Proof of Devotion (PoD) will launch on mainnet in less than one month Nebulas Follow Feb 13 · 3 min read

In March 2020, a new version of the Nebulas mainnet with the Proof of Devotion (PoD) will launch. The PoD consensus mechanism is based on the contribution of the community which includes two components: consensus mechanism and governance mechanism. Once PoD goes online, the Nebulas mainnet network will be fully decentralized — including community collaboration and governance. Community members can obtain mining rewards via the operation of nodes as well as jointly build the Nebulas ecosystem via decentralized voting. This is a big step for Nebulas’ decentralized collaboration plan.

Preliminary Preparation

Governance mechanism development and testing

The consensus mechanism was launched on the test network on January 8. The Nebulas team is working with community node operators to test system stability, attack resistance, node block penalty mechanisms, node voting mechanism, node management platform, and the user experience. The current governance mechanism is under development and it will be launched on testnet late February with a test of it being completed this month.

Testnet incentive campaign ends

End time: The testnet incentive activity will end when a to-be-determined block height is reached. The estimated time for this is from the end of February to the beginning of March. Reward amount: The monthly reward total for all node operations is 150,000 NAS which began on January 8; the total reward is expected to reach 300,000 NAS.

Reward distribution: After the to be decided block height is reached, the list of valid nodes, online duration and the reward amount of each node will be announced to the community. Rewards will be issued after the public announcement.

What the node operators need to do: Be sure to keep your node in a normal operation state prior to be specified block height, otherwise it will affect your node’s revenue.

Mainnet launch

Code release: the most important update since Nebulas NOVA

The consensus mechanism and governance mechanism will be launched on the mainnet together. This upgrade is the most important upgrade since the release of Nebulas NOVA in 2019, and it will mark the decentralization of the Nebulas blockchain. It will involve a full range of updates including the mainnet, related smart contracts, node platform (node.nebulas.io), Nebulas community collaboration platform (go.nebulas.io), web explorer (explorer.nebulas.io), and more.

Node preparation: Open applications for community nodes

All node application information during the test period will be retained for the mainnet launch regardless of whether the node normally generates blocks on the testnet. Therefore, the nodes that have already applied during the test period do not need to repeat the application process. If the node is willing to continue operating, the following operations need to be completed:

Technical upgrade: After the new version of the mainnet is officially released, you need to switch from the testnet branch to the master branch, compile the updated code and complete the mainnet data synchronization. Related help documentation will be released this month; Node requirements: A pledge of 20,000 NAS, participating in node voting and a minimum of 100,000 NAX. For specific node selection rules, see: https://wiki.nebulas.io/en/latest/node-strategy/consensus.html

The node application invitation system phase came to an end when the consensus mechanism launched on the testnet. Once the update goes live on the mainnet, the application process will be fully open to the community. When the mainnet reaches the to be determined block height, PoD will be officially launched.

Stay tuned for the specific block height when PoD goes live and this momentous occasion of the Nebulas blockchain!