TL;DR
- Meta Pool released our first sponsored Stake Wars challenge this last weekend, July 15th - don’t worry there’s still time to join!
- We are releasing two more challenges over the next 14 days
- The second Meta Pool Challenge launches today, July 19th!
- Providing a recap of the last challenge, and giving stakers some insight on the next two
Overview
Stake Wars is underway and we are excited to announce our first three sponsored challenges! Our developer team has been working very hard to bring engaging challenges to Stake Wars, and we can finally give our users some insight to our challenge structure.
This past weekend on July 15th, our first challenge – “Challenge 005” – was released. We have seen some great submissions and hope to see even more as our next two challenges are dropped on Github. We want to give some insight on the results we have already seen from the first challenge, and give a rough outline of the next two that are coming.
It’s important to note that our challenges build upon the first four that have been launched by Pagoda. There are challenges being launched by LiNEAR and Everstake over the coming weeks, and each challenge will be named in the order of their release. While we are announcing our first 3 sponsored challenges, they are not the first 3 of the competition! Keep an eye out for challenges from all sponsors, and remember that there are more coming from other backers of Stake Wars.
The Challenges
First Challenge
Stake Wars Episode 3 officially launched last week on July 13th. The first four challenges released by Pagoda were all about setting up a validating node, and now the competition will include challenges sponsored by supporting dApps, such as Meta Pool, Everstake, and LiNEAR.
The release of our first challenge was launched this last weekend, and we want to congratulate everyone who has already participated. We also want to make it clear that there is still time to get involved and complete the challenges that have already launched.
Our first sponsored challenge was an effort to get validators comfortable and familiar with major cloud hosting services. The challenge asked producers to run their validator node on any one of the major hosting platforms, including AWS, Azure, IBM Cloud, and Google Cloud Services.
The main deliverable was to write a step-by-step article explaining the process of launching a node hosted through one of these platforms. We have already received submissions from a number of validators, and hope to see an increase as the competition grows.
Second Challenge
The second Meta Pool sponsored challenge is launching today, July 19th. You can find the official challenge description and technical details here.
The task will involve creating a repeated ping to the network through your node. The script will be created through Cron, a Linux operating system designed to automatically execute tasks. The challenge is designed to ensure that validators can maintain steady uptimes to the network and prove their ability to maintain active communication between servers and their node.
Third Challenge
The third challenge that we are releasing is scheduled to launch on July 26th (but make sure to keep an eye on our social channels as we get closer to launch). This challenge will be designed to test your ability to control your rewards, and make you demonstrate your technical ability to manage your node.
In this challenge you will have to deploy a smart contract on your node that allows you to split your staking revenue between different accounts. While validators can choose to split between other validating accounts or even other projects, the main deliverable is to prove that your rewards are being funneled to multiple accounts.
Also, it is important that we provide a brief disclaimer. This contract has not been audited and is supplied by a third party, and validators who choose to use it to participate in Stake Wars Episode 3 do so at their own risk.
Stake Wars Moving Forward
While we can only officially announce the first three challenges today, there will be much more to come moving forward. We want to assure our users and the NEAR community more broadly that we are committed to providing guidance and support to all those competing so that we can create a more decentralized and censorship resistant chain for all of us to enjoy.
You can stay in touch with the team on any of our social channels, which are listed below at the bottom of the article. We are also pleased to announce a number of twitter spaces coming over the next few weeks designed for members of the community to ask any questions about the competition, and learn more about Stake Wars Episode 3 and its goals.
About Meta Pool & stNEAR
Meta Pool is the leading liquid staking solution for $NEAR and wNEAR token holders. With Meta Pool you earn NEAR staking rewards and maintain your liquidity to participate in DeFi protocols on NEAR and Aurora.
Users staking $NEAR and wNEAR with Meta Pool receive in exchange stNEAR (staked NEAR) tokens.
stNEAR simultaneously accrues staking rewards and unlocks users’ liquidity enabling them to participate in DeFi activities (e.g. lending, farming, borrowing) on NEAR and Aurora.
Stake $NEAR on Meta Pool
~11% APY
Get stNEAR
Yield-bearing token
Go DeFi on NEAR & Aurora
More APY and more rewards
Meta Pool also solves the problems associated with Proof-of-Stake networks staking: illiquidity, immovability and accessibility. Meta Pool also aims to distribute staking in multiple validators to improve censorship-resistance of the NEAR network.
With a TVL of ~9 Million $NEAR and growing, Meta Pool has become in just a few months a cornerstone element of the NEAR ecosystem. Meta Pool is making NEAR Protocol more decentralized and therefore more secure.
In February 2022 Meta Pool has been successfully audited by BlockSec, confirming the implementation of the highest security standards.
For more information visit https://metapool.app.
