Reduce Validator Set to 70

This proposal reduces the Osmosis active validator set from 100 to 70.

Motivation

This proposal follows Proposal 976, which reduced the validator set from 120 to 100. Continuing to reduce the active set incrementally contributes to more efficient network communication, reduced hardware demands on validators, and faster potential block finality, benefits that improve both user experience and the long-term scalability of the chain.

Decentralization Impact

Decentralization is a trade-off in terms of performance, with smaller validator sets producing blocks faster, more reliably, and at a lower CPU cost.

• Validator distribution remains broad:
  • Top 33.3% of stake: 8 validators
  • Top 67%: 24 validators
  • Bottom 33.3%: 59 validators (plus 9 empty slots)

These figures demonstrate that trimming the bottom portion of the set can reduce technical overhead, which is determined by the number of validators present, without significantly affecting the number of validators required for each consensus level, which is influenced by the voting power distribution.

Proposed Change

This proposal would adjust the staking parameter directly to reduce the Validator count to 70.

These validators have 800,000 OSMO delegated, representing 0.03% of network voting power.

Chart: Current Validator set with consensus boundaries and proposed tail reduction marked

Projected validator set distribution after this proposal:

• Top 33.3% of stake: 7 validators (-1)
• Top 67%: 23 validators (-1)
• Bottom 33.3%: 40 validators (-19)

Forum Thread: https://forum.osmosis.zone/t/reduce-validator-set-to-70/4029