Streamr Announces the Launch of Testnet 1 for Streamr 1.0

[PRESS RELEASE – Bristol, United Kingdom, November 29th, 2023]

Streamr is thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of Testnet 1 for Streamr 1.0, a critical step towards the completion of its 2017 roadmap and the full readiness of the decentralized network. This first incentivized testnet, starting on 4th December and concluding on 11th December, is the precursor to the release of Streamr 1.0 in February, 2024.

Key dates and rewards:

• Streamr Hub 1.0 Release: 28 November
• Testnet 1: 4 December – 11 December (Reward Pool: 1 Million DATA)
• Testnet 2: 18 December – 8 January (Reward Pool: 1.5 Million DATA)
• Testnet 3: 15 January – 29 January (Reward Pool: 2.5 Million DATA)
• Streamr 1.0 Official Release: February 2024

New next-gen features in 1.0

The 1.0 protocol upgrade will unlock peer-to-peer market forces between Sponsors and Operators of the Streamr Network so that robust distribution can be paid for with the currency of the Streamr Network—DATA. The big picture is that 1.0 marks the culmination of the 2017 roadmap, and means the Streamr Network is fully decentralized, production-ready, and complete.

Streamr 1.0 advancements:

• New network roles: The Sponsor, Operator, and Delegator. These roles use DATA tokens to participate in the incentive mechanisms.
• Stream Sponsorships: Smart contracts for managing a stream of earnings distributed among a set of Operators.
• Advanced network capabilities: replacement of tracker nodes with a globally distributed hash table (DHT).

Operators, Delegators, and stream Sponsorships 

Operators and Delegators are vital to the success of these testnets. Operators, by running Streamr nodes and joining sponsored streams, aid in traffic relay and network performance. Delegators support these operations by providing liquidity in the form of DATA tokens. Successful participants will earn rewards from the 5 million DATA tokens allocated for these three testnets.

Stream Sponsorships, crucial for securing the network, are smart contracts that release funds over time to Operators. This system mirrors service level agreements (SLAs) in traditional networks, ensuring reliable data distribution.

Users can brush up on how it fits together in this blog.

Enhancements for node operators

The 1.0 upgrade introduces significant enhancements and changes for node operators of the previous Brubeck network version:

• Node limits: removed restrictions on the number of nodes per IP.
• Reward structure: immediate reward claiming from active Sponsorships.
• Staking freedom: no cap on DATA staking per node, with at least 5% ownership required.
• Software & addresses: testnet-specific software versions and a streamlined address system in 1.0.

How to participate in the testnets 

To earn a share of the 5 million DATA tokens, participants will need to become an Operator or a Delegator.

To earn rewards, an Operator’s nodes are expected to follow the protocol rule of properly forwarding messages to other connected nodes with good uptime and sufficient hardware resources to handle the traffic of the incentivized streams.

The amount of DATA tokens the Operator stakes on the Sponsorship determines the size of their share of the token flow. Other Operators in a Sponsorship are there to share the cake, so overcrowded Sponsorships may not offer the best yields, and some Operators will decide to mine other Sponsorships instead.

Join the Streamr community

Streamr invites users to join this monumental journey towards a fully decentralized data economy. Users are encouraged to prepare their nodes for the opportunity to claim a share of the 5 million DATA tokens, participating in the future of decentralized real-time data.

For support, feedback, and updates, users are welcome to join the Streamr Discord community, focusing on the #⁠testnet-general and #testnet-announcements channels.

On Thursday 30th November 15:00 UTC, Streamr will be holding an AMA on Twitter Spaces on the testnets and 1.0. Participants are invited to add their questions into the #⁠1.0 Testnet AMA Questions thread on Discord.

About Streamr

Streamr is building the real-time data protocol of the decentralized web. This includes a scalable, low-latency and secure P2P Network for data delivery and exchange. As part of the vision, Streamr is building The Streamr Hub, a decentralized chat application, and other dApps to help DePin projects and the world decentralize their tech stacks. The Streamr project was started by real-time data veterans with backgrounds in algorithmic trading and finance markets.