Ignite — Avalanche validators & subnets for all

2023 is already shaping up to be the year of Avalanche subnets. Recently announced partnerships with AWS and Alibaba Cloud indicate Fortune 500 companies are choosing Avalanche’s scalable blockchain architecture to power the future of finance. That is why BENQI, one of Avalanche’s leading DeFi protocols, is proud to announce Ignite — a new base layer protocol for decentralized staking that reduces the cost to run an Avalanche node by up to 10x.

How Does Ignite Work?

Thanks to the success and continued maturity of BENQI’s Liquid Staking protocol, BENQI has over 1 million AVAX ready to fuel Ignite’s mission to accelerate the growth of the Avalanche ecosystem.

With Ignite, BENQI provides all 2,000 AVAX needed to spin up a validator node in exchange for a user posting a mere 200 AVAX worth of QI as collateral. By reducing the cost to run a subnet, Ignite is designed to accelerate the Avalanche ecosystem’s growth into hyperdrive–

• More Developers can afford to build with Avalanche’s institutional-grade tooling
• More Stakers can afford to run their own nodes to validate the P-Chain and early subnets
• More Decentralization of the Avalanche network will flourish from the influx of developers and stakers

Developers Win

Imagine an indie game developer looking to launch an exciting new turn-based strategy RPG on Avalanche. If they were to launch on the C-Chain, gas fees could spike due to unrelated on-chain activity such as DeFi or NFT sales, leading to gameplay slowdowns or runaway costs for players.

Naturally, the best choice would be for the developer to deploy their own subnet for its low transaction fees, maximum customizability, and high throughput. However, with 2,000 AVAX necessary to run a validator, and a minimum of 5 validators recommended to run a subnet, the cost to deploy the subnet can become prohibitively expensive for early-stage teams.

Enter Ignite. Due to the 90% reduced cost of running validators, the indie game developer now has a far easier path to launching their subnet. Furthermore, Ignite is designed with a frictionless “three click” UX so developers can focus solely on building their world-changing projects rather than navigating infrastructure deployments. In short, Ignite’s lowered barrier to entry for running subnets means more Avalanche builders, building more projects, better.

Stakers Win

One of Avalanche’s foremost selling points is how easily community members can spin up their own nodes and earn AVAX for validating the network. With the continued launch of new subnets, including the advent of elastic subnets, stakers are more incentivized than ever to earn AVAX and subnet rewards by running a validator. Unfortunately, the 2,000 AVAX required to do so has priced many out of this potentially valuable opportunity.

Now, thanks to BENQI Ignite, with as little as 25 AVAX and 197.5 AVAX in QI collateral, stakers can deploy a fully operational node, start validating subnets, and receive the associated benefits of contributing to the growth of Avalanche’s ecosystem at the core technological level. Additionally, many AVAX holders accustomed to delegating on the P-chain should notice an uptick in their AVAX staking rewards since running a validator will bypass the need to pay delegation fees.

Avalanche Wins

Above all, the launch of Ignite is a watershed moment for both BENQI and Avalanche. By dramatically lowering the cost to operate a validator, BENQI has paved a superhighway to blitzscale Avalanche’s decentralization, developer adoption, and innovation. In this year of the Avalanche subnet, Ignite enables more subnets, more builders, and more value creation.

Conclusion

Ignite adds to BENQI’s best-in-class suite of DeFi primitives for the Avalanche ecosystem. Combined with BENQI’s Liquid Staking and Lending protocols, Ignite completes a powerful triumvirate that amplifies the power and potential of building on Avalanche.

We are excited to help users get started with Ignite, with the mainnet launch expected in early May. For more information on Ignite, BENQI, and future partnerships, follow @BenqiFinance on Twitter to stay up-to-date with our informational posts and Spaces discussions.

About BENQI
BENQI is a DeFi protocol on Avalanche providing users and developers access to capital-efficient DeFi products. It consists of the BENQI Liquidity Market for crypto lending & borrowing and BENQI Liquid Staking, the AVAX liquid staking solution. For more information, visit benqi.fi.

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