Proposal 57: PowerAgent incentivized testnet and bug bounty program
Summary
As the next essential step following the PowerPool<>DappNode partnership, I propose to launch the PowerAgent incentivized testnet with a bug bounty program before its mainnet deployment. The testnet should have two stages: (1) Sepolia testnet (2) Gnosis chain mainnet approbation. After completing these two stages, I propose to deploy PowerAgent to the Ethereum mainnet.
To reward active participation, the following incentives should be provided:
Up to 200 grants in CVP tokens for two testnet stages (with a basic amount of 1000 CVP per grant). The mechanics of the grants should work in the following way:
- Users who successfully participated in the Sepolia testnet will be rewarded with 1000 CVP
- the second stage (the Gnosis Chain mainnet approbation) would require a 1000 CVP stake (in CVP, bridged from Ethereum to Gnosis chain) from each participant. Sepolia participants will be able to use CVP tokens received as a reward.
- Succesful Gnosis testnet participants would receive additional 1000 CVP, receiving totally 2000 CVP.
When PowerAgent launches on Ethereum, the minimal stake will be 2000 CVP. Thus, all testnet participants can run the node with 100% of the required stake covered by rewards. Note, that basic node bugs and issues are related to testnet participation and not to the bug bounty, focused on finding attacks and vulnerabilities (described below).
The bug bounty program should work as follows: users reporting any particular attacks or abuse mechanics found while testing the network will be rewarded in USDT.
The reward amount starts from 1000 USDT per accepted case with an option to be increased. The reward amount should consider the bug’s severity and proposed options to fix the reported issue.
Abstract
I propose to run an incentivized testnet and a bug bounty for PowerAgent before mainnet deployment. Such an incentivized testnet would expand the initial scale of the PowerAgent keeper network at launch as well as expose any remaining issues and bugs in its architecture.
Motivation
PowerAgent V2 is internally tested and will soon be deployed on the Ethereum network. For a successful mainnet launch, the first objective is to ensure that the network is functioning properly and that all major bugs and network economics abuse opportunities are fixed. The second is to expand the number of keeper nodes operating in the network and educate the community on launching and maintaining nodes.
An established way to achieve these objectives is to launch an incentivized testnet with a bug bounty program before mainnet deployment.
To ensure a smooth launch of PowerAgent in Ethereum mainnet, it’s logical to ensure a seamless transition from testnet conditions to the mainnet. To achieve this, we plan to divide PowerAgent’s deployment into 3 stages: the Sepolia network testnet stage, the Gnosis chain approbation stage, and finally, Ethereum mainnet deployment.
The main goals of the PowerAgent testnet are as follows:
- attract new keeper node operators into the network and educate the community how to launch and maintain PowerAgent nodes
- thoroughly test all the components of the keeper network as well as the mechanics of their interactions.
Since PowerAgent’s deployment will be divided into 3 stages, it is reasonable to provide separate incentivization rewards for participating in each stage:
- The first round of rewards should be distributed among initial testnet participants. These grants will stimulate Sepolia network testers to join the network and provide the initial stake for registering a keeper node on the Gnosis chain.
- By completing the approbation (Gnosis Chain) testing stage of PowerAgent, participants ought to be rewarded with additional 1000 CVP grants, enabling them to migrate their rewarded tokens to the Ethereum network and operate a keeper node on the mainnet.
Finally, we can incentivize testers to continue operating PowerAgent keeper nodes by providing further rewards, given that they lock initial CVP stakes in the Agent contract on the Ethereum mainnet.
The bug bounty program is also crucial for the protocol’s mainnet deployment. I believe, that running this form of an incentivezed testnet with a bug bounty program will significantly widen the initial scale of the PowerAgent Keeper Network as well as insure the overall network’s “health” for its subsequent launch on the Ethereum mainnet.
Finally, it’s important to emphathize that incorporating idependent validator node operators into the PowerAgent Keeper Network is the best solution to ensure the robustness and fault-tolerance of the network as a whole. Hence, we believe that they are the best candidates for participation in the incentivization program are users of our latest partner - DappNode. For this reason, the main focus of the incentivization program should be incorporating DappNode validator node operators.
Since DappNode is PowerPool’s infrastructure partner and testing the DappNode package is quite an important question, I propose to allocate at least 60% of CVP rewards exclusively to DappNode users, while the rest of grants (40%) should be divided between early PowerAgent v2 node runners (2022) and non-DappNode users, launching PowerAgent/Ethereum nodes themselves. However, the 60% threshold is the minimal amount allocated to the DappNode community and it could be increased if the majority of testnet participants will prefer using DappNode.
Specifications
Testnet specifications:
- The PowerAgent V2 testnet will operate on the Sepolia chain starting from May 22, 2023 (however, this date may shift due to unforeseen circumstances).
- The anticipated duration of the testnet will be 3 weeks. It may be prolonged at the core team’s discretion.
- Testnet participants will be admitted in batches. The first batch will include 10 participants, including PowerAgent early supporters and DappNode OGs. The core team will decide the size of subsequent batches.
- Test CVPtest (Sepolia ERC20) tokens will be distributed to approved testnet participants from the team wallet.
- After the testnet on the Sepolia network, PowerAgent will be deployed on the Gnosis chain for its approbation in “real-world” circumstances in a network with low fees.
- All Sepolia testnet participants can join the Gnosis chain approbation stage.
- The Gnosis chain approbation stage will last approximately 3 weeks.
Funds allocation:
- For the incentivized testnet, up to 200,000 CVP tokens will be distributed as rewards.
- The team will send USDT bug bounty rewards on a case-by-case basis.
Conditions for testnet participation:
- Up to 100 testers will be admitted to to join the Sepolia testnet.
- To participate in the testnet, candidates will be required to fill in a participation request form that will be shared in all PowerPool social channels after the voting ends.
- Eligibility for rewards will be based on monitoring of the on-chain data and the user report activity.
- In case of finding a node running bug or other tech issues, testnet participants must create an issue on the Github repo with the description of the found error/exploit; the circumstances at which the issue occurred; the log file showcasing the error; a probable means to solve the problem (the special repo will be shared later).
Note that significant exploits and hack opportunities should be shared directly to the team in order to receive the additional bug bounty reward distinct from node runner grants. The TG handle will be provided in the testnet announcement article.
- Incorrect behavior on the testnet will lead to the elimination from the incentivization program (will be decided by the team).
- Only participants who received test CVPtest tokens from specified team wallet will be valid for participation in the incentivization program.
Conditions for receiving bug bounties:
- The bug bounty program will be active during all the stages of PowerAgent’s deployment: Sepolia testnet, Gnosis chain approbation, and Ethereum mainnet launch.
- The bug bounty program relates to significant exploits and hack opportunities that should be shared directly with the team to receive the reward.
- Only the first finder who submitted a found bug/exploit will receive the bug bounty reward.
- Only bugs/exploits not contained in the security audit will be eligible (the audit will be shared with the community before the testnet launch).
Distribution of testnet rewards:
- 1000 CVP will be distributed among Sepolia tesnet participants on the Gnosis chain after its launch.
- An additional 1000 CVP will be issued to testers, who completed PowerAgent’s approbation on the Gnosis chain.
- Further incentives for locking rewarded CVP in the Agent contract on the Ethereum mainnet will be the topic for a further discussion.
Distribution of bug bounties:
- The size of the bug bounty reward will start at 1000 USDT and can be increased.
- Bug bounty rewards will be issued by the PowerPool multisig committee on an individual basis.