TL;DR

We propose to create a 10 ETH monthly prize pool for the next three months where any solo staker that puts “⌐◨-◨” into their validator’s graffiti flag can be permissionlessly eligible to win 1 ETH.

(paintbrush noun snacking after a hard day of nouns graffiti; CC0 art by brandonmighty)

Why should Nouns incentivize solo staking?

We see solo staking as something incredibly nounish. It embodies a desire to contribute to the production and maintenance of a public good (in this case Ethereum’s decentralization) with the optimistic view that individuals’ independent judgment and actions can make a difference.

However, solo staking, as the name suggests, can be quite lonely. So we wanted to help make it more fun by introducing a distinctly nounish playful & absurdist element: a nouns block graffiti prize pool.

How can you participate?

If you already have a staking setup, all you need to do is add “⌐◨-◨” to the graffiti flag of your consensus client.

If you aren’t yet a staker, but always wanted to and this prop is motivating you to stake some of your ETH, then that’s amazing and we’ll be rooting for you!

The easiest way to solo stake from home (in our opinion) is buying an Intel NUC (along with 2TB SSD and 32GB RAM chips) and setting up Dappnode, an open source node operator that helps you install and run Ethereum clients of your choice. You can also buy a ready-to-use staking node from Dappnode’s store which makes it is even easier.

How will the prizes be paid out?

The prize ETH will initially be held in a multisig. At the end of each month, starting April, we will initiate a 10 ETH transaction to a smart contract (to be developed) that randomly selects 10 winners amongst a list of candidate validator addresses.

We’ll use the following options as the validator's address (in this order): A) validator’s ENS (if included in the block graffiti), B) withdrawal address (if set by the validator), and C) the “from” address of the staking deposit transaction.

The spirit of this proposal is to celebrate and incentivize solo stakers. If we find that a large staking pool is attempting to ruin the fun, we’ll disclose those validators publicly on Twitter and not include them as potential prize candidates.

How can you follow along?

We’ll create a site that showcases the ⌐◨-◨ graffiti blocks etched into the Ethereum blockchain. We might also create a Twitter bot that tweets out whenever a new block with noggles is discovered.

Who are the volunteers running this program?

Noun 40, gregskril.eth, and Ripe.

Any additional resources for solo staking?

• How to stake on Ethereum — a bit outdated but still the best comprehensive writeup on eth staking by superphiz.
• Hardware for staking — a good run through of the hardware options by Lamboshi.
• Ethstaker — a reddit and discord community of eth stakers where you can search for commonly asked questions and get help.
• Tweet thread of Noun 40 recently going through the whole process of solo saking from home.
• Client Diversity — a site to check Ethereum’s current client diversity. If you’re going through all the trouble anyways, why not choose a minority client?
• MEV Watch — a site to check the latest OFAC censorship stats and review non-censoring mev-boost relay options.
• The Cost of Resilience — research that showcases how setting even a small min-bid value of 0.05 ETH can have an outsized impact in supporting Ethereum’s censorship resistance.