Runtime 1500 Activates Proposed Staking Changes and Adds the Ability for Collators to Share Slots on Moonriver and Soon, Moonbeam
Boston, MA – May 12, 2022 – Moonbeam, the top destination for multi-chain applications on Polkadot, has implemented changes to staking rewards during unbonding and added a feature that allows collators to share slots. These updates are part of runtime 1500, which is live on Moonriver now and will be live on Moonbeam by the end of the month. The addition of shared collator slots is a particularly important update and is the first step to rolling out a community collator program, which is expected to go live in the coming weeks.
The runtime 1500 releases include:
- Activation of the staking unbonding change was announced in March. This means that staking rewards will no longer be provided during the unbonding period.
- The ability for multiple collators to share one slot. This will allow for a community collator program similar to Kusama’s 1000 validators program. An initial trial is currently underway.
- The addition of non-native transaction fee payments. All XC-20s have now been upgraded with a new functionality that allows them to be used for gasless transactions.
- Bundling of transactions for DApps. This reduces the number of transactions required for a swap on a DEX, for example, by allowing them to be bundled into one transaction that the user authorizes in advance. Previously, users needed to complete multiple steps to grant permission at each step of the transaction.
The proposal to remove staking rewards for tokens unbonded by delegators during the unbonding process has been approved through democracy, and the change will be live with runtime 1500. This change means that delegators will no longer collect reward payouts on their pending unbonded amount effective immediately after their request is scheduled, instead of when it is executed. The change helps stabilize the network by reducing the churn in active collators, further improving the overall network security.
Support for EIP-2612 was added as part of Moonbeam’s ongoing efforts to maintain full Ethereum compatibility and as a way to support as many XC-20 use cases as possible. One immediate example is Biconomy’s gasless transactions, which are now possible using XC-20s which means that users can transact with apps that have integrated Biconomy without needing the native token to pay for fees. This change also means that users can transact with DEXs on Moonriver and Moonbeam without the requirement of having two different assets in their wallet: one for the fee payment and one for the trade. For example, users holding KSM are not required to hold MOVR in their wallet when depositing KSM on Moonriver to receive xcKSM for use in Moonriver’s DeFi ecosystem.
For more information about these changes, please visit the official Moonbeam Discord server.
About the Moonbeam Network
Moonbeam is an Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform on the Polkadot network that makes it easy to build natively interoperable applications. This Ethereum compatibility allows developers to deploy existing Solidity smart contracts and DApp frontends to Moonbeam with minimal changes. Like Moonriver, its sister parachain on Kusama, Moonbeam is expected to accumulate developer and user activity from the 80+ projects building DApps and protocols on the network. As a parachain on the Polkadot network, Moonbeam benefits from the shared security of the Polkadot Relay Chain and integrations with other chains that are connected to Polkadot. Learn more: https://moonbeam.network/.
