The most important thing a delegate can do for you is forge. If your delegate isn’t in the top 51, they aren’t forging — which means they aren’t generating any ARK. A delegate’s primary goal is to stay in the top 51 so they can keep forging and keep generating ARK for their voters. Rank #1 means nothing if you are only forging due to a single whale wallet keeping you alive.

At the time of this writing, 30 out of the 51 delegates are only forging due to one wallet! If that wallet were to stop voting for them, they would instantly stop forging. It’s hard to keep track of delegate “safety” in the top 51, and there has been no objective measure of a delegate’s safety in the top 51 — until now. Today, we’re introducing that objective measure in the form of delegate stability.

How safe is my delegate?

A delegate’s stability number is calculated by finding the number of top wallets they can stand to lose before dropping to rank 52. A delegate with the highest stability has the lowest chance of dropping out of the top 51. For example — if a delegate’s stability is 2.97, they can lose their top 2 wallets as well as 97% of their third voter’s ARK in votes before dropping out. A delegate with a stability of 5.00 carries roughly twice the risk of dropping out compared to a delegate with a stability of 10.00.

When choosing a delegate, it is important to consider whether or not they will be forging a month from now. Even the most stable delegates have dropped out in the past — with one exception. The only delegate older than a few weeks that has not dropped out during its entire existence is biz_classic.

We’re hoping that voters and delegates can improve both their voting choice and their delegate stability by utilizing this information. An unstable delegate ecosystem leads to an unstable ARK. You can find the delegate stability chart here.

Happy Holidays, and thank you for your continued support!