Author: Infrared Finance
Translated by: Deep Tide TechFlow
Back in January of this year, the Artio testnet for Berachain went live, and since then, the ecosystem has been steadily growing. Developers, users, and validator operators have all participated in testing, helping to stress test the network and guide the design decisions for Berachain. The V1 testnet validated core concepts such as liquidity proof, but also identified areas for improvement, which is where V2 comes in. We will do our best to summarize the latest achievements of Berachain’s core developers.
Brief Overview
Validator nodes now require a stake of 69,420 BERA instead of BGT to enhance economic security.
BGT delegators will no longer be slashed.
All validator nodes have an equal opportunity to produce blocks.
The limit on the number of validator nodes has been increased to improve decentralization.
The core tech stack has been changed from Polaris to BeaconKit to improve performance and EVM compatibility.
Public deployment of the Infrared testnet for V2 is imminent.
Changes in V2
BERA Staking and Slashing Changes
One of the key economic changes in V2 is the introduction of larger validator node deposits, specifically staked in BERA. In simple terms, the validator node deposit is the amount of tokens that validator nodes must stake when they start producing blocks.
In V2, the validator node deposit has increased from a small amount of BGT to 69,420 BERA. This ensures that validator nodes have a higher economic input, increasing the network’s security by raising the cost of potential attacks. This change means that validator nodes take on more responsibility while increasing the utility of BERA without affecting the role of BGT in liquidity proof.
Changes in BERA staking also affect validator node slashing, which is the penalty for improper behavior or poor performance of validator nodes. If a validator node is slashed, a portion of the staked tokens will be deducted, which is an undesirable outcome.
In V1, slashing could impact both validator nodes and BGT delegators. In V2, only the BERA staking of validator nodes will be slashed. This protects BGT delegators and places more responsibility on validator nodes, ensuring that users and protocols can participate in liquidity proof with their BGT more securely.
Fairer Block Production
In V1, the chances of validator nodes producing new blocks increased with the amount of BGT delegated to them. In V2, block production has been improved, and all validator nodes now have an equal opportunity to produce new blocks, with block rewards increasing proportionally to their delegated BGT. This ensures fairer reward distribution and encourages more validator nodes to join the network while still maintaining the importance of BGT delegation.
Validator Node Limit
The validator node limit has been increased from 100 to 128, with the possibility of further increases in the future. It is well known that increasing the limit of validator nodes can improve decentralization and network security. Decentralization is crucial!
Architecture Upgrade
Lastly, Berachain V2 has migrated from the Polaris architecture to BeaconKit, which will improve network performance. BeaconKit allows the use of any Ethereum execution client, such as Reth, Geth, or Nethermind, making Berachain fully compatible with EVM. This upgrade addresses the bottlenecks encountered in V1, ensuring smoother transaction processing. For more information, please read Dev Bear’s technical blog on the topic.
Impact on Infrared
The changes introduced in V2 are a significant step forward for the network. Berachain V2 will provide a better experience for users, developers, and validator nodes, benefiting the entire ecosystem.
BGT is transitioning to a purely economic role, enhancing the ecosystem built around iBGT by clarifying the value proposition of BGT. We have seen many protocols adopt iBGT to build flywheels, and we expect this trend to continue under the improved BGT design.
Regarding BERA staking for validator nodes, we have some exciting plans in the works that we will soon share with everyone.
What’s Next?
We are working hard to complete the new, public deployment of the Infrared testnet and hope to launch it soon for users and partners to use.
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