Flare News: Weekly Roundup June 18 2023

The week started with an intriguing mystery with Flare CEO, Hugo Philion, posting a cryptic Tweet consisting solely of a pair of eyes 👀. It quickly gained traction with a flood of quote tweets featuring the elusive eyes. The eye-catching message left many speculating. Is it suggesting all eyes are on Flare, or is it's the chains attempt at launching an ‘eye’PO?

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Hugo Philion

With jokes aside - an intriguing discovery emerged in the Flare node update log last week, hinting at the arrival of staking on Flare, and this week we witness an exciting development as Flare begins onboarding a select group of FTSO data providers as validators. This was unveiled in a leaked screenshot¹ circulating on Twitter revealing the plans to onboard 33 validators in the first batch.

On June 17th at 4:00 PM UTC, Tom T, Flare's community manager, sent a message to a private group for data providers, extending an invitation to participate in this initial validator batch, outlining the process for the upcoming “staking round”. Notably, the message highlighted that the “onset staking amount” would be 10 million FLR, provided exclusively to the first 33 validators, who would earn rewards in FLR tokens; with the potential for more data providers to be onboarded in the following months.

While assumptions suggest that the 10 million FLR allocated to the validators will be staked rather than disbursed as funding, thereby limiting their direct access to the FLR, this exciting development points to the imminent possibility of staking becoming available to all FLR holders in the near future.

Governance

In the realm of governance, Flare witnessed the arrival of FIP.03², marking the third governance proposal for the platform, aiming to bring the successful secondary FTSO reward band, previously implemented in Songbird through SIP.02, to Flare, enhancing reward distribution and decentralization. Flare has urged FLR holders to wrap their tokens to WFLR before the 22nd of June in order to participate in the governance proposal which will undergo voting several days after.

Furthermore, Flare Management Group Proposals 1³ & 2⁴ to chill Fat Cats and Oracle Swap on Flare were actioned on Thursday, 15th of June making their processing time roughly 22 days after the proposals were passed on May 24th. They will be unable to submit data or earn rewards for two reward epochs with an opportunity to return on the 97th reward epoch.

Ecosystem

The fourth FlareDrop fell into our hands this week with a total of 6.12B tokens being made available making the ratio 11.05 FLR for every 100 WFLR held. The snapshots that were used to calculate eligible tokens were made on blocks 9,003,865, 9,378,624 and 9,620,514.

Flare.Space provided an intriguing visual representation showcasing all the unlocked but unclaimed tokens on the Flare network, including escrowed tokens, community drops, and rewards for validators and FTSO participants, amounting to a total of 361.38 million FLR tokens yet to be claimed.

Currently 72.38% of the available circulating supply (12.39 B of 17.12 B FLR) are wrapped, with 158.21M FLR already burned. Additionally, 361.38M FLR are still unclaimed, including 161M from Drops to the community, 142M from escrow and 25M from FTSO rewards.

Flare.Space

In addition, Enosys, led by CEO Bannik, shared an exciting update regarding the deployment of the Enosys bridge between the Ethereum Mainnet and Songbird. The bridge is currently undergoing final testing and will soon enable the seamless transfer of USDT from Ethereum to Songbird, followed by wETH.

As we wrap up another exciting week in the Flare ecosystem, we can't help but feel a sense of anticipation for the future. From the potential arrival of staking to the onboarding of validators and the ongoing governance proposals, Flare continues to evolve and push boundaries. The FlareDrop and the vast array of unclaimed tokens remind us of the immense opportunities that lie ahead. With each passing week, the Flare community grows stronger, and the ecosystem becomes more vibrant. So let's keep our eyes on the horizon, ready to embrace the next wave of innovation and collaboration. Together, we're shaping the future with Flare. Stay tuned for more exciting updates and progress.