shdwDrive V2 Incentivized Testnet

Overview

Testnet 2 is officially on its way! Here's all the information you need to prepare.

• Testnet 2 Start Date: January 16th, 2024 at 6pm UTC
• shdwPoints Start Date: December 28th, 2023 at 2am UTC
• End Date: April 16th, 2024 at 6pm UTC

Rewards Allocations

600,000 $SHDW distributed across 3 categories:

• shdwOperators: 300,000 SHDW pool
• shdwStaking: 175,000 SHDW pool
• shdwPoints: 125,000 SHDW pool
  ‍

1. shdwOperators - 300,000 SHDW

Earn SHDW and help power D.A.G.G.E.R.’s incentivized Testnet by being a shdwOperator and running a shdwNode! shdwOperators contribute storage to the shdwDrive network and are responsible for maintaining the resources needed to power and scale shdwDrive. Learn more by reading https://docs.shdwdrive.com/operate

Rewards Details for shdwOperators

• The max number of shdwOperators who can be earning rewards at any given point is 150. Each node in the network must belong to a SPL unique wallet (more on that later).
• For new operators to join once the limit is reached, an existing operator must either drop out or for the network to reach consensus that a shdwNode is inactive and vote for its removal from the network.
• shdwNodes are considered inactive after two epochs have passed. Due to D.A.G.G.E.R.’s asynchronous leaderless architecture the length of an epoch is variable, however on average they are roughly 30 minutes.

Expected Earnings and Costs

• A shdwOperator is eligible to earn up to 2,000 SHDW based on the uptime of their shdwNode with the possibility of an additional SHDW award for exceptional uptime.
• Testnet2 is approximately 2,207 hours long, meaning an individual shdwOperator earns ~.906 SHDW per every hour their shdwNode is running.
• Any unearned SHDW remains in the smart contract where it is distributed amongst shdwOperators who have an uptime >=2,096 hours (~95% of the total Testnet2 duration). 
• The amounts distributed to each operator would be calculated based on the amount of remaining SHDW in the pool and the amount of uptime hours above 2,096 each operator logged.
• Running a shdwNode shouldn't cost more than $100-300/month, join our Discord for recommendations on providers

Example Scenario

Let’s assume there are two shdwOperators named Talia and Bruce. To keep things simple, we will assume Talia and Bruce are the only two participants.

• shdwOperator Bruce joins the network halfway through and his node accumulates ~1,103.5 hours of Testnet2 uptime. To calculate Bruce’s rewards, you would multiply .906 x 1,103.5 (total uptime hours). Bruce would earn ~1,000 SHDW. So what happens to the other 1,000 SHDW Bruce was eligible to earn but didn’t due to arriving late? Let’s see how it unfolds with Talia.
• shdwOperator Talia’s node has been connected to Testnet2 since the moment the Testnet opened and has racked up 2,200 total uptime hours. Talia would receive 1,993.2 SHDW (.906 x 2,200 uptime hours). Talia would also awarded the 1,000 extra SHDW that was not paid to Bruce. Talia is receiving this award for having an total Testnet2 uptime percentage of 97%. Therefore, Talia’s total reward would be 2,993.2 SHDW due to her outsized contribution to the network.

How can I track my uptime?

shdwOperators will be able to track their uptime status and rewards payouts via the shdwOperator leader-board which will be publicly viewable at https://dashboard.shdwdrive.com when Testnet2 launches.

Do I need to stake SHDW in order to connect a node?

Technically, no. Individual nodes do not need to be staked by their operators in order to join the network. Staking for network access is being approached as a community effort. Please see shdwStaking below. That said, shdwOperators who are staking SHDW for community rewards (detailed in the section below) from their shdwNode ID wallet do receive preferential treatment should their node be removed from the network.

Preferential Treatment example:

• Selina is shdwOperator #100. Her node drops from the network and is removed from the 150 shdwNodes currently earning rewards (discussed previously above).
• When Selina’s node rejoins the network, she find she is now #161. However, shdwOperator’s 151 – 160 are not staking SHDW from their shdwNode ID wallet.
• Because none of the shdwOperators ahead of Selina are staking SHDW from the wallet used to generate their shdwNode ID, Selina is moved up and she now becomes shdwOperator #151 and is next in line to start earning rewards.

Does that mean there is no slashing?

For this round of testing, we are not implementing a slashing feature. Based on community feedback we believe a slashing mechanic would be an impediment to the growth of the network. There will always be a need to have some kind of financial disincentive as a deterrent to prevent bad actors but this should not come at the expense of community good. Hence the focus on rewarding uptime in Testnet2. We believe the denial of rewards can be an effective financial disincentive to prevent bad actors while not penalizing well-intentioned members of the community.

Is that it for shdwOperator rewards?

No, there are additional surprises in store to offer extra rewards and expand the number of shdwOperators receiving rewards beyond the initially planned 150.

‍

2. shdwStakers - 175,000 SHDW

shdwStaking rewards are simpler and more straight forward than the shdwOperator category.

Our goal is to encourage as many people as possible to learn to create shdwNodes and become shdwOperators. However, we also recognize that, for a variety of reasons, this is not something that is possible for every member of the SHDW Community. We also recognize that there are many members of our community who are very active in driving awareness for shdwDrive and D.A.G.G.E.R. in the Solana ecosystem. Those efforts should not go unrewarded. Therefore, for the first time ever, SHDW holders will be able to stake their SHDW tokens and earn rewards via single sided staking!

shdwStakers is simpler since it revolves around single-sided staking, a concept familiar to all of us, though there is one small twist (see details below).

• An individual’s staking rewards are proportionate to the percentage of the total staked pool that individual has contributed. 
• There is no cap on rewards.
• Starts when Testnet2 launches and ends when Testnet2 ends.

What’s the twist and any other important details?

• For every 1 shdwNode connected to the network there needs to be 10,000 cumulative SHDW staked in the shdwStaking smart contract.
• For there to be 150 shdwNodes earning rewards there needs to be 1,500,000 SHDW in total staked in the shdwStaking smart contract.
• Note: SHDW is not being staked directly with any specific shdwNode. 10,000 individual wallets each staking 1 SHDW equates to 1 shdwNode coming online. The ratio between total staked SHDW and the number of shdwOperators is what matters.
• All staked SHDW goes to the same shdwStaking smart contract. Staked SHDW does not directly interact with the shdwNodes in the network.

For Testnet2 we are testing the foundations for the shared-staking mechanism which allows community members to help bootstrap shdwNodes by staking SHDW with those nodes. For reference, this was first discussed here: https://shdwdrive.com/blog/unlocking-the-shdw-token

In order to promote as much inter-connectivity between those individuals operating shdwNodes and the broader community of individuals supporting shdwDrive we have created a linkage between the amount of total SHDW staked in the shdwStaking smart contract and the number of shdwNodes which can be connected to the network at any given time earning rewards.

Is that it?

Yes, shdwStaking is quick and easy and there are no future changes planned at this time.

‍

3. shdwPoints - 125,000 SHDW

Oh man… GenesysGo is jumping into the points meta… look ma! We’re #DeFi now!

To make things easier, we’ve listed the details of the game first. After the details those interested can read more about the rationale behind the game and the desired outcome.

How do points work?

• Users earn points based on their wallet activity and their SHDW holdings. Balancing frequency and size is important!
• A snapshot was taken December 28th at 2:00am UTC to capture the current state of all wallets which hold SHDW (including SHDW that has been staked inside of platforms like Marginfi and others).
• From December 28th, 2023 at 2:00am UTC through the end of Testnet2 on April 16th, 2024 at 6pm UTC EVERY wallet will earn or lose points based on their activity.
• Points can be redeemed for SHDW at the end of the Testnet2 period. Think of it like cashing out tickets at an arcade.
• Wallets earn 1 point for every 10 SHDW purchased. SHDW must be acquired through Jupiter Exchange via either a swap, a limit order, or Jupiter’s DCA feature to be eligible for points.
• Wallets will lose 1 point for every 1 SHDW which leaves the wallet via any means during the period of Testnet2. This includes wallet to wallet transfers.
• Staking SHDW in the shdwStaking smart contract is the only exception.
• All activity across all platforms is actively tracked on-chain throughout the duration of Testnet2 to provide leader-board updates.

You mentioned size, does size matter?

Size always matters! At the end of Testnet2 period a points bonus is awarded to every wallet based on their average transaction size. The amount of bonus points awarded scales exponentially as average transaction size increases.

Okay… but like… why points?

Part of what makes SHDW unique and of true value is the maturity of its Tokenomics. SHDW has one of the lowest total supply numbers of any token on Solana at 169m and is nearly fully diluted with a circulating supply of ~158m as of the time of this writing. There are no upcoming cliffs due to the unlocking of insider tokens sold in private OTC transactions at prices not available to the broad community.

All SHDW tokens that are or will ever be held in every wallet on Solana were acquired in one of three ways:

1. Received as emissions for minting or purchasing a Shadowy Super Coder NFT.
2. Purchased as a part of the SHDW IDO.
3. Purchased in the open secondary markets at whatever the prevailing market price was at the time.

This in no way guarantees that every holder of SHDW was or will be profitable (NFA, DYOR, etc.) What is guaranteed though is that no one has profited from SHDW by acquiring it in a manner that was not open to literally every other person on Solana at that exact same moment in time.

Additionally, referring back to https://shdwdrive.com/blog/unlocking-the-shdw-token, all effort and focus has been centered around ensuring SHDW is tied to the overall growth and health of the shdwDrive platform. Holders of $SHDW are being positioned to finally earn their piece of the multi-billion dollar pie that is the cloud data storage market.

That said, we also understand that this kind of build takes a while and that it can be difficult to keep the focus on the bigger picture in an environment where we often see five or six meme coins launching each day and then being wash traded to try to entice buyers into chasing 1,000% gainers every day. As such, we wanted to create a fun way to not only engage existing members of the community as well as provide new pathways for potential new holders. This incentive will hopefully help new holders take their time as they onboard themselves and learn more about SHDW’s true potential.

When can I see my points and how do I redeem?

A shdwPoints leader board will be published in the next week to provide live standings. Points can be redeemed at the end of Testnet2 on April 16th, 2024.

Can I earn rewards from all three pools?

Yes! In fact, we encourage it! Maximizing your rewards from the three pools would look something like this:

• Create a shdwNode and use a wallet currently holding SHDW to create your Node ID. Then connect to the network to earn rewards from the shdwOperator allocation.
• Stake the SHDW in the shdwNode ID wallet in the shdwStaking contract to earn staking rewards.
• Rotate profits from the most recent memecoin into new SHDW to lock in shdwPoints.
• Finally, stake the newly acquired SHDW and the SHDW earned from being a shdwOperator in the shdwStaking contract to continue increasing your shdwStaking yield.

Additional questions and FAQs

Please join our Discord to ask additional questions and review FAQs. Thanks for reading and good luck!