Consensus Validator
Delegation Guidelines
and Criteria
Overview
This policy, an essential aspect of the Axelar Foundation, provides guidance on receiving a delegation of tokens from the Axelar Foundation.
Axelar Foundation’s primary objective with this policy is to outline how delegations are determined in connection with its Validator Delegation Program. The purpose is to promote decentralization across the network and to recognize and reward community contributors.
Running a Validator on Axelar Network is permissionless, meaning anyone can run a validator node and become a validator. However, to be in the Active Validator set, a validator must have a sufficient stake (for a list of validators ranked by stake, see Axelarscan). An Active Validator means that a Validator can receive rewards from the Axelar protocol in exchange for cross-chain validation and network consensus.
Please be advised that this policy does not apply to any delegations or rewards associated with the Interchain Amplifier program.
How to receive a delegation
The Axelar Foundation may modify this delegation policy occasionally; in such an event, the Axelar Foundation shall provide reasonable notice to inform the community of such modifications. Validators interested in receiving a delegation on the Axelar Network Mainnet ("Mainnet") must first complete the following steps on the Axelar Network Testnet ("Testnet"):
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Set up PagerDuty or other internal alerting scheme following this messaging scheme:
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To the extent that the Mainnet Active Validator set expands (subject to decentralized governance and an on-chain vote), the Axelar Foundation may identify further Testnet Validators to delegate to. The criteria outlined in this policy shall be taken into account.
If you qualify for a Mainnet delegation under this policy, you will be contacted via delegations@axelar.foundation using the contact information provided on the Validator intake form.
A successful KYC is required upon selection for Mainnet delegation, as determined by Axelar Foundation’s sole discretion.
Mandatory requirements for Validator delegations from Axelar Foundation
To qualify for a delegation, it is recommended that the following criteria be met, as determined by the Axelar Foundation, and maintained while the delegation continues.
Below are some of the key considerations:
Be a Testnet Validator
Validator commission rates
Community contributions
Community Management programs such as moderator services
Engineering contributions
- Hosting relayers
- Assisting with documentation
- Building tools for the team
Overall response time around the following
- Emergency events
- Upgrades, governance events
- General responsiveness on Discord
On-chain performance
Performance is measured by reviewing the Validator's heartbeat, uptime, and EVM voting metrics.
Axelar Foundation maintains an indexer (Axelarscan) that collects data points on:
- Uptime: represents block signing participation for Active Validators.
- Block proposal success rate: is the number of blocks a validator proposes in proportion to their total stake.
- Heartbeat: is sent at an interval of 50 blocks to determine the healthiness of each Validator.
- EVM voting performance: measures validator participation in validating cross-chain transactions from EVM chains.
Delegation amount
A list of committed delegations can be found at the following link: Axelar Foundation <> Delegation by Validator
The amounts listed in “Axelar Foundation <> Delegation by Validator” are final. Axelar Foundation may, in its sole discretion, increase such amount for a limited period, but any such increase shall not alter the determined amount.
Delegation review
Axelar Foundation shall review its delegations and adjust them, as necessary, on or about January and/or July of each year. As part of such review, if Axelar Foundation determines that a Validator’s performance has materially changed, then Axelar Foundation may change the delegated token amount.
In addition, if at any time, a Validator fails to meet the criteria as set forth herein or in any other Axelar Foundation policy at any time, the Axelar Foundation may undelegate its token(s).
The initial determination and any subsequent determinations shall be final.
A list of Axelar Foundation’s delegations can be found at the following link: Axelar Foundation <> Delegation by Validator
Undelegating and re-delegating
Please note that on occasion, due to internal token management, Axelar Foundation may temporarily undelegate tokens. These tokens will be re-delegated as soon as possible, with a maximum time frame of eight weeks from the undelegation date, provided that the same balance of initially committed delegations is maintained on a going-forward basis. To avoid doubt, Axelar Foundation will not be responsible for any damages, including any rewards that a Validator does not receive, due to the undelegation.
Axelar Foundation shall periodically claim accrued rewards. It's important to note that the Foundation is not mandated to delegate such rewards.
What if my questions are not answered here?
For technical questions related to delegations, please complete the form below. For all other questions, please email delegations@axelar.foundation