📣 [Community Call] Continuous Staking & Delegation Multiplier/Maximum Validator Weight Discussion

[meaghanfitzgerald]

[🚨 UPDATED] Meeting Date/Time: Thursday December 18th, 2:00 UTC (9:00 AM ET)
Meeting Duration: 1 hour
Presenter: @rrazvan1 and @iJaack

Purpose of the Meeting

In this meeting, we will first discuss ACP-236: which proposes a new staking mechanism for the Avalanche P-Chain that allows validators to remain staked indefinitely, without the need for manual restaking.
This change introduces continuous staking cycles, automatic compounding of rewards, and simplified validator management. Validators can now specify a cycle duration, automatically restake at each cycle’s end, and compound their staking and delegation rewards, choosing how much to restake each cycle. The proposal aims to improve staking flexibility, reduce operational overhead, and enhance overall network security.

After, we shall open up the discussion for the proposed ACP-247: which proposes increasing the delegation multiplier from 4x to 24x and reducing the max validator weight from 3,000,000 AVAX to 1,000,000 AVAX.

Who is invited?

Any protocol developer, ACP author, researcher, validator, or Avalanche community member is welcome to attend this meeting.
If you’ve signed up for an ACP call before, there’s no need to fill out the form again.

Links

Sign-Up Form: Google Form

Recording: Will be posted to YouTube after the call

Preparation Material

Mandatory

• ACP-236 Proposal Details
• ACP-236 Discussion
• ACP-247 Proposal Details
• ACP-247 Discussion

Agenda

@rrazvan1 will first cover the rationale, technical design, and implications of ACP-236, including:

• How continuous staking changes validator and delegator workflows
• Details of the new transaction types (AddContinuousValidatorTx, SetAutoRenewPolicyTx, and RewardContinuousValidatorTx)
• How automatic restaking and reward compounding function
• Backwards compatibility and upgrade requirements
• Open design questions around reward handling and cycle configuration

After questions and clarifications, @iJaack will then give a brief overview of the motivation and proposed changes introduced by ACP-247, including:

• Why the delegation multiplier should be increased from 4x to 24x
• The rationale behind reducing maximum validator weight from 3,000,000 AVAX to 1,000,000 AVAX
• Expected impacts on network decentralization and validator economics

We will open the floor to questions and discussion.

236 FAQs

Q: What problem does continuous staking solve?
A: The current system requires validators to restake manually after each period, creating friction, downtime, and security risks. Continuous staking automates this, reducing transaction volume and ensuring consistent network participation.

Q: How are rewards handled?
A: Rewards accrue once per cycle. At cycle end, the validator’s chosen portion is restaked for the next cycle and the remainder is withdrawn. If applying rewards would exceed the max stake limit, the entire cycle’s rewards are withdrawn.

Q: What happens when a validator wants to stop staking?
A: Validators can issue a SetAutoRenewPolicyTx ******(using a sentinel value of MaxUint64) at any time. They’ll continue validating until the current cycle ends, after which their funds are unlocked and rewards distributed.

Q: Does this affect delegators?
A: Delegators operate as before, but their delegation must fit entirely within a validator’s current cycle. Continuous delegation isn’t supported.

Q: Can I change how much I restake later?

A: Yes. Update your auto-renew policy; changes take effect at the next cycle end.

Q: What are the risks or trade-offs?
A: The main trade-off is that uptime evaluation occurs per cycle. Missing time in shorter cycles can have a proportionally higher impact on rewards.

247 FAQs

Q: Why increase the delegation multiplier from 4x to 24x?
A: The current 4x multiplier creates marginal profitability (~$180/month net) that makes validator operations uneconomical. With 24x, validators can earn ~$455/month at full delegation capacity, a 152.8% improvement. This makes single-node operations viable and incentivizes validators to actively seek delegations. Currently, 52.8% of validators (451 out of 854) have zero delegations because the economics don't justify the effort.

Q: Why reduce maximum validator weight from 3M to 1M AVAX?
A: The 1M AVAX cap (0.14% of total supply per validator) is actually more conservative than the current 3M cap (0.42%) and prevents centralization. Validator data shows no validators currently exceed 2.5% of network weight, so this change maintains backwards compatibility while setting a safer long-term limit. Combined with the higher delegation multiplier, it ensures delegation capacity is spread across more validators rather than concentrated in a few large ones.

Q: How does ACP-247 affect delegator rewards?
A: Delegators experience slight APY dilution (from ~8.25% to ~7.84% after 5% fees), but this is offset by significant benefits: 52.8% more validators willing to accept delegations (451 previously inactive validators become viable), better fee market competition, more professional validator operations, and improved network decentralization. The proposal creates ~$1.5M in annual wealth for the validator ecosystem, leading to more sustainable and reliable validation services.

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