Sentinel's dVPN Incentive Program Based on Cosmos
Introducing the dVPN incentive program of Sentinel on the native Cosmos-based Sentinel Hub, including bandwidth mining and token staking incentives.Author: Sentinel
Compiled by: ChainCatcher
This article introduces several $DVPN incentive programs on Sentinel's native Cosmos-based Sentinel Hub. These incentive programs include:
Incentives related to "bandwidth mining" completed with physical hardware devices running as Sentinel dVPN nodes will be detailed in another article.
It's time to transition Sentinel's dVPN network from the Ethereum ecosystem to Cosmos.
The Ethereum-based dVPN network of Sentinel has generated significant utility, with over 400,000 registered devices using the network, primarily supported by the Sentinel dVPN and Velocity dVPN (built on Sentinel) Android applications available on the Google Play Store. However, the limitations of Ethereum in terms of throughput and transaction scalability do not allow Sentinel's dVPN structure to be truly decentralized.
play.google.com
The Sentinel Hub, built on the Cosmos SDK, is now connected to Osmosis via IBC and is handling inter-blockchain transactions. The significant scalability that the Cosmos SDK has to offer allows Sentinel dVPN to become "truly decentralized." Nodes hosted on Sentinel's Cosmos-based dVPN infrastructure regularly communicate with the blockchain to indicate their availability and other information, making the Sentinel Hub a decentralized "node query" system.
Community members can now host Sentinel WireGuard-based dVPN exit nodes by following the instructions below:
github.com
The new dVPN network on Sentinel Hub can be accessed via CLI (Linux/Mac), with a mature UI desktop application coming soon.
github.com
github.com
These CLI-based clients serve as the foundation for complex, user-friendly desktop and mobile applications built on top of them.
Sentinel is excited to announce its long-awaited dVPN incentive programs on its own local Hub, which the community can participate in. These incentive programs are funded by $DVPN tokens and will be available immediately after the new desktop client is released. This article introduces various incentive programs, with follow-up articles providing more detailed information.
We hope the community is prepared for the large-scale network expansion and growth that the Sentinel ecosystem is about to experience, similar to the exemplary results produced by Sentinel's first incentive program in 2018 (link below).
medium.com
Sentinel has a new resource explorer coming soon that will display real-time statistics of the Sentinel dVPN network. The Sentinel ecosystem will adopt a more proactive approach to promote network adoption and create the right incentive mechanisms to prepare the network for mass consumer use.
The incentive programs are designed to support new infrastructure and user-related onboarding while also creating incentives for our existing network stakeholders.
- Bandwidth Mining Incentives
After the launch of the new dVPN Desktop client, a dVPN node hosting reward program will be introduced.
The process of generating network rewards in exchange for providing bandwidth to Sentinel's dVPN network is called "bandwidth mining."
Initially, the "bandwidth mining incentive pool" plans to distribute $25,000 worth of DVPN tokens monthly, aimed at encouraging participation from 4,000 to 6,000 nodes, which is the number of nodes typically held by Sentinel's centralized competitors.
These rewards will be distributed monthly, and the total rewards will gradually increase over time. Initially, these rewards will be allocated by the foundation, and later may be distributed at the protocol level.
The monthly payout amount from the pool will be of a fixed size and shared proportionally among all nodes that meet the program's criteria. To qualify for this incentive program, nodes must demonstrate over 99% uptime in the daily reward snapshots for every day of the entire month. While payouts are made monthly, node performance monitoring is conducted daily.
The pool will be able to incentivize a specific number of nodes by adjusting its size as needed, maximizing efficiency and observed network usage. The amount of rewards each user receives is inversely proportional to the number of participants, so higher rewards should incentivize the community to participate with fewer participants.
- $DVPN Token Staking Incentives
We believe that, in addition to protocol-level incentive distributions, tomorrow's POS networks will provide additional benefits and resources for community members.
For Sentinel's first "$DVPN Token Staking Incentive," all paid dVPN sessions occurring within the first two months after the release of the new desktop dVPN application will be refunded. Each user can receive a refund of up to $5 worth of $DVPN tokens, or share up to $25,000 proportionally with all users (monthly), and to qualify, users must stake at least 20,000 $DVPN tokens.
This initial staking incentive program is just the beginning of a series of incentive programs designed to provide $DVPN-related benefits to Sentinel community members who protect the network by staking tokens to validators.
- Liquidity Mining Incentives
After the launch of Gravity DEx, Sentinel will seek to incentivize the community to provide liquidity by offering rewards with regular payouts.
More details will be announced once we determine whether Gravity DEx has automatic incentive distribution capabilities. If rewards cannot be automatically distributed or require too much time to implement, we will seek to manually distribute rewards.
Otherwise, Sentinel will use Osmosis to provide incentives for liquidity providers on Osmosis.
- White-label Operator Incentives
Sentinel will seek to incentivize newly launched white-label applications by providing fixed-size grants, which will be distributed over 6 months (if minimum subscription thresholds are met). White-label clients reaching various subscription and session-related milestones will also receive rewards. Specific details will be released after the desktop client is launched.
Sentinel will also provide incentives for existing centralized VPN companies that decide to transition to Sentinel's distributed and decentralized dVPN infrastructure. Bonus rewards will be based on the number of paying users that traditional VPN applications can bring to the Sentinel network.
- dVPN User Incentives
Users of the Sentinel dVPN application will be able to earn rewards through the following:
This incentive program will be similar to Sentinel's initial "utility drop" and will begin after the release of Sentinel's new dVPN desktop application.
- Funding Programs and Initiatives to Promote Developer Adoption
Within the next month, Sentinel will announce a funding program and other initiatives focused on developer adoption. Our goal is to cultivate an active developer community around Sentinel by attracting developers who care about privacy and promote Cosmos SDK development, making the Sentinel bandwidth market more attractive to users, node providers, and white-label operators.
All rewards will begin after the launch of the new desktop application.
