A̷lgo Update

If you think $SUI is decentralized and permissionless, you have brain rot. To run a SUI validator, you must have at least 30M SUI. That is like saying “Anyone can run a node if they have $100M”. This is a farce that uses money and math as the gatekeeper while pretending to be “permissionless”. But, it’s even worse than that. Aside from the SUI foundation, and maybe a couple VC backers and exchanges, there is nobody with the practical ability to run a SUI validator because of how much 30M SUI is relative to circulating supply. Those claimed 108 validators are not 108 different entities. It’s a very very very small group de facto controlled by the SUI Foundation. In fact, it’s mathematically *impossible* for it to be the otherwise. Circulating supply is ~2.85B. Even if 100% of that was staked and controlled by validators each of whom had *no more and no less* than the 30M min, that would give you a max number of 95 validators. That of course is an absurd assumption, for obvious reasons. The reality is that SUI foundation runs the vast majority of those validators. That is shown by the fact that 7.82B SUI is staked even though only 2.85B is circulating. So, just from pure math it’s evident that most of those the SUI staked must be from uncirculating supply. But, if you can math, you’ll notice that the 7.82B staked is just 670M above the 7.15B held in uncirculated supply. And, it makes little sense for huge amount uncirculating supply (but *not all of it*) to be so committed. Thus, it’s a fair bet that most or all of the staked SUI (~7B) comes from that uncirculating supply while only a small fraction (~700M) is from circulation. Again, even if you make the crazy assumption that this is all in validators who (1) are all distinct entities and (2) hold *no more and no less* than the 30M minimum, that gets you a maximum of 23 independently operating validators. There reality is that there is likely only a couple entities actually holding enough from circulating supply to run a validator. The rest are the SUI Foundation itself or hand-selected third parties to which the SUI Foundation delegates. Permissionless and decentralized indeed!

Incorrect. You can run a node with as little as 1 Algo. What you are thinking of is the additional opt-in for incentivized consensus. You can run a validator on Algo without being in that incentive scheme. This is an important point when it comes to decentralization and permissionlessness. Moreover, there’s a some important points even beyond that. Firstly, the 30k Algo minimum for the incentives structure is a way to ensure network health. We do not have lockups/epochs or slashing. So we need a way to monitor and disincentivize nodes that aren’t healthy (by booting them from the incentives). But to do this you need to be able to act with statistical significance, and this means that you need nodes to be of a certain size stake to measure actual vs expected voting behavior. Secondly, this was put in place as a conservative measure as we roll out the staking rewards. If as stake gets distributed and the program matures it is shown that a lesser amount is sufficient, we can always lower that parameter. But, when making big changes it’s best to be conservative. Third, think about it from the perspective of network share. Algo and SUI have the same total supply. SUI’s minimum stake is 1000X higher though. This is even worse when you compare their circulating supply