Moonbeam Forum Discussion Regarding This Proposal

[https://forum.moonbeam.foundation/t/proposal-1-status-submitted-on-chain-remark-for-collator-guidelines-and-request-for-collator-self-bond-change/395](https://forum.moonbeam.foundation/t/proposal-1-status-submitted-on-chain-remark-for-collator-guidelines-and-request-for-collator-self-bond-change/395)

**Abstract**

This proposal seeks community agreement by remark to formally adopt on-chain guidelines for collator operators on the network and request a change to the minimum bond amount for new collators to 10,000 MOVR in the upcoming Moonriver runtime upgrade. The proposed guidelines will help ensure responsible behavior and establish clear expectations for operators, while the change to the minimum bond is intended to help maintain a diverse set of collator operators.

**Details**

This proposal seeks to obtain community support for an on-chain remark that articulates the community's expectations for collator operators on the network.

**Part I**

The first part of the proposal is to formally adopt a set of guidelines to ensure that collator operators behave responsibly and always act in the best interests of the network and the community. While these guidelines have been informally followed and documented as community norms, codifying them on-chain will enable the community to explicitly adopt them and provide clear guidance to collator operators. It will also establish that there is the potential of penalties for operators who fail to meet these expectations.

By establishing clear guidelines for collator operators, the community can strengthen the network's overall governance and promote greater trust between delegators and operators.

They are as follows:

Collators have a responsibility to the network to act honorably. If any of the following forbidden offenses occur, action may be taken via on-chain governance:

* An entity is running more than two collators unless the community determines by governance that it is for the benefit of the network that an entity should run more than two

* A collator is running multiple nodes using the same Nimbus key causing equivocation. Equivocation is the action of submitting multiple blocks at the same block height, which forks the network. It is strictly forbidden due to the network degradation that it implies. This can be done by a malicious actor (trying to get more blocks included/produced) or by mistake (having a backup node running with the same key). Each node needs to have its own unique keys and any backup solutions need to ensure there can be no possibility of equivocation

* A collator acts in a nefarious manner that is uncharitable to the community or other collators

The community also expects collator operators to be actively engaged in the community as a reflection of their commitment to both the community and the network. This engagement is crucial for building trust with the delegators they serve. While the level of engagement is not strictly defined, some examples of what is expected include:

* Be active in the community
  * [Join the Discord](https://docs.moonbeam.network/node-operators/networks/collators/overview/#join-discord) and introduce yourself, provide updates as needed, and help support community members or other collators

* Create tutorials and educational content

* [Become a Moonbeam Ambassador](https://moonbeam.network/community/ambassadors/)

* Contribute to open-source software relating to the ecosystem

* Join the official community [forum](https://forum.moonbeam.foundation/) and actively participate in discussions

* Actively participate in governance and vote on proposals

**Part II**

For the benefit of the network, the community expects that collator operators will provide services in a manner that is in line with industry standards. If any entity does not provide a level of service expected by the community, action may be taken via on-chain governance.

Examples of the expected level of service from collator operators are as follows:

* an operator should provide an on-chain identity with a Reasonable judgement with at least one verified communications channel

* an operator should maintain a client version and at least minimum hardware standards in line with published requirements for the network

* an operator should implement technologies and procedures that provide redundancy and failover to limit downtime while in the active collator set

* when a collator fails to produce blocks for multiple consecutive rounds, reasonable efforts of proactive communication should be initiated by the operator to the community, including actions that are being taken to resolve the problem

The community may use on-chain governance when any of the guidelines described in Part I or Part II of this on-chain remark are not adhered to. Specific actions that may be taken (but not limited to) include:

* Removal of an individual collator or set of collators from the active set
* Slashing of collator self-bond
* Permanent ban of the entity from participating in the collating function on the network

**Part III**

Over the past three months, the community has engaged in active discussions on strategies for maintaining a diverse collator set. The discussion can be found in the link provided at the end of this proposal.

This proposal requests that changes are made in the next Moonriver runtime upgrade such that a new potential collator must have a bond of at least 10,000 MOVR in order to be considered eligible and become a collator candidate, and this figure will be reviewed as deemed appropriate by the community. Additional information on the minimum bond requirement can be found in the link at the end of this proposal.

Some benefits of making this change include:

* It is expected to discourage the use of a strategy where an operator self-stakes tokens to become active in the set, and then gradually reduces their self-stake while gaining community delegations, only to use that self-stake to add additional nodes.

* The increase in bond rebalances the amount of capital lock-up required to run a collator, closer to the original levels at network launch, which have been skewed due to current market conditions.

* This change can be complemented by other measures, such as reducing rewards on bond, which may further increase the stability of the collator set and decrease instances of mass unbonding where delegators do not receive rewards.

**Links**

Forum discussion on ways to maintain a diverse active collator set

[https://forum.moonbeam.foundation/t/ways-to-maintain-a-diverse-active-collator-set/190](https://forum.moonbeam.foundation/t/ways-to-maintain-a-diverse-active-collator-set/190)

Collator Bonding Requirements

[https://docs.moonbeam.network/node-operators/networks/collators/requirements/#minimum-collator-bond](https://docs.moonbeam.network/node-operators/networks/collators/requirements/#minimum-collator-bond)


Make some on-chain remark.

# <weight>
- `O(1)`
# </weight>

- This proposal is about creating guidelines for collator operators on the Moonbeam network.
- The guidelines will help ensure responsible behavior and clear expectations for operators.
- The proposal also suggests changing the minimum bond amount for new collators to 10,000 MOVR.
- The community expects collator operators to be actively engaged and contribute to the community.
- If operators don't follow the guidelines, they may face penalties like removal from the active set or slashing of their self-bond.

#1 On-Chain Remark for Collator Guidelines and Request for Collator Self-Bond Change