Hi guys,
after a month with my validator running I thought it’s time to make a recap and share my thoughts and feelings about the whole experience.
As a long term delegator it took me a while to understand how important it was that the protocol increases its number of nodes. Like many of us, at the start, I had my coins distributed among the Top20 validators, in my case I had 5 blocks of 20% in 5 validators.
After reading some posts on twitter and digging on my own I realised that I was part of the problem and started to post about how important it was to delegate on the small guys, calling “Viva la descentralización!!” and how it will save the world :). The sense of community and helping each other got me and I did put my money where my mouth was and distributed among 20 of the smallest validators, averaging 5% in each one. I secured elections for some and even brought some into election.
This was amazing, the community could make the number of nodes grow so fast even if I thought that the protocol was flawed. The human capital could overcome the conceptual issues and together we would onboard hundreds if not thousand more validators. How naive I was.
All this vibe made me take the decision to be part of it from the validator side. I could be part of this little revolution and look side by side with my fellow validators into the future by being part of the of this new infrastructure that will be the railways of basically everything in a few decades.
A little marketing here and some help of the community there (community I have been supporting verbally in public and monetarily in the shadow) Voilá!! I will be elected in no time. This community is amazing and this a done thing.
How wrong I was when realising that the public support was lukewarm and that the financial support was siberian cold. I got one delegator (thanks whohever you are) that stood with me for a few weeks until finally giving up because not a single coin was coming in. I guess, community is incredible but that ends where the pockets of that community starts.
I am a bit disappointed, yes. But this showed me that this is at the end what it is, an instrument for individual financial growth, for both delegators and validators. Everybody has to struggle with costs of living, feeding families and paying bills and for many life isn’t always kind. I have been in difficult financial situations as well and I don’t blame anyone for this outcome.
For a while I kept quiet and haven’t moved coins around. I wanted to wait to be elected and then start with moving coins from secured validators to the next batch of members in need. I didn’t want to compete with myself, leaving my node with zero coins while unloading into other new validators. At the end the community would be wondering why others manage to get good chunks of coins while my node is not capable of getting any. Actually, I noticed that this was starting to be the sentiment among some members.
I am still behind the concept of decentralization, how this protocol can achieve only greatness through a vast number of nodes, censorship resistance and security. I will keep pushing this verbally and with my pocket, trying to patch the fundamental flaws that I see now more clearly than ever with a little of human factor from my side. A few bigger wallets could actually onboard hundreds of validators, one by one, and after the election is secured scaling out into the next validators. That will be my plan until hopefully the community finds consensus and solves this little mess of bls keys, huge validator nodes and concentration of wealth.
Sorry for writing this novel but as I got lately, any thoughts, input, experiences and ideas are welcome so I thought this would be the place to for it.
Have a great weekend everyone and I will be around and still honestly think that this community is one, if not THE best in the space. Saludos!