SIP-11: Increase staking cap per node to 20k DATA

Background

Since the Brubeck mainnet launched with incentives to run Broker nodes, there has been a maximum amount of 10,000 DATA that can be staked per node. The amount is a balance between:

• Maximising the number of nodes in the network: more nodes is better for proving protocol reliability and scalability, and bigger numbers are always better for marketing :)
• On the other hand, each node comes with fixed operating costs, so a low limit means higher fixed costs for node operators that run several nodes and therefore less profit margin

With the DATA token value hurt by the overall crypto market crash, the profitability of running Broker nodes has decreased. At current market prices, 10k DATA equals around $240 in value. With roughly 50% APR, roughly $10 will be earned per month per node. If running a node costs, say, $5 per month, half of the earnings are spent on operating costs.

Proposal

Increase the staking maximum per node to 20,000 DATA.

To repeat the above example calculation with the new cap, this would allow $480 worth of DATA to be staked per node, earning roughly $20 per month - and with the same $5 example operating cost, this means that only 25% of earnings is spent on operating costs.

The case against the proposal

• This is likely to decrease the number of nodes in the network by up to 50%, as people will need to run half as many nodes to stake a given amount of tokens.
• While the Network is enjoying constant organic growth of nodes, the total number of nodes will drop at least temporarily.

The case for the proposal

• This will increase the profitability of running Broker nodes.
• Better operating margin will attract more nodes to compensate the initial reduction in node count.