In the first half of 2025, IoTeX recorded one of the highest Nakamoto coefficients among all Layer 1 blockchains — approximately three times greater than Ethereum’s — reflecting a design philosophy rooted in transparency, security, and decentralized participation. As a long-standing leader in DePIN infrastructure, IoTeX has enabled real-world devices to generate and interact with verifiable on-chain data for years, and with the ecosystem now expanding into AI, robotics, and real-world AI (RWAI), the demands on core infrastructure are evolving.
To meet these needs, a series of protocol-level upgrades have been introduced — IIP-50, IIP-51, IIP-52, and IIP-53 — that move IoTeX beyond the limitations of its DPoS-style consensus toward a more scalable, stake-weighted, and inclusive Proof-of-Stake model. These proposals address key challenges in the current design — such as a fixed 24-delegate cap, count-based voting that misaligns with actual stake, and barriers to smaller validators — and together they strengthen governance accuracy, consensus scalability, and validator inclusivity.
Together, these proposals make IoTeX one of the very few chains that are simultaneously high-TPS and CLARITY-Act ready. The CLARITY Act, a proposed U.S. framework emphasizing transparency and accountability in blockchain infrastructure, underscores the broader global shift toward higher standards of trust. Similar to Ethereum’s adoption of slashing and BLS aggregation to scale Proof-of-Stake, IoTeX is advancing consensus to combine stake-weighted accuracy, validator inclusivity, and compliance readiness. By aligning decentralization with transparent governance and verifiable security standards, IoTeX sets a precedent for regulatory-ready infrastructure that can support both enterprises and global-scale AI applications.
Upgrading IoTeX Layer 1: Four Coordinated Proposals
To keep pace with the growing demands of DePIN, AI, and real-world AI (RWAI), IoTeX has introduced a set of protocol upgrades that will be implemented through upcoming hardforks. These proposals — IIP-50, IIP-51, IIP-52, and IIP-53 — are not isolated tweaks but part of a coherent roadmap to strengthen the foundation of IoTeX Layer 1. Together, they aim to:
- Align consensus with true stake-weighted governance
- Improve network efficiency and scalability through signature compression
- Expand validator participation with a dynamic, inclusive model
- Incentivize reliable infrastructure by penalizing underperformance
Each proposal builds on the others, creating a more accurate, resilient, and decentralized consensus engine. In the next sections, we’ll break down these IIPs one by one, explaining both the technical changes and their significance for the future of IoTeX.
IIP-50: Slashing Underperforming Delegates
Reliability at the validator layer is critical for any Proof-of-Stake network. Until now, IoTeX has relied on a probation mechanism that temporarily excludes underperforming delegates from consensus. While effective at removing unreliable nodes, this system lacked direct economic consequences — meaning delegates could repeatedly underperform without risking their staked principal.
IIP-50, which has already been voted on and passed by the community, introduces a slashing mechanism designed to raise infrastructure standards. Delegates who fall below the productivity threshold will see part of their self-stake deducted and redirected into the reward pool. The goal is not to punish, but to ensure that all delegates provide high-reliability, high-performance infrastructure that the IoTeX chain, ecosystem, and community can depend on as usage grows.
This upgrade will:
- Create stronger economic incentives to run and maintain reliable infrastructure
- Protect voters by better aligning delegate and staker interests
- Ensure consensus reflects the efforts of consistently active participants
- Improve overall network reliability and security
With IIP-50 approved, slashing will go live in the upcoming v2.3 hardfork, scheduled for the end of September. This marks an important step toward strengthening accountability at the consensus layer.
With IIP-50 approved, slashing will go live in the upcoming v2.3 hardfork, scheduled for the end of September. This marks an important step in strengthening accountability at the consensus layer.
IIP-51: Stake-Weighted Consensus
Currently, block finality on IoTeX depends on approval from two-thirds of consensus delegates by count, regardless of how much voting power each delegate represents. This has provided stability but doesn’t fully reflect the distribution of stake across the network. In practice, a delegate with 1% of total stake carries the same weight as one with a much higher stake — creating misalignment between governance and consensus.
IIP-51 addresses this by making finality stake-weighted. Instead of requiring two-thirds of delegates, blocks will finalize only when signatures represent at least two-thirds of the total voting power of the active set. This ensures outcomes reflect the true stake distribution across the community.
Even smaller delegates matter in this model: while their voting weight is proportional, their signatures can still be decisive in reaching the two-thirds threshold.
For example, imagine you are a small delegate with 1.2M IOTX staked. Under the old system, you’d likely never break into the top-36 candidates, meaning no chance to participate in block production. With IIP-51, if a block has endorsements representing just under the two-thirds threshold, your 1.2M stake could be the deciding vote that pushes it across the line.
The result is:
- Consensus outcomes that directly reflect token-holder stake distribution
- Increased resistance to collusion by low-stake delegates
- Improved security by making it more costly to manipulate finality
IIP-51 is currently being drafted and will be formally presented to the community for discussion before any implementation.
IIP-52: BLS Signature Aggregation
As the number of consensus delegates grows, each finalized block must include signatures from all participating validators. Today, with 24 delegates, this adds over 1 KB of signatures per block. While manageable now, this overhead limits throughput, slows block propagation, and becomes a bottleneck for scaling. And with IIP-51 introducing stake-weighted consensus, every delegate’s signature matters — making the need to handle more signatures efficiently even more pressing.
IIP-52 proposes to solve this by introducing BLS (Boneh–Lynn–Shacham) signature aggregation. Instead of appending every delegate’s signature individually (~2.3 KB for 24 delegates), all signatures are compressed into a single 96-byte signature plus a lightweight bitmap identifying which delegates signed. This same technique is already used in Ethereum 2.0 for the exact reason: scaling consensus without bloating blocks.
The benefits are direct:
- Smaller Blocks: Block footers shrink from kilobytes to ~0.1 KB.
- Faster Propagation: Leaner blocks move across the network more quickly.
- Scalability: Makes it technically feasible to expand the validator set beyond 24 without sacrificing speed or efficiency.
This upgrade is currently being discussed in the IoTeX community forum. By removing block size constraints, IIP-52 lays the groundwork for future scaling — especially the upcoming IIP-53, which introduces dynamic delegate expansion.
📄 Join the community discussion here
IIP-53: Dynamic Scaling of Delegates
IoTeX’s current consensus design relies on a set of 36 top-ranked delegates, of which 24 are selected to produce blocks in each epoch. This mechanism has provided stability and strong performance for years, but as more validators qualify and the community grows, a fixed ceiling limits decentralization and inclusivity.
IIP-53 proposes a dynamic scaling mechanism that adjusts the number of consensus delegates in increments of 12, up to a planned cap of 144. The active set for each epoch will be drawn from the top-ranked candidates by stake and votes, and will grow step by step (24 → 36 → 48 … → 144) as more qualified validators join. This ensures consensus participation scales in line with community growth rather than remaining fixed.
To preserve stability, the proposal adds an exit queue with a 24-epoch (≈1 day) cooldown before a delegate can leave the set.
Eligibility thresholds (clarified):
- Minimum self-stake: 0.4M IOTX (reduced from 1.2M) to lower the entry barrier while ensuring skin in the game.
- Minimum total votes: ≥ 2M IOTX (self-stake + community votes) to be eligible as a consensus delegate candidate, ensuring community backing.
Together with IIP-51 (stake-weighted finality) and IIP-52 (BLS aggregation), IIP-53 enables the validator layer to expand with community growth while keeping finality fast and block sizes lean.
IIP-53 is still in draft form and will be formally shared with the community for discussion in the coming weeks — but it already represents a major step toward scaling decentralization as IoTeX prepares for the next phase of growth.
Why This Matters
IoTeX has already proven itself one of the most decentralized L1 blockchains. But the next frontier isn’t decentralization for its own sake: it’s about reliability, inclusivity, and scalability.That’s exactly what IIP-50 through IIP-53 deliver. They create real economic consequences for poor performance, broaden the validator set, make consensus more representative of actual stake, and introduce the cryptographic tools needed to scale securely.
Just as important, these upgrades reflect IoTeX’s philosophy: building openly with the community. Each IIP has been shaped, discussed, and voted on by token holders. Together, they represent not just a technical upgrade, but a step toward a more decentralized, reliable, and collaborative future — one where IoTeX Layer 1 is ready to power real-world AI and autonomous systems at global scale.
About IoTeX
IoTeX is the blockchain platform for Real-World AI. Since 2017, its foundational infrastructure has delivered verified, real-time data from the real world to AI systems and decentralized applications. Powering 100+ projects and 40M devices across mobility, robotics, energy, health, and more, IoTeX enables developers to build next-gen AI models and applications that deliver real-world impact. The IoTeX tech stack provides the data, identity, and verification layers to fulfill the surging demand for real-world data in the new AI era. Trusted by partners like Google, Samsung, IEEE, ARM, and Nordic Semiconductor, IoTeX is uniquely positioned to capture the multi-trillion-dollar AI and data economy.
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