. They play a crucial role in the consensus process. Validators need to lock a certain amount of the network’s native cryptocurrency (staking) as collateral to be eligible to participate in block production.

2. Nominators: Nominators are individuals or entities that do not want to become validators themselves, but still want to contribute to the network’s security and consensus process. Nominators achieve this by nominating validators they trust with their staked tokens. These nominated validators, in turn, have a better chance of being selected to create new blocks.

At each new era, the most nominated validators are selected to enter the Active Set, and produce blocks for that specific era.

Towards a better decentralization

Ternoa Foundation’s role is to foster the decentralization of the Ternoa Protocol. To achieve this, the Foundation allocates treasury to expand both the community and the network through the Ternoa Foundation Nomination Program.

Under the Nomination Program, Ternoa Foundation nominates certain validators to contribute to the network’s stability and growth, based on objective criterias. These nominated validators become beneficiaries for cycles lasting up to three months, as outlined in the program’s guidelines.

Ternoa Foundation selects foundation nomination beneficiaries, for 3 to 12 months cycles, based on requirements outlined in the Foundation Nomination Program.

Selection Criteria

Unless specified otherwise, a maximum of 3 foundation nominations will be made available every month. The number of ongoing foundation nominations at any given time depends on the Foundation’s treasury availability. If no applications meet the criteria, the Foundation retains the right to withhold nominations for that period.

Eligibility of candidates is evaluated based on the following criteria:

A. Experience & Performance (40%)

Track record of running validators on other top networks. Uptime, slashing events, running up-to-date software on Ternoa or other top networks

B. Outreach (20%)

Community size, reputation and brand name of applying validator

C. Financial Strength (20%)

Tangible business model of the operator, and economical robustness of selected validators is key as measured by asset value or cash flow metrics

D. Ecosystem Impact (20%)

Existing, or planned involvement in community discussions and proposals, contributions brought to the ecosystem (business development, partnerships introductions, …), creation of contents for the ecosystem, or creation of dApps on Ternoa blockchain

How it works

Candidates seeking foundation nomination should send an email to: [e-mail] containing all information they deem relevant for the evaluation based on the specified criteria..

Applications are reviewed once a month, and the foundation can require additional information before confirming eligibility of a participant.

Validators deemed eligible to the foundation delegation program will receive nominations from the foundation, at each era during an agreed upon period of time for a “Maximum Amount”.

Validators are ultimately responsible for ensuring that they gather enough nominations overall to enter the Active Set.

In addition to the eligibility requirements, foundation nominated validators shall run at least 1 backup validator, and ensure certain SLA levels.

Staking rewards earned by validators through foundation nomination stakes are subjected to specific vesting conditions specified in the terms of each foundation nomination granted.