Boosting Early Staking: The Guardians of Growth Initiative

This post is published on behalf of the Subspace Foundation, which is introducing the Guardians of Growth Staking Bootstrap Program as part of its mission to secure and decentralize the Autonomys Network.

At the launch of mainnet domains, the Autonomys Network will have relatively low transaction volume. Because staking rewards are derived solely from transaction fees and tips, nominators (stakers) and operators will initially experience lower returns.

While long-term sustainability will come from organic activity on Auto-EVM and other domains, it is essential to ensure that network security and decentralization are strong from day one. To bridge this early stage, the Subspace Foundation is implementing a temporary, treasury-funded incentive program.

Why this program exists

• Secure the network at launch: Ensure operators are rewarded even before organic fees reach critical mass.
• Encourage early staking: Enable holders to learn how staking works and begin participating in governance and security.
• Provide a temporary bootstrap measure: A time-bound subsidy using ~0.5% of the Foundation’s treasury, not a permanent change to network economics.

How the program works

The program leverages the existing protocol logic for distributing transaction fees.

• On a regular cadence, the Foundation submits a trivial transaction (a remark) on the Auto-EVM domain.
• Each transaction includes a tip, distributed exactly as any other user-submitted fee would be.
• Operators who execute and include these transactions in a block receive their share of the tip.
• Nominators (stakers) of those operators automatically receive their proportional share.
• All staking remains fully non-custodial — nominators retain complete control of their tokens at all times.

If you’re new to staking, check out our step-by-step guide to staking in the Autonomys docs.

Until permissionless operators are launched (expected next year), any fees earned by the Foundation’s own operators from this program will be recycled periodically back into the incentive stream, ensuring the incentives go entirely to the community.

This mechanism is implemented using the Operator Reward Distributor, an open-source service built in Node.js/TypeScript that:

• Sends a transaction at a steady interval (e.g., every N minutes).
• Attaches a configurable tip amount.
• Tracks budgets and confirmations in a local database.
• Supports RPC failover to ensure reliability.

This approach makes the program transparent, reproducible, and fully fully protocol-aligned.

Key features of the program

• Protocol-native rewards: Rewards are earned exactly like any other network activity. Once a transaction with a tip is sent, the protocol automatically distributes it through the standard fee system. No one decides who gets what — it’s all handled on-chain.
• Open and verifiable: Operators play an important role in block production, but they do not control the network. All activity can be checked and challenged, ensuring security remains in the hands of the broader community.
• Predictable yet flexible: Rewards are designed to flow at a steady, linear pace over ~12 months, with an initial ramp-up in tip size at the start. The Foundation may adjust cadence if needed to reflect network conditions, but the goal is a clear and transparent schedule.
• Time-bound: This is a bootstrap program, not a structural change. It is intended to last for ~12 months, after which operator earnings should be sustained by organic usage.

FAQ

Q: When does the program start?

The ramp-up phase will begin shortly after this announcement, with the goal of aligning closely to the exchange listings.

Q: Where do the funds come from?

From the Subspace Foundation treasury. This program allocates 0.5% of token supply to bootstrap staking incentives. Specifically, the near-term treasury will be used to fund operational wallets. You can find details of the address along with other official wallets in the forum post about them.

Q: How much will I earn if I stake?

There are no yield guarantees. Rewards will depend on (1) the cadence and size of tips funded by the Foundation, and (2) how many other nominators are staking. As more nominators join, each individual’s share naturally decreases.

Q: Isn’t this centralization?

No. The Foundation submits transactions, but the protocol handles distribution automatically. Nominators and operators earn exactly as they would from any normal transaction fee.

Q: How long will this last?

The program is designed to run for ~12 months, with rewards deployed in a steady, linear fashion. The Foundation may make minor adjustments if conditions change, but the total allocation will not exceed 5,000,000 AI3.

Q: What happens once permissionless operators are live?

The program will continue to function as designed. Tips will flow to all active operators and their nominators, permissioned or permissionless. This will make staking incentives even broader and more decentralized.

Q: How will I know what’s been distributed?

All transactions are on-chain and can be audited directly. Anyone can track the flow of tips using block explorers. We’d also love to see a community-built dashboard that makes this even easier to follow — and we’re happy to support contributors who want to build one.

Q: What does this mean for developers?

Developers gain a more reliable base layer from day one. The program ensures operators are rewarded consistently, making the network more stable to build on. The steady flow of tip-based transactions also helps developers see how fees and incentives behave in practice, so they can design their apps against real network dynamics.

Why this matters

This initiative gives nominators a reason to start staking immediately, builds confidence with the staking process, and ensures operator nodes are rewarded while the broader ecosystem bootstraps.

The program is transparent, protocol-native, and temporary. Most importantly, it aligns incentives across the Foundation, operators, nominators, and developers to help the Autonomys Network grow into a secure, sustainable, and decentralized platform.

About Autonomys

The Autonomys Network — the foundation layer for AI3.0 — is a hyper-scalable decentralized AI (deAI) infrastructure stack encompassing high-throughput permanent distributed storage, data availability and access, and modular execution. Our deAI ecosystem provides all the essential components to build and deploy secure super dApps (AI-powered dApps) and on-chain agents, equipping them with advanced AI capabilities for dynamic and autonomous functionality.

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