Recently, @frostledger and I joined the Layer One podcast to discuss the Foundation's research agenda. One interesting topic that came up: Validator pay is a genuinely hard problem, and most chains haven't actually solved it. The real question is a two-sided market problem: what are network users actually willing to pay for validation, and what's the minimum validators need to be willing to provide it? We need some kind of equilibrium mechanism to find that price. There's a second layer to this too. Validation is a public good, validators don't fully capture the benefit of the security they provide, everyone on the network does. Basic economic theory says that means it'll be undersupplied without some kind of subsidy. Still working through the answer, but this is exactly the kind of question our research agenda is built to take on. Not just for Avalanche, probably every proof-of-stake chain out there.