Key takeaways

• Stake-weighted Quality of Service (swQoS) prioritizes network resource allocation based on the amount of stake held by validators, enhancing network security and performance.

• swQoS benefits RPC operators and exchanges by allowing them to negotiate priority transaction processing, ensuring higher efficiency and reliability for on-chain dApps.

• By implementing swQoS, the network reduces the risk of low-stake validators flooding the system, thereby improving overall Sybil resistance and maintaining a fair transaction processing environment.

  
  

Stake-Weighted Quality of Service (swQoS)

Stake-Weighted Quality of Service (swQoS) is a mechanism for allocating specific network resources, such as the number of connections or a fairly distributed number of streams, based on the amount of stake held by validators or stakers. Simply put: the more stake you hold, the higher the probability of successfully submitting transactions. Built on top of this system, Solayer is creating a new marketplace design involving stakers, validators, and application developers.

swQoS allows leaders (block producers) to identify and prioritize transactions proxied through a staked validator and trusted entities such as RPC providers, as an additional Sybil resistance mechanism. This improves the security and performance of the network by reducing the likelihood that low-or-no-stake (lower quality) validators can “drown out” transactions from higher-quality (higher stake) validators.

Currently, swQoS operates as a protocol between RPC nodes and validators, leaving applications with little control in a world where they need the most security and performance configuration power to directly serve users. This access to network resources will provide transactions a better chance to be included in the upcoming Solana blocks.

How does swQoS work?

For example, if there are two validators—one holding 2% of the stake and the other holding 0.2%—the former will be able to submit up to 2% of the packets to the block producer, taking priority over the latter. This provides the higher-quality validator with better performance and increased Sybil resistance.

In simple terms, each transaction comes with a weighted source connection. The heavier it is, the more likely your transactions get through. Consequently, the more you have at stake, the higher the quality of service you will receive, and the less likely it is that malicious flooding from lower-quality validators will affect you.

Who does swQoS benefit?

• RPC Operators: RPC operators can acquire or negotiate off-chain deals with staked validators, enabling them to achieve a higher percentage of transactions included in blocks.

• Exchanges: Exchanges benefit from this if they run their own validator and RPC nodes, as they can internally enable this feature to prioritize their transactions.
  

Why is swQoS important?

Referring to the example at the beginning, with swQoS enabled, a validator holding 2% stake will have the right to transmit up to 2% of the packets to the leader. This guarantees that validators with higher stakes receive higher quality of service, preventing lower-quality validators (with less at stake) from maliciously flooding out these transactions, thereby increasing overall Sybil resistance.

Who should enable swQoS?

Stake-weighted QoS should be enabled by validator nodes paired with highly trusted RPC nodes. This is particularly helpful in scenarios where the RPC and validator are running within the same infrastructure, where the trust level is already high. Stake-weighted QoS works best in high-trust configurations and requires the validator and RPC to come to an agreement in advance before enabling the feature.

Conclusion

Stake-weighted Quality of Service refers to the allocation of network resources based on the amount of stake committed by validators or stakers. This means that stakers who contribute more tokens have a greater influence on the network's operations, leading to improved efficiency and reliability for on-chain dApps.

Solayer aims to address these needs by providing a system where developers can focus on their core value propositions without having to rebuild the infrastructure themselves. This involves establishing a security bond infrastructure, creating a base yield layer with configurable parameters, and bringing validator bandwidth prioritization based on stake weights closer to end users.