Choosing infrastructure providers on Flare

Flare infrastructure providers (IPs) play a crucial role in supporting network security as validators and providing data feeds to the Flare Time Series Oracle. As an FLR holder, you play an essential part in selecting and supporting IPs who contribute to the network’s stability and growth.

Key Considerations for Choosing Infrastructure Providers

Reputation and track record

Uptime: Monitor IP uptime, which indicates their ability to maintain consistent operation. See below (Flare Validator Tracker).
Historical Performance: Check their performance history and whether they have ever been penalized or “chilled” for data collusion or cloned algorithms. You may also refer to metrics provided on FlareMetrics, Flarescan, Flare.Builders, or Solidifi to gather comprehensive performance data.
Note: A community-driven tool called the Flare Reputation Score is being developed. This tool will evaluate IPs based on on-chain data and community feedback, helping the community make informed decisions about their IP selection.

Involvement and engagement

Assess IP commitment to the Flare community: Engage with IPs across platforms like X, Discord, and Telegram to understand their commitment to network security, responsiveness to community concerns, and contributions to the broader Flare ecosystem.
Review IP websites: Most infrastructure providers have their own websites. Visit directories built by Flarepedia and Flare Dashboard to gather additional information.

Fees

Each infrastructure provider sets a fixed staking fee and cannot change it until their own self-bonded stake expires. While choosing the IP with the lowest fee may seem attractive, we recommend balancing fees with other critical factors like reputation, uptime, and stake amount. For example, validators with the same fee % and uptime don’t necessarily yield the same rewards due to the reward cap.

Reward cap: Validators are capped at receiving 5% of the total network rewards. This ensures that rewards are distributed more evenly among validators and prevents excessive concentration of rewards. If a validator’s stake exceeds 5% of the total stake, they are considered oversubscribed and rewards earned will be diluted.

Skin in the Game

The total amount that can be staked to a validator is limited to their self-bond multiplied by a factor of 15 (e.g., 2 million FLR self-bond = 30 million FLR staking capacity). This ensures that validators have adequate resources to maintain their nodes and prevents excessive concentration of stake.

Validators with high self-stakes and stake capacity are more likely to be oversubscribed. IPs are permitted to operate up to 4 validators that have different self-stake amounts.

Technical expertise and infrastructure

Verify IP technical background and experience in running secure and reliable nodes for Flare and other networks. A simple indicator of reliability is their uptime.
Differentiate between IP types: In Flare, there are two main types of IPs:
- Professional validators: These IPs have an established reputation in the blockchain industry for providing validation services, such as Google Cloud, Ankr, Restake, SenseiNode, and more. They have expanded their offering to also support Flare’s native oracle, the FTSO.
- Experienced FTSO data providers: These IPs have been actively involved in the Flare ecosystem and development of Flare staking. Some have been validators since the inception of Phase 1 in mid-2023. Many of them have also been running FTSO data providers since the Songbird canary network, demonstrating their long-standing commitment and contribution to Flare.
- Note that the type of IP alone does not guarantee a higher uptime or stability. Individual IPs should be evaluated based on their track record, technical expertise, community reputation, and other factors mentioned in this article.

Additional tips

To mitigate risk and optimize potential rewards, consider diversifying your stake across multiple validators with varying reputations, performance profiles, and risk factors. But be aware that there is a staking limit of up to 3 validators per unique address.
When choosing validators, ensure they run an FTSO data provider to avoid missing out on rewards. Validators only receive rewards if they are also successfully contributing data to the FTSO.
Select a validator that has less than 5% of the total stake delegated.
Regularly review validator selections and stay informed about Flare network updates to maintain informed decision-making. Utilize online resources and engage in Flare’s official channels for valuable information and community support.