Add nine Lisbon operators to the validator set

Who the operators are

Two hosting companies, a university lab and six independent operators, all trained at the foundation’s validator workshops in Lisbon this year. Each has run a testnet node above 99% uptime for at least four months. The author lives in Lisbon and has no stake in any of them.

Why delegation, not money

A validator needs at least 50,000 ORL at stake, and few small operators can buy that much. The foundation already stakes part of the treasury, so this moves 450,000 ORL of that stake to new hands instead of paying anyone. Portugal goes from 6 validators to 15 of 193, well under the 10% limit for one country.

Why execution waits

Each operator first runs a 21-day trial on mainnet as a full node, from 11 Nov to 1 Dec. Because the trial runs past the usual 14 days, the proposal sets its own execution date of 2 Dec. Any operator below 99% uptime during the trial is dropped from the list.