Today, I have been lying in bed, constantly thinking about a question.
Why should Cardano's SPO help Midnight produce blocks?
Most people, like me, may not have seriously considered this. Running a node as an SPO incurs real costs.
Hardware, bandwidth, and operations
Every item costs money. What is the motivation to maintain two chains simultaneously?
$NIGHT The answer given is an additional reward.@MidnightNetwork The white paper states clearly: After registering as a Midnight block producer, SPO continues to produce blocks for Cardano, continues to earn ADA, and additionally receives NIGHT rewards. The two sets of earnings are completely independent, and Midnight's work does not affect the block production probability on the Cardano side, nor does it affect ADA earnings.
This design addresses what I personally consider a very critical cold start issue.
The most vulnerable time for a new chain is right after its launch, when its own validator network does not yet exist, and the security budget has no source.
The answer for most new chains is to recruit early validators and attract people with high rewards. Midnight has chosen a different path.
Directly borrowing from the Cardano SPO network that has been running for many years, using NIGHT as additional rewards. There is no need to build trust from scratch; it starts on a mature network.
There is a detail worth noting: the eligibility probability for SPO is weighted by the amount of ADA staked. The more staked, the higher the probability of becoming a Midnight block producer. These individuals have their reputation and earnings tied to Cardano, and the cost of running away is extremely high. The early security of Midnight is directly linked to the batch of validators with the richest resources in the Cardano ecosystem.
But there are also places where I haven't thought clearly.
Currently, it is permissioned, with a group of trusted nodes running, and these individuals do not take block rewards. When it is truly opened to SPO participation, how to handle the transition period, the wording used in the white paper is "there may be a mixed phase"—indicating that the timing is not set in stone. The network stability during the transition period is the most uncertain variable right now.
Ultimately, the goal is to move towards complete permissionlessness, where anyone can become a block producer, not just Cardano SPOs. The timing of this step has not been provided in the white paper.
Borrowing a mature network for a cold start is a much more stable approach than recruiting validators from scratch. But stability does not equate to speed. The time required to see a fully decentralized Midnight may be longer than most people expect. I think, those SPOs willing to operate on two chains simultaneously are essentially betting on the activity of the Midnight network, wagering that the NIGHT rewards will be valuable in the future.
My suggestion is to pay less attention to the price of #night and look more at when the number of SPOs registering as Midnight block producers starts to move.