Splinterlands, one of the most played games in the crypto gaming space, recently announced their future plans for validator nodes.
A validator node is a special type of node that participates in “consensus.” By participating in consensus, validator nodes become responsible for verifying, voting on, and maintaining a record of transactions.
The SPS validator node software is currently in the internal testing phase and Splinterlands aim to open it up for public testing within the next few months, with the “mainnet” planned to launch in Q4 of 2022.
The SPS validator software will be 100% open source and available for anyone to download and run without any costs or restrictions. Running a node will require minimal tech specs.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)
Players staking $SPS will vote on validators through delegated proof of stake.
Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) is a popular evolution of the Proof of Stake (PoS) concept, whereby users of the network vote and elect validators to validate the next block. Validators are also called witnesses or block producers. Using DPoS, $SPS token holders can vote on delegates by pooling their tokens into a staking pool and linking those to a particular delegate. Typically, delegates get rewarded for validating the transactions on the blockchain.
The problem with this solution is that a handful of delegates will validate the transactions of the entire network. Splinterlands expect 100-150 validators will be the main recipients of rewards.
To give all players an incentive to participate in the validation and voting process, Splinterlands introduced the concept of “licenses”.
Splinterlands Validator Node Licence
The SPS validator node licenses will be available for purchase using a mix of SPS and VOUCHER tokens, according to the price schedule below. When the 3 billion SPS token cap is reached after roughly 5 years, 80 percent of the SPS tokens and 100 percent of the VOUCHER tokens spent on node licenses will be burned.
The remaining 20% of the SPS tokens will be put into the SPS foundation and reserved specifically to be used to continue to incentivize SPS validator node operation. No percentage will be allocated to team rewards.
The licenses will be exchangeable on the secondary market. Multiple licenses can run on the same Validator Node.
In terms of Rewards, there are 3,750,000 SPS tokens per month allocated to a reward pool for SPS Validator Node operators. 10% will be devoted to block validation rewards (375,000), and the remaining 3,375,000 SPS / month will be split equally between all of the license holders that are actively running the node software.
The nodes will be sold in tranches, and there will be a total of 60,000. It will be the scarcest NFT item in the game. The price will gradually increase in each phase. Players can burn VOUCHERs to receive a discount up to 50% of the vale of the license.
| Phase | Quantity | Price | VOUCHER Discount |
| Presale | 2,000 | $1,000 SPS + 500 VOUCHERs | N/A |
| Tranche 1 | 3,000 | $3,000 SPS | $3.00 |
| Tranche 2 | 5,000 | $5,000 SPS | $5.00 |
| Tranche 3 | 10,000 | $7,500 SPS | $7.50 |
| Tranche 4 | 10,000 | $10,000 SPS | $10.00 |
| Tranche 5 | 10,000 | $15,000 SPS | $15.00 |
| Tranche 6 | 10,000 | $20,000 SPS | $20.00 |
| Tranche 7 | 10,000 | $40,000 SPS | $40.00 |
To give a practical example of the discount, imagine that you’ll buy a license in Tranche 5. The cost is $15,000, but each VOUCHER gives you $15.00 worth of discount. The maximum discount you can get is 50%, or $7,500, which is equivalent to 500 VOUCHERS.
After the announcement of the Splinterlands Validator Nodes, $SPS surged 30% in less than 24 hours, and the value is supposed to keep going up.
As some players mentioned, the price of the nodes doesn’t make any sense at the current valuation and market cap for the token. However, the team already confirmed they expect the market for licenses to self-regulate, and the total market cap for $SPS to increase exponentially and in a decentralised ecosystem that benefits players first. For more info, visit splinterlands.com and join their Discord server.
