Photo by Nils on Unsplash

A network is only as strong as it’s nodes. We believe that currently on the ICON network there is too little incentive for Sub P-Reps to run a node.

How does it work at the moment?

If a Main P-Rep fails, the Sub P-Rep with the most votes takes over and becomes a Main P-Rep for the present term. That means Sub P-Reps that are down in the ranking (#30+) have very little incentive to run a node because the probability that multiple nodes fail in a row in one term is extremely low.

How it might work in the future

Instead of selecting Sub P-Reps only based on the total amount of votes assigned to them, the protocol could either: