By Michael Scott
The Fantom Foundation anticipates the changes to boost Fantom’s Security without reducing the network’s speed.
The Fantom Foundation has verified it has slashed the validator “self-staking” requirement on its layer-1 blockchain network, by roughly 90 per cent. This happened months after the ratification of a governance vote.
Fantom Announces Changes in Staking Requirements
In a January 15 X (formerly Twitter) post, the foundation noted that the change’s implementation happened ‘recently’ after the vote’s finalization in June last year. These changes cut Fantom’s (FTM’s) staking threshold from 500,000 to 50,000 Fantom, presently worth $19,500.
According to the foundation, the change will bolster FTM’s Security while ‘enhancing its accessibility’ to run a validator. In January, the foundation noted that having more validators makes it more difficult for actors to initiate an attack.
Fantom validators combine transactions and share them with the rest of the validators. Conclusiveness happens when at least 66% of network validators agree. The foundation said that a rise in validators would lead to submitted transactions attaining validators quicker due to various options.
However, it forestalled a possible concern by noting that the increase in validator count will not reduce the Fantom network’s speed. Provided that new validators are operating on quality hardware, the network’s Security will be higher.
Fantom Seek to Enhance Network Security
Besides, no performance reductions will be witnessed since it maintains the 1-2 second time to conclusiveness.FTM also emphasized that less staking requirements would not be a security issue.
This is because a validator’s capability to verify transactions corresponds to its staking amount rather than the number of validators it operates. Fantom clarified that a validator comprising a million FTM staked would possess equal power as 20 smaller validators whose stake is 50k FTM each.
Since at least February 2022, FTM has suggested reducing the minimum FTM amount to operate a node. Fantom’s block explorer shows that Fantom presently owns 58 validators securing the platform.
Factor Contributing to Security Breach
On the contrary, Ethereum, the most prominent layer one smart contract network, holds more than 1.1 million validators. At the time of a June report last year quoting Messari data, Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche had 187, 2589, and 1119 validators.
In October, the Fantom Foundation’s official confirmed that the hackers drained $550,000 from its hot wallet. The company notes that this amount comprised less than 1% of the overall funds.
A security researcher was awarded $1.7M by Fantom Foundation for identifying an extra possible risk linked to the hack and quickly alerting the foundation. According to the blockchain company, they prevented a possible damage of $170M.