After reaching the 300 validators milestone on Polkadot, we are reviewing network metrics to decide on further steps.
The full report can be found HERE.
Recommended steps:
BABE and GRANDPA are running smoothly with up to 1000 validators, but the parachains consensus logic is far heavier and more complex and will need optimization to reach that point. As such, the parachains team is planning to only use some limited subset of the validators initially (perhaps 50, 100, or 200) randomly selected each session for parachain consensus. Those selected validators to do parachain consensus will receive the bulk of the rewards for each session. Over time, the amount of rewards each validator receives will be roughly equal, but increasing the validator count relative to the amount of validators participating in parachains will lead to increased variance of rewards. For that reason, the parachains team recommends keeping the amount of validators low to achieve an outcome of low reward variance, an earlier launch of parachains and consensus stability.
Closely monitor the MinStake/AvgStaked ratio as we increase the numbers of validators in a future proposal.
Continue with the plan to produce and distribute educational resources for new nominators focusing on what to look for when choosing validators. The resources should review the differences between nominating new/small validators and established ones. Furthermore, encourage validators to produce reports and for nominators to those use as signals of confidence when staking.