Providers in Chromia
Providers are individuals or organizations who contribute computing power to the network. They run nodes, which are high-performance computers that store and process data for Chromia. These nodes act as the backbone of the Chromia blockchain, ensuring its smooth operation.
Chromia acquires node capacity from Providers. These nodes are responsible for producing blocks, enabling decentralized applications (dapps) to run smoothly. The nodes operated by Providers are organized into clusters, with each cluster hosting a container for a specific blockchain associated with a dapp.
There are two main types of Providers in the Chromia ecosystem:
- System Providers (SPs): These Providers manage the network's core infrastructure by overseeing the smooth operation of the system chains, which form the foundation upon which Chromia operates. SPs are responsible for voting on crucial proposals that shape the network's future, such as adding new system providers.
- Node Providers (NPs): These Providers contribute by running nodes on non-system clusters, providing dedicated spaces for dapps to flourish. NPs create the infrastructure for individual dapps to run smoothly.
Providers in the Chromia network have a significant say in the decision-making process. They vote on various proposals, and a super-majority (greater than or equal to ⅔) is required to approve substantial changes to the network. Providers have two types of key pairs: the provider key pair, used to sign transactions and proposals, and the node key pair, used by the consensus algorithm to sign blocks between peers. All the nodes in the network have their unique key pair.
Providers decide on events on the network together. Voter sets contain the list of providers that can vote on proposals, and all significant changes are made by vote.
A system provider can do some operations directly on the network, such as creating a cluster, but considerable changes require consensus by voting. For example, providers can upgrade a node provider to a system provider if a super-majority (greater than or equal to ⅔) of providers vote in favor of the proposal to approve it.
Chromia utilizes a staking mechanism to incentivize reliable node operation and maintain network security. Providers stake a certain amount of CHR tokens (Chromia's native currency) as collateral. Well-behaved nodes earn rewards, while misbehaving nodes forfeit their staked tokens, discouraging bad actors and promoting a secure network environment.
Currently, anyone can stake Chromia tokens and receive a 10% annual percentage rate (APR) governance reward, which may change in the future. The staking contract is deployed on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain (BSC) blockchains, allowing users to interact with it using existing ERC20 wallets, such as MetaMask.
It's important to note that all dapps must stake at least 100 Chroma tokens to be hosted on the Chromia testnet.