How Incentive Pools work on Lava

Lava is a 4-sided marketplace for blockchain infrastructure:

• Champions add new chains and services to Lava. This is like Amazon adding a new country or product category, except Lava is decentralized and anyone can extend Lava's coverage wherever these is demand
• Data Providers e.g RPC node runners, join the Lava Network to offer infrastructure
• Data Consumers e.g. dapps and wallets, use the Lava Network for infrastructure
• Blockchains and rollups reward the Lava Network for providing infrastructure

Blockchains host incentive pools on Lava to attract and coordinate Data Providers:

• Chains and rollups create incentive pools, consisting of their native token or stablecoins or even memecoins
• Champions define the desired infrastructure services by writing simple specifications (”specs”) and adding them to Lava
  • Existing specs are available here
• Providers join Lava to serve infrastructure defined by specs and to earn monthly rewards from the incentive pool, based on their quality of service
• Lava aggregates providers and optimally routes requests based on geolocation and provider quality of service
• Users and developers interact with dapps and wallets, powered by free, high-performance infrastructure
• Network contributors, including Validators, Data Providers and LAVA restakers earn rewards from the incentive pools

Onboarding Steps

RPC providers‍

1. Set up lavad and create a wallet

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2. Join our Discord channels incentivized-stargaze and incentivized-evmos to keep up to date: https://discord.gg/bKkEtU6AMQ

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3. Finish provider set up per Lava docs: https://docs.lavanet.xyz/chains

4. Share a tweet about joining Lava Network as a node operator for Stargaze and Evmos Mainnet and submit in contribution channel on Discord

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LAVA delegators

1. Go to this open-source restaking dashboard where you can pick a provider to restake your LAVA too. This dashboard was made a community contributor, Ruslan.

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2. Alternatively, you can go to https://lavanet.xyz/stakers to see restaking dashboards from partners such as Leap & StakingRewards

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3. Restake your LAVA to an RPC provider

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4. Share a tweet about Lava's unique delegation model and how you are contributing to Lava Network

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Note:  we highly recommend joining our dedicated Discord channel to stay notified of latest updates.

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FAQs

How much are payments?

• Total rewards amount to ~1.2 million STARS tokens over 6 months. 2% is committed to the community pool as per LAVA tokenomics, while 5% is committed to Validator & Validator delegator rewards. Token holders can vote on the use of the Lava community pool.

Who earns rewards?

• Rewards are distributed to Lava Network contributors:
  • Validators
  • Data Providers
  • LAVA restakers
• LAVA has a capped supply with no inflation - instead of minting new tokens, network rewards are from paid demand from blockchains.

When are payments distributed?

• Rewards will be distributed on the 17th of every month.

How do I claim payments every month?

• Cosmos tokens like STARS and EVMOS are automatically sent to your LAVA address on chain. STARS and EVMOS was sent to the Lava blockchain using IBC and the tokens are natively distributed on Lava blockchain.

Are rewards in LAVA or another token?

• This article refers to incentive pools consisting of STARS and EVMOS tokens.

How are rewards distributed between Stargaze and Evmos testnet and mainnet?

• 80% to mainnet, 20% to testnet.
• This may change month to month depending on demand for RPC on Stargaze and Evmos testnet and mainnet.

Any more incentive pools coming up?

• Yes, pools are planned across Starknet, Filecoin, Axelar, Union, Coti, Fuse and more.

Relevant Links:

• What are specs: docs.lavanet.xyz/spec
• Lava Netwoork 101: lavafoundation.notion.site
• Existing specs: GitHub link
• Twitter: x.com/lavanetxyz
• Discord: Join us on Discord
• Whitepaper: Lava Whitepaper
• Documentation: docs.lavanet.xyz
• How to stake LAVA: Staking Guide