ACP-267: Primary Network Uptime Requirement Increases to 90%

Overview

ACP-267 increases the minimum uptime requirement for Avalanche Primary Network validators from 80% to 90%. Validators that do not maintain at least 90% uptime during their staking period will no longer be eligible for staking rewards.

Uptime is measured as the fraction of a validator's staking period during which it is observed as online by a sufficient number of peers. This is an all-or-nothing threshold: validators either meet the 90% bar and receive their full rewards, or fall below it and receive nothing.

What's Changing

Under the current rules, validators must maintain 80% uptime to earn staking rewards. ACP-267 raises that bar to 90%.

The uptime calculation itself remains the same. Each validator's uptime is tracked as the percentage of its staking duration during which it was responsive to peer queries. What changes is the cutoff: validators previously operating between 80% and 90% uptime will need to improve their availability to continue earning rewards.

For validators already running well above 90%, no action is required. For those closer to the current threshold, this proposal gives advance notice to shore up infrastructure before the change takes effect.

Why It Matters

Validators that are frequently offline introduce latency into the consensus process. When a validator is unreachable, the network must wait longer for responses or route around the missing participant, which slows down block finalization for everyone.

By raising the uptime floor from 80% to 90%, ACP-267 reduces the prevalence of low-availability nodes in the active validator set. This directly improves consensus speed and network reliability across the Primary Network.

The change also strengthens the incentive structure: operators who invest in stable, well-maintained infrastructure are rewarded, while those with unreliable setups face a clearer signal to improve.

How to Prepare

Monitor Your Node

The single most important step is setting up proper monitoring. Avalanche provides a monitoring-installer.sh script that installs a complete monitoring stack in one command:

Prometheus for metrics collection
Grafana for visualization
node_exporter for machine-level metrics
Seven pre-configured dashboards: Main, C-Chain, Database, Machine Metrics, Network, P-Chain, and X-Chain

These dashboards give you real-time visibility into your node's health, including uptime, peer connectivity, block processing, and resource usage. The dashboard source files are available in the avalanche-monitoring repository.

Follow the Monitoring and Alerting tutorial for step-by-step installation instructions.

Set Up Alerting

Monitoring is only useful if you act on it. Configure Grafana alerts for the conditions most likely to cause downtime:

Disk usage approaching capacity
Memory pressure or swap usage
CPU saturation during peak load
Network connectivity drops or high latency to peers

Alerts should notify you through a channel you actively check (email, Slack, PagerDuty) so you can respond before your node goes offline.

Infrastructure Best Practices

Beyond monitoring, consider these operational improvements:

Redundant networking: Use multiple ISPs or cloud availability zones to avoid single points of failure
Planned maintenance windows: Schedule upgrades during low-stake periods and coordinate with your monitoring to track the impact
Hardware headroom: Run with sufficient CPU, memory, and SSD capacity to handle peak loads without degradation
Automated restarts: Configure your node as a system service that automatically restarts after crashes or reboots

Resources

About Avalanche

Avalanche is a high-performance blockchain platform designed for builders who need to scale. Engineered with a revolutionary three-part Layer 1 (L1) architecture, Avalanche is anchored by its Avalanche Consensus Mechanism, ensuring near-instant finality for transactions. The platform also features an open-source Layer 0 (L0) framework, enabling the seamless creation of interoperable Layer 1 blockchains with high throughput on both public and private networks.

Supported by a global community of developers and validators, Avalanche offers a fast, low-cost environment for building the next generation of decentralized applications (dApps). With its unique blend of speed, flexibility, and scalability, Avalanche is the preferred choice for innovators pushing the boundaries of blockchain technology.

Follow @AvaxDevelopers for updates and join our developer community to stay informed about future upgrades and tooling improvements.

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