This episode was shorter but full of content.

This week’s Midweek with Max was a shorter-than-usual session, but it still packed in plenty of updates and insights. If you missed it, here’s a quick rundown of what went down. Engineering and Node Sale Updates Max provided an update on the engineering front, mentioning that final touches are being added to the mainnet deployment. A major protocol upgrade is in the works, and significant progress has been made in onboarding partners for launch day.

The discussion largely focused on node sale mechanics, including clarifications about the base sequencer fees for Voyager and Pathfinder nodes. The Pathfinders, consisting of 1,100 nodes, will share 10% of base revenue over a four-year activation period, or until they reach twice their original purchase price. The Voyagers will have a one-time return cap and operate under a 24-month schedule. Ongoing efforts are being made to address usability issues and communicate details more clearly. The team also acknowledged challenges with scheduling around Chinese New Year, which impacted partner communications and required a reevaluation of the node sale strategy.

Phil took over to discuss the latest in partnerships and upcoming industry events. The team has been announcing new collaborations at a rapid pace and is preparing for major conferences. Consensus Hong Kong is the first major stop, followed by ETH Denver. Concurrently, on the East Coast, the team will participate in Anthony Pompliano’s Bitcoin Conference. These events all lead up to Bitcoin 2025, which is shaping up to be their largest yet. The business development team is aggressively working on setting up key engagements at these events.

A handful of questions were tackled during the session, with additional queries to be addressed in Friday’s full discussion. No further discounts beyond the current 10-18% tiers will be offered, including for VCs and key opinion leaders. While third-party hosting solutions are being explored, node operators are encouraged to self-host to support decentralization. The initial authorized token supply is 10 billion, with emissions between 3-7% annually to support security and network incentives. A formal update on transparency in tokenomics will be released after the private node sale round but before the public sale begins.