EdgeCloud June 26 Release Details — Elite Booster Node Q&A
With the excitement leading up to EdgeCloud release, we’ve seen many questions from the Theta community on how the Elite Booster node upgrade will work and how much they can earn. Let’s address some of the top topics on this exciting new feature for edge nodes:
- How do I qualify as an Elite Booster node for EdgeCloud jobs?
You must be running an Elite edge node with a full 500k TFUEL staked from a single non-delegated source wallet. After June 26, a new Elite Booster feature will enable you to lock additional TFUEL and earn rewards from jobs completed through high-end EdgeCloud GPUs hosted by Theta Labs.
2. I stake my TFUEL on other people’s edge nodes, do I still qualify?
You must run and stake to your own Elite edge node with the full 500k TFUEL in order to participate in the Elite Booster program. While we won’t verify the ownership of any wallets (as in KYC), whichever wallet stakes the full 500K to an EEN will be eligible for locking additional TFuel for Elite Booster rewards.
3. I have 500k TFUEL staked to my Elite edge node from three wallets, do I still qualify?
No, you need to have the full 500k staked to your Elite edge node from a single non-delegated wallet. We recommend that you unstake from the three wallets and restake from a single wallet.
4. Is there a maximum amount that can be locked to a single Elite Booster node?
Yes, an additional 500k TFUEL can be locked on top of the base 500k TFUEL staked to the node, for a total of 1M TFUEL per Elite edge node. This is a change from the original white paper to avoid a potential drop in the total number of Elite edge nodes on the Theta network. The additional 500k TFUEL must come from the same wallet as the base 500k TFUEL.
5. Is there a locking period, and can I mix and match?
Yes, there will be an option to lock your TFUEL for 3, 6, and 12 months, starting from the day that you lock and are based on 1143000, 2286000, and 4572000 blocks respectively so there could be some time variance. You can lock any combination of 3–6–12 months up to the maximum of 500k TFUEL per Booster node. For example, you can lock 200k TFUEL for 3 months, another 200k for 6 months and 100k for 12 months.
6. Do longer locking periods earn greater bonuses and are all rewards in TFUEL?
Yes, the 6-month option will earn 25% more than the 3-month option for the same jobs, and the 12-month option will earn 50% more than the 3-month option. For example, if your 3-month lock earns 10,000 TFUEL per month, then locking the same amount of TFUEL for 6 months will earn 12,500 TFUEL per month, and 15,000 TFUEL per month for the 12-month lock.
As for rewards, they aren’t limited to TFUEL as some EdgeCloud partner jobs will be paid in TNT-20 tokens.
7. Does the locked TFUEL leave my wallet and earn base TFUEL staking rewards?
The locked TFUEL is sent to a smart contract that will enforce the locking periods, so they will not be available in your wallet. When the locking period ends, you can withdraw that TFUEL back to your wallet subject to the standard cooldown period of 30,000 blocks, roughly 2.5 days. The additional locked TFUEL will not earn base TFUEL staking rewards, only EdgeCloud job rewards. In the future, we may change this and enable base TFUEL staking rewards on top of job rewards.
8. How much will Elite Booster nodes earn?
First, the locked TFUEL to Elite Booster nodes should earn more from EdgeCloud jobs than the current ~7% APY from TFUEL staking rewards. You will earn a proportional amount to the total TFUEL locked by all Elite Booster nodes. For example, if you lock 500k TFUEL for 12 months, and a total of 50M TFUEL is currently locked across all Elite Booster nodes, then you will earn 1% of the total EdgeCloud job rewards plus 0.5% bonus for the 12-month option.
Note: this only applies to the amount of TFUEL locked beyond the base 500k staked to your node. In other words, the base 500k TFUEL is not counted towards the Elite Booster job reward calculation.
In addition to TFUEL, you can also earn other TNT-20 tokens from partner EdgeCloud jobs. For planning purposes, if the allocated EdgeCloud GPUs are utilized 80%-100%, then you can expect to earn between 14%-28% APY on your locked TFUEL, depending on a number of variables including the lock period. This is in aggregate across all rewards paid in TFUEL and TNT-20 tokens, and are subject to change.
9. Where do the additional TFUEL and TNT-20 tokens from EdgeCloud job rewards come from?
The TFUEL job rewards will come directly from EdgeCloud customers and partners paying with either fiat currency through the Stripe integration or with TFUEL directly. Initially, some job rewards will also come from in-house Theta projects including the AI showcase, Generative AI Art campaigns, and other community projects to be announced. To be clear, the additional TFUEL does not come from the current TFUEL inflation and will not increase TFUEL inflation in any way. Partner EdgeCloud jobs can also be rewarded in TNT-20 tokens.
10. What happens if I unstake the original 500k TFUEL from the Elite edge node?
If you unstake the base TFUEL and your stake balance is less than 500k, you will no longer qualify for Elite Booster and will stop earning EdgeCloud job rewards. The 3/6/12 lockup period will continue to be enforced; however, you can re-stake to the same edge node and top up to the original 500k and start earning again.
11. Will I earn more Elite Booster rewards if I upgrade my hardware now?
At the moment, we do not recommend upgrading your hardware and as it will not impact EdgeCloud job rewards from cloud hosted GPUs. However, this may change in later releases with the full rollout of the hybrid cloud-edge computing platform later in 2024–2025. For the June 26 edge node client release, cloud-hosted EdgeCloud jobs will be rewarded the same regardless of hardware specs. However, with better GPU your Elite edge node will earn more from standard edge node jobs, and CUDA-enable machines will earn even more.
12. Will earnings from Elite Booster accumulate in a pending balance or will they be available as they are earned?
They will be in a pending balance, to be distributed once per month.
13. Will Theta Labs be staking their TFUEL supply in the new Elite Booster program?
No, Theta Labs will not stake their TFUEL.
14. If I run an edge node and someone else staked the 500k TFUEL, would my Elite edge node not become a Elite Booster node?
This Elite edge node will be an Elite Booster node, but the rewards would go directly to the staker wallet (i.e. someone else’s wallet). To prevent this from happening, please don’t share the node summary with others.
15. Why aren’t all users allowed to participate with an Elite Booster node?
Any user can already stake their TFUEL to upgrade to an Elite edge node and earn higher job payouts. Elite Booster is the next level of commitment to the platform to unlock cloud-based EdgeCloud job rewards.
