Chainlink Staking is a key cryptoeconomic security mechanism that enables Chainlink ecosystem participants, such as node operators and community members, to back the performance of oracle services with staked LINK and earn rewards for helping secure the Chainlink Network. A part of Chainlink Economics 2.0, Staking enables Chainlink services to scale to secure a broader range of applications and higher value use cases across Web3.

Taking learnings from the v0.1 release and building upon its foundation, the upcoming Chainlink Staking v0.2 platform upgrade creates greater flexibility for stakers, increases security guarantees for staking-backed services, improves the staking system’s ability to support iterative updates to its architecture, and introduces new opportunities for stakers to secure the network and receive new types of rewards in the future. For more information on Staking v0.2, read Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform: v0.2 Upgrade and Launch Details.

The launch of Chainlink Staking v0.2 will start on November 28, 2023 at 12PM ET with a nine-day Priority Migration period. v0.1 stakers who migrate their staked LINK and rewards during this period have guaranteed access to v0.2. After the Priority Migration period ends, on December 7, 2023 at 12PM ET, stakers eligible for Early Access will have a four-day opportunity to stake up to 15,000 LINK in v0.2 before General Access opens. Afterwards, on December 11, 2023 at 12PM ET, anyone will have the opportunity to stake up to 15,000 LINK, provided the pool is not yet full. 

Today, we are launching the v0.2 Early Access Eligibility App, a web interface that enables community members to check their eligibility for the Priority Migration, Early Access, and General Access phases of Chainlink Staking v0.2. Community members can use the interface to connect their address via a Web3 wallet (e.g., MetaMask), which will then be cross-referenced against a series of allowlist criteria (defined further below).

Note that checking your eligibility does not require an onchain transaction. It only requires signing an offchain message via your Web3 wallet to verify ownership of the address.

At the launch of Staking v0.2, the capped 45,000,000 LINK pool will consist of a 40,875,000 LINK allotment for community members, with the remainder allocated to Chainlink node operators currently servicing Chainlink Data Feeds. Community Stakers can stake a minimum of 1 LINK and up to a maximum of 15,000 LINK during Early Access and General Access on a per-address basis. Note that entry to v0.2 during these phases is not guaranteed due to the capped pool size. Node Operator Stakers can stake a minimum of 1,000 LINK and a maximum of up to 75,000 LINK.

For more information on the phased launch rollout of Staking v0.2, and the new features being introduced, check out the recent blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform: v0.2 Upgrade and Launch Details. More information regarding the exact parameter details for v0.2, will be provided closer to its mainnet launch.

Criteria for the v0.2 Early Access Eligibility List and Priority Migration

If you are an existing v0.1 staker, then you will be automatically eligible for the Priority Migration launch phase of v0.2. 

After the Priority Migration period, v0.1 stakers can still migrate to v0.2 in later launch phases if there is pool space available. All existing v0.1 stakers will also be automatically eligible for Early Access due to their participation in prior versions of Chainlink Staking, where additional LINK can be staked up to the new per-staker maximum of 15,000 LINK. For example, a v0.1 staker who migrates 7,000 staked LINK and 300 LINK in earned rewards to v0.2 then has the opportunity to stake up to an additional 7,700 LINK for a total of 15,000 LINK during the Early or General Access periods. 

For non-v0.1 stakers, the table below defines the eligibility criteria for the four-day Early Access launch phase. The v0.2 Early Access Eligibility List builds upon the allowlist originally used during the launch of Staking v0.1, while also adding new criteria conditions based on historical activity to expand access. Community members only need to meet one criterion to qualify for Early Access.

The eligibility list has been optimized to target active and long-term ecosystem participants with a deep understanding of Chainlink and who are more likely to raise valid alerts if they believe an oracle service secured by staking has not met the predefined performance requirements. Similar to v0.1, the Hodler criteria support the use of LINK within top Ethereum-based dApp protocols during the designated time periods.

Note that being on the v0.2 Early Access Eligibility List provides an opportunity to stake during the Early Access launch phase of v0.2 but is not a guarantee of entry given the capped pool size. The v0.2 pool may fill during Early Access before the General Access period begins. Furthermore, the Chainlink Foundation makes no assurances about the performance or security of third-party delegation and liquid staking systems created or employed by node operators or other ecosystem participants.

Methodology for Maximizing Diverse Staking Participation

The launch of Chainlink Staking v0.2 consists of a capped LINK staking pool of 45M LINK, a 20M LINK increase from v0.1. The expansion of the staking pool in v0.2 necessitates a fair-entry mechanism to help ensure a diverse range of staker participation and to reduce the risk of a few well-capitalized participants dominating the pool in the early stages, which could negatively impact the security afforded by Chainlink Staking’s alerting mechanism.

During the launch of Staking v0.1, we observed that the combination of a two-day Early Access period and a 7,000 LINK per-address stake maximum played a key role in maximizing participant diversity. In v0.1, a total of 7,846 Community Staker addresses staked LINK, with a median staked amount of 1,161 LINK. In fact, there were more addresses that staked between 0-500 LINK than there were addresses that staked near the upper limit of 6,500-7,000 LINK.

The broad diversity of participation achieved in Chainlink Staking v0.1 helped inform the design of the v0.2 upgrade across both the launch process and parameters (e.g., per-staker maximum). Notably, the addition of a nine-day Priority Migration period for v0.1 stakers helps ensure that community members who have been the most committed to supporting the network’s cryptoeconomic security have more of an opportunity to gain access to v0.2. The Priority Migration period also helps ensure that the existing diverse distribution of staking participation achieved in v0.1 can be extended to v0.2.

While the Early Access Eligibility List aims to leverage objective criteria to capture a wide range of different Chainlink ecosystem participants, the creation of an allowlist is a nuanced and complex endeavor—one that cannot perfectly capture everyone’s notion of fairness and equity. For additional context on the rationale and methodology applied to the Early Access Eligibility List, including considerations around cross-chain, offchain, and centralized exchange usage, we encourage you to refer to the v0.1 Early Access eligibility blog. 

The Continued Expansion of the Chainlink Economy 

Staking v0.2 is one initiative within the broader scope of Chainlink Economics 2.0—a combination of programs that focus on improving data security and utility while also reducing the operating costs of oracle services, increasing user fees that are paid to Chainlink service providers, and enabling a broader scope of service providers such as stakers to participate in the Chainlink ecosystem. 

Chainlink Economics 2.0 now encompasses dozens of early-stage projects in the BUILD program, eight blockchain ecosystems in the SCALE program, and an ongoing expansion into supporting enhanced payment models. More information about the evolution of Chainlink’s economics can be found in this one-year Economics 2.0 update and this blog on sustainable oracle economics. 

Building Chainlink into a global standard with the most expansive collection of Web3 services across external data, offchain compute, and cross-chain interoperability continues to remain our north star. By accelerating the adoption of blockchain-based technologies, the Chainlink ecosystem can operate in an increasingly sustainable manner, with service providers rewarded based on their work within the oracle economy. We look forward to building a verifiable world alongside the entire community. 

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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only and contains statements about the future, including anticipated product features, development, and timelines for the rollout of these features. These statements are only predictions and reflect current beliefs and expectations with respect to future events; they are based on assumptions and are subject to risk, uncertainties, and changes at any time. Eligibility for Early Access does not guarantee your participation in the Chainlink Staking program. Staking eligibility and participation requirements are subject to modification at any time without notice. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in these statements, although we believe them to be based on reasonable assumptions. All statements are valid only as of the date first posted. These statements may not reflect future developments due to user feedback or later events and we may not update this post in response.

Note: A previous version of this blog stated a date range in the Hodler criteria that differed from the allowlist conditions and has since been corrected. This blog was also updated to include the launch dates for Chainlink Staking v0.2, featuring an extension to the Priority Migration and Early Access periods.