Back to collectionStaking tiers change, and node operators count the cost
March opened with XAI at USD 1.293. Every operator had to install a new version of the node software or their keys would stop participating in challenges. The team no longer had sole control over the tier table, but a new table could not settle the dispute by itself.
A creative chronicle combining project history with imagined scenes. Story events are not verification of network activity.
March opened with XAI at USD 1.293. Bitcoin was nearing its previous all-time high, other altcoins were rising, and the community had already set USD 2 as its next target. On the network side, however, operators such as the Night Watchman were still working through staking V1. Their immediate concern was what its rules would do to their income.
Every operator had to install a new version of the node software or their keys would stop participating in challenges. The update implemented tiers based on the amount of esXAI staked, giving higher tiers more frequent wins. The Night Watchman compared his records before and after the change: his machine count was unchanged and he had staked esXAI, yet his daily rewards had fallen. More than a dozen calculation posts appeared in the operators’ group within an hour. Some called the rules an opening for whales and asked why smaller operators, who had bought their keys with Ether, should bear the adjustment; others asked who held such large numbers of keys. Supporters replied that the staking allocation had previously gone straight into node rewards and had to be redistributed once staking began. One Chinese-language commenter summed up the bind: subsidizing one side or leaving things alone would anger the other. The foundation then rearranged the multipliers in line with community suggestions, said the result had reached a position both sides could accept, and again stressed the community’s importance.
The team no longer had sole control over the tier table, but a new table could not settle the dispute by itself. The Night Watchman still needed later win records to judge whether smaller operators could live with it. Officials also reiterated the existing redemption rule for converting esXAI to XAI: a 15-day option returns only one quarter and burns the rest; getting the full amount back requires 180 days. To the narrator, the larger question was how a network distributing nearly half its supply to nodes would divide rewards between large and small operators. Their experience would test the answer.