Flare Network's Staking Marks Milestone for Decentralization Amid Forging Key Ecosystem Partnerships

On October 26th, Flare Network shared an uplifting sunrise emoji tweet, heralding the long-awaited official launch of Staking Phase 2. The crypto community welcomed this news with enthusiasm, as the hashtag $FLR swifty gained traction. This latest phase introduces a dedicated staking tool for FLR holders, enabling their seamless participation in the staking ecosystem. Additionally, the strategic partnership between Etherspot and Flare was announced. In this week's roundup, we will delve into various topics, including the Staking milestone, Etherspot partnership, amongst other significant updates within the ecosystem.

Ecosystem

In an interview with KuCoin, CEO of Flare Networks Hugo Philion disclosed a significant development: Staking Phase 2 plays a pivotal role in this transition, effectively removing the Foundation's control and advancing network decentralization. What sets Flare's validators apart is their dual role: not only do they validate the network, but they also serve as crucial data providers. This distinction outlines the network's reliance on validators, who contribute to its data-driven ecosystem in the FTSO system.

Official staking documentation was released on Flare this week. Initially, staking will only be available to users who hold Ledger devices. The central feature of Staking Phase 2 is the ability to transfer FLR tokens from the C-Chain, where smart contracts are executed, to the P-Chain, the hub of staking activities. A Command Line Interface (CLI) version was also introduced for the initial set of validators for administration tasks. Flare posted an article announcing staking and displaying a step-by-step video as a guide on staking with the new staking tool.

In the world of FlareStake, rewards are on the horizon every 3.5 days, and they become claimable after 14 days. Users have the option to select their validators using their node ID. So, where can the community find more information on who to delegate stake to? Let's explore the available tools here.

At Flaremetrics, we’ve improved the validator list interface for user-friendliness, offering easy access to validator metrics, total stake breakdowns, and visual progress bars for total stake and remaining validator time. The validator node ID is now conveniently located below the validator name, and you can copy the full node ID with a single click. Check out the comprehensive validator list.

In addition, SolidiFi, with feedback from the Flare community, has also integrated robust metrics into their staking tool. Currently with over 90 Validators and more than 550 delegators, the number of delegated stake has surpassed 1.3B FLR since the inception of Staking. A new "status score" metric evaluates validators, taking into account re-staking, connectivity, proximity to the 14-day deadline, and staking capacity. Users can access detailed information on individual delegators by selecting a validator's name.

For added convenience in selecting your validator, consider these other useful platforms:

• https://www.flare.builders/validators
• https://flarescan.com/validators

The FTSO management committee will remain in place during Staking Phase 2. This means that if you stake to an infrastructure provider who gets chilled or banned, your rewards will likely be substantially affected (because your tokens are locked until the end of the staking period). On the other side of the equation the rewards for staking to a good infrastructure provider will be higher than if you were simply delegating to that providers FTSO. Remember that when staking you will also be gaining Flare drops (same for FTSO delegators). Be careful to stake only to non malicious/non colluding infrastructure providers.

Hugo Philion

Partnerships

In its pursuit to facilitate dApps in providing a seamless Web3 user experience, Flare partners with Etherspot, a multi-chain ERC4337 developer platform. Etherspot streamlines the creation of dApps, protocols, games, and wallets to provide a seamless Web3 user experience. This innovation empowers developers to introduce Web2-like user experiences to their dApps, including features like social wallet recovery, biometric transaction authentication, and one-click signing of multiple transactions.

It achieves this through the innovative use of Account Abstraction, simplifying the onboarding process for newcomers and abstracting complex blockchain operations. Furthermore, through the implementation of Account Abstraction, flexible and customizable smart contract accounts take precedence, replacing the unwieldy Externally Owned Accounts that rely on the management of lengthy private keys.

Etherspot also goes beyond Account Abstraction, aiding developers in achieving ERC-4337 compatibility with advanced services like Bundler & Paymaster Service, APIs, and more. This partnership introduces advanced features, including seamless social wallet recovery, biometric transaction verification, and streamlined one-click, multi-transaction signing.

The collaboration integrates Etherspot's Arka Paymaster service into Flare, enabling gasless transactions, making it easier for users to pay fees with various tokens and supporting dApps to sponsor user transactions without needing the native FLR token. An off-chain stack with the Skandha Bundler Service and custom APIs ensures faster, more efficient transactions and scalability. As Uttam Singh from Developer Relations at Flare explains, 'This represents a 100X improvement in user experience, propelling us towards widespread crypto adoption'.

Ecosystem Updates

Binance

BinanceUS is pleased to announce the arrival of Flare's (FLR) airdrop for eligible XRP holders. On October 25th, they successfully distributed FLR to $XRP holders who maintained a balance of 10 or more XRP during the snapshot taken on December 11, 2020. According to Binance, the FLR tokens will be received at a ratio of 1 XRP = 0.1511 FLR. As the saying suggests, it's better to be late than never, and this is the perfect time to engage in Flare’s new Staking tool.

ETH London Hackathon

The ETH London Hackathon has just wrapped up, with a sneak peek of the Flare team on-site. Filip Koprivec, Developer Relations at Flare, shares, "The atmosphere and creativity radiated by the hackers were amazing, and as a judge, I was truly impressed by the new projects on Flare." Flare's 11K bounty winners were recently revealed, courtesy of Encode Club. Notably, Andrzej Mackowiak, who also serves as an Infrastructure Provider for Flare at FocusTSO, secured victory in the no-code challenge with his article, "Flare Networks: Explain It To Me Like I Am 5 Years Old." Congratulations to all the participating developers!

KuCoin Call

In a recent discussion on X, KuCoin, with guest speaker Hugo Philion, shared valuable insights regarding Flare's role as the blockchain for data and how it distinguishes itself by making data provisioning a central expertise of its network validators. Be sure not to miss it; tune in here while sipping your morning coffee.

Concluding another busy week on the Flare Network, these past days have marked the beginning of a new era for Flare through Staking, underlining the project's strong momentum, ambitious partnerships, and development updates. Keep an eye out for the upcoming week, as we'll provide an informative overview of what lies ahead.