Outline For Existing Service Node Participants and Operators

Infinite Staking is an incremental upgrade on the existing staking process that is currently available on the Loki network (currently active in Hardfork 10: Bulletproofs, introduced in Hardfork 9: Service Nodes). With Infinite Staking, Service Nodes do not expire and funds remain locked until a contributor or operator explicitly requests the Service Node to unlock the funds.

Since Infinite Staking is an incremental upgrade, most of the steps necessary to register and participate in a Service Node remain the same. A quick overview for the new staking process is summarised for quick grokking.

Updated Staking Process and Commands

Operators

Operators will still use the following commands when setting up a Service Node. The commands are as follows:

• prepare_registration in the daemon that is running in --service-node mode

• register_service_node with the command returned by the daemon. Auto staking is no longer an option.

Contributors

Contributors will still use the following command when contributing to a Service Node:

• stake to contribute to the node. Auto staking is no longer an option.

Operators & Contributors (When Service Node Active)

Two new commands have been added to stop your Service Node from staking, and both the contributor and operator can execute these commands:

• (Optional) print_locked_stakes to preview all of the current wallet’s transactions that are locked in a Service Node or blacklisted on the network.

• request_stake_unlock to request to unlock the stake in 15 days (10800 blocks).

Unlocking Stakes & Deregistration

Service Nodes will receive block rewards indefinitely until a stake is unlocked or the Service Node becomes deregistered. Unlocking is available via the request_stake_unlock in the command line wallet. Once the unlock is requested and the request is included in a block in the blockchain, the Service Node will then expire in 15 days (10800 blocks) and the funds will become unlocked after expiry.

In pooled nodes, any contributor that requests the stake to unlock will schedule the Service Node for expiration. All locked stakes in that Service Node will be unlocked in 15 days (10800 blocks). Once the unlock is requested, this process can not be undone or prolonged. Service Node participants will continue receiving rewards until expiration.

Under the new system, deregistrations can be issued at any point during the active lifecycle of the Service Node. This is inclusive of the time period during which the Service Node is scheduled for expiry. Getting deregistered removes your Service Node from the network and your stakes are placed into a list of blacklisted transactions. Blacklisted transactions are locked and unspendable for 30 days (21600 blocks) from the block in which the Service Node was deregistered.

Receiving a deregistration after participants have already requested the stake to unlock overrides the 15 day (10800 blocks) unlock time, and resets the unlock time to 30 days (21600 blocks).

Minimum Contribution Rules

Infinite Staking introduces new limitations on the number of transactions that can be contributed to a Service Node, changing the minimum contribution rules for participating in the Service Node.

Service Nodes accept at most 4 contributions, meaning the minimum contribution to a Service Node becomes:

In a pooled Service Node with reserved spots, the Minimum Contribution must be either the Reserved Amount or the Contribution determined by the above equation, whichever is larger.

A simple example: if the staking requirement is 24,000 Loki, then if

• Operator contributes 50% of the requirement (12,000 Loki)

• The next contributor must contribute at least (⅓ * 12,000) Loki i.e. 4000 Loki to become a participant.

• If this contributor had reserved a spot for more than 4000 Loki, their Minimum Contribution would be that amount.

There are rules in the client software in place to stop users from irreversibly funding a Service Node into an invalid state.

Staking Changes

Users are no longer allowed to stake on behalf of another participant in the Service Node. All contributions for a participant must come from the same wallet address as the one specified in the Service Node.

Developer API Changes

get_service_nodes

Updated/newly added fields:

• requested_unlock_height – The height at which the stakes will unlock and the Service Node will expire.
• contributors
• locked_contributions – An array of each contribution from the contributor that is locked.
• key_image – A string representation of the locked key image (stake).
• key_image_pub_key – A string representation of the public key component of a key image.
• amount – The amount of Loki locked in this contribution.
• get_service_node_blacklisted_key_images

Retrieve a list of blacklisted transactions from deregistered Service Nodes on the network.

• blacklist – An array of each blacklisted transaction from deregistered Service Nodes
• key_image – A string representation of the blacklisted key image (stake).
• unlock_height – The height at which the stake can be spent again.

Originally published at loki.network on March 15, 2019.