TL;DR: In order to apply as a Trustlines Blockchain validator candidate, simply use your Twitter account to send a direct message containing your email address to @tl_validator.

Opening up the Trustlines Validator candidate set to the crypto community on Twitter

The Trustlines Foundation is currently collecting validator candidates for the upcoming Trustlines Blockchain.

The Trustlines Blockchain will be a minimal viable Proof-of-Stake sidechain to Ethereum, which requires that validators can stay anonymous while at the same time no individual must control more than one validator slot. Therefore, validator candidates eligible to take part in the validator auction need to pass a proof of sociality. So far the validator candidate set only contains people we met in the real world e.g. via the in-person sign-ups done at several hackathons and meetups in Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Mainz, Zug and Cape Town.

In order to allow more people to participate, we now added the possibility to self sign-up via Twitter for a subset of roughly 100k Twitter users.

This blog post will quickly run you through how you can apply to become a validator using the online onboarding via Twitter.

How do you sign up using Twitter?

In order to apply as a Trustlines Blockchain validator candidate, simply use your Twitter account to send a direct message containing your email address to @tl_validator.

All DMs will be downloaded and subsequently, the accounts will be checked for eligibility.

If the account is part of the set of eligible accounts, the email address will be handed over to an anonymous survey service.

As a next step, the service sends out emails inviting the validator candidates to a survey.

In this survey, the validator candidates will be asked to provide an Ethereum address, which they will be able to use to take part in the validator auction, where a limited number of validator slot will be auctioned.

Note: Your email address is used solely for the anonymous survey and to push important updates around becoming a validator. It will be deleted once it is not needed anymore.

Creating the Trustlines Validator Set - Process Overview

Who is eligible for becoming a validator via the online signup?

In order to come up with a reasonably large, but also fairly high quality set of Twitter accounts, which are neither fake accounts nor bots and focus on the crypto community, we made use of the very core principle of Trustlines, a chain of friends-of-friends.

Firstly, we identified a set of trustworthy Twitter anchor points; roughly 20 accounts from people in the crypto space that we believe to be only following real people. From each of these we traversed the Twitter social graph for two hops (friends-of-friends-of-friends with the anchor points being friends). This resulted in a set of roughly 1M accounts. From these we selected those ~100k which have the most friends-of-friends from our subgraph following them.

While this might sound complicated, it was worth it, as it allowed us to compile a set of 100k+ Twitter accounts which are most likely not fake accounts and with close proximity to the crypto community. The accounts are now eligible to become Trustlines Validator candidates. If you are on Twitter and are followed by people from the crypto community, you are most likely part of the set.

Why should you become a Trustlines Validator?

By becoming a Trustlines Validator you help the Trustlines Network by securing the Trustlines Blockchain. Since all staked deposits are able to be withdrawn after the lock period, you will be able to choose flexibly to either stay a part of the Trustlines Network or use your gained validator experience for other projects.

Want to go on a validate with us?

Then send us a message and save your chance to become a validator for the Trustlines Blockchain. Applications via the online onboarding have been extended. The deadline for signing up online will be communicated one week prior to application close.

If you prefer to use the in-person sign-up, please check the Trustlines Protocol Twitter for a list of events that Trustlines contributors are attending in April.