For v0.2, the reward rate calculation was rearchitected, including to improve support for new sources of staking rewards in the future (e.g., user fees). While v0.1 had a fixed reward rate (i.e., a single rate for all Community Stakers regardless of pool fill rate), v0.2 introduced a variable reward rate.
The variable reward rate results from the fact that a fixed amount of rewards in total are made available to the staking pool per unit of time, regardless of how much aggregate LINK is staked in the pool. Therefore, stakers don’t have a fixed reward rate, but rather the rate of reward is variable based on how full the pool is and the amount of rewards made available per unit of time (creating an effective floor rate at a specific pool size limit and fixed reward amount). If the pool isn’t full, the same amount of rewards will be made available proportionately to a reduced number of stakers, resulting in a higher reward rate, and vice versa.
This change in reward rate calculation was required given that the source of rewards in Chainlink Staking in the future is expected to increasingly shift towards being derived from external sources of rewards (e.g. user fees), which may be a variable amount.
Assuming an entirely filled community pool, the community stake portion of the v0.2 pool at launch features a base floor reward rate of 4.5% per year in LINK for helping secure the Chainlink Network. From those annualized rewards, 4% of Community Staker rewards is automatically directed to Node Operator Stakers as a Delegation Reward. The result is an effective base floor reward rate of 4.32% on an annualized basis for Community Stakers in v0.2 at launch. As noted previously, the actual amount of rewards made available to stakers will depend on how full the pool is, with a higher effective reward rate if the pool is less than full.
This base floor reward rate was determined based on the need to balance the network’s economic sustainability over time, while ensuring stakers are fairly rewarded for their work securing the network. It is expected that emissions-based rewards will eventually trend toward zero as external sources of staking rewards, such as user fees, grow to sustainably support the network’s cryptoeconomic security staking layer.
The node operator stake portion of the v0.2 pool features the same 4.5% base floor reward rate but is supplemented by Delegation Rewards from Community Stakers and made available to Node Operator Stakers proportionally based on the amount each operator stakes.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
