At Obol Network, we believe in empowering our community by providing them with the tools, knowledge, and recognition they deserve. The credential is designed to provide an on-chain attestation that identifies, acknowledges, and elevates individuals who demonstrate proven experience, knowledge, and commitment within the Distributed Validators domain.
Drawing inspiration from the rich heritage of Ancient Greece, the name "Techne" reflects ideas of art, skill, or craft, representing technical mastery. Today, Techne embodies our vision to empower and uplift individuals who not only showcase technical expertise but also actively contribute to strengthening the staking ecosystem.
Each Obol Techne Credential is a verifiable, non-transferable NFT credential from Obol that proves your knowledge and experience operating Obol DVs. This on-chain attestation can then be used to showcase your experience, whether it’s to the Obol Core Team, other Obol community members, or the broader staking ecosystem. The credentials are defined in different tiers to ensure a progression path towards deeper expertise while offering an accessible entry point.
The goal of the Obol Techne Credential is to give community validators more opportunities to become node operators. Today, many liquid staking protocols and other staking services are looking to build community-focused, permissionless, and more decentralized node operator sets. However, to be considered in those programs, validators must have proven experience and demonstrated ability to run high-performing nodes. The key benefit of the Obol Techne Credential is to give every validator to prove their knowledge and experience with Obol DVs.
<aside> 👏 Recognition: Receive a verifiable non-transferable NFT to prove and showcase your knowledge and experience running distributed validators.
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<aside> 👀 Opportunities: Credentialed individuals will have proven experience running distributed validators, which can be shared to gain a higher likelihood of future inclusion in opportunities such as EtherFi’s Operation Solo Staker and Lido’s SimpleDVT Module.
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The Obol Techne Credential is open to all community members interested in gaining knowledge and experience in running distributed validators.
Our credentialing journey current takes place in waves. Each wave will last around 7 weeks and will consist of a preparation period called Learning Phase, followed by a hands-on experience period, called Experience, during which we will monitor your performance. Before the start of a wave, you will already have the opportunity to build your cluster. Credentials will be awarded at the end of the wave based on a snapshot we will have taken of your average performance during the Practical Experience phase.
Also, we are now introducing the concept of Credential Tiers. Currently, there are three: the Base Credential, the Bronze Credential and the Silver Credential. To be allowed to compete for the Bronze Credential, you must be in a squad / cluster with the leader holding a Base credential.
During each wave of our program, you will have the opportunity to join live training sessions on our Discord. We will teach the basics of Ethereum Proof of Stake, and Distributed Validators (DVs) and we will do demonstrations on how to run your own DV. There will also be a training session that will allow you allow you to ask questions and receive answers directly from our team. Head to Discord to see the full agenda of the current wave.
Also, don’t forget to thoroughly read our comprehensive documentation!