I apologize for the delay, this was a more difficult selection and given it is the last one before MainNet, we wanted to make sure it was correct.
The team received over 300 applications and of those 209 were valid applications. For Tranche 3 and the MainNet Transition Program we selected 125 node operators. When selecting for Tranche 3, the team prioritized:
- Geographic Distribution
- Performance
- Length of time as a node
Being the last full tranche before MainNet Launch (there will be a fourth tranche, post MainNet launch), we were very careful in analyzing the list before making decisions.
Like Tranche 2, the team first chose to back nodes which have a wide geographic distribution in order to ensure the network is well seeded for MainNet. We created quotas for each region and then within that region selected nodes based on performance. For most regions, all well-performing nodes were selected except Eastern Europe and Russia. Due to the overwhelming support in these regions, there is little we can do to fully solve these problems, but we were able to partially mitigate it by rearranging the bins. Finland, Hungary, Estonia, and Greece were moved to the Central Europe Bin, allowing more nodes remaining in the “Eastern Europe” bin to be selected. Also, some node operators were also not selected because while the node was in a less populated region, the operator themself is a citizen of a country overrepresented within the network.
This initial selection revealed an issue - there weren’t enough nodes in various regions to select the full 125 nodes we were planning on. We went back and reviewed the initial applications and discovered an issue: a number of well operating nodes who had not applied for the third tranche but had not been accepted in the previous one. After consulting with the community on Discord, we decided to accept a small number of nodes from the first two groups when it significantly improved decentralization and would not push out a properly applied node. As a result, a small number of initially rejected nodes in the Americas and Western European bins were accepted. We would like to stress that if we had not accepted these nodes, the total number of nodes accepted in this tranche would have been less than 125 (the initial count was 115) due to demographic and performance considerations. No node was excluded who would have been included otherwise.
Once the second pass was completed, we took a more personal look at who was selected and who was not. Those of us active within the community reviewed the selected group of nodes to make sure it represents a good cross section of the community.
At this point in time, of the 399 nodes who successfully applied for the MainNet transition program and met all basic eligibility requirements, 283 have been accepted. At minimum, a remaining 67 are to be selected in the fourth tranche in the November - December time frame, although there is a distinct possibility that an extra tranche will occur in late September to fill slots for nodes in Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 who fail to onboard before the deadline.
1 more node also applied to join the ProtoNet without joining the MainNet Transition Program, and will be given access.
As it stands, the bins shake out as follows:
| Americas | Western Europe | Central Europe | Eastern Europe | Middle East | Africa | Russia | Asia | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Tranche | 9 | 10 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 3 | 56 |
| 2nd Tranche | 19 | 18 | 17 | 17 | 4 | 1 | 19 | 7 | 102 |
| 3rd Tranche | 23 | 22 | 15 | 29 | 4 | 4 | 24 | 4 | 125 |
| Total | 51 | 50 | 43 | 55 | 9 | 6 | 55 | 14 | 283 |
Those selected today will be given access on Friday, September 10th. They will have until September 24th to onboard their node to the ProtoNet or they will need to reapply to the MainNet Transition Program in tranche 4.
All nodes, regardless of selection, will continue to be paid 7,000xx per month as part of the BetaNet program through MainNet Launch. Those who are not selected, or elect to stay in the BetaNet, can do so as it transitions to the CanaryNet where they will continue to be rewarded for helping the xx network team build updates to the xx network.
