Kusama 2022 Parachain Auctions - A Proposal For Next Schedules on Kusama Network

With the last 10 auctions happening on Kusama, the community should think about the next schedules to come for the network to be truth to its goal: being the canary network in the ecosystem.

When thinking about this schedules, there are a few things to take into consideration:

Kusama is working well with a large number of paras, so it seems we can speed up on Polkadot's schedules.
For Kusama, the first batch of 5 parachains will end their leases on LP20. Then the second batch of 6 will end on LP22. Currently we have 5 auctions scheduled per lease. A short term solution is to have 5 auctions for LP21, 6 for LP22 and further: but that is still not going to be a good solution for all chains: meaning we are not going to have more parachains because existing ones will want to renew lease. 6 auctions per lease could be helpful: We will have 4, 5 or 6 for previous parachains to renew, some more for new parachains (adding new parachains doesn't mean one of the existing parachain needs to become a parathread).

All in all, two points need to taken into account for both Kusama and Polkadot:

Always have Kusama move forward faster than Polkadot in auction numbers;
Make sure current parachains have an opportunity to renew the slot.

Below you will find the current schedule and a proposed one to follow - take into account that dates and times are expressed in UTC.

Current Schedule, enacted by motion 384:

10 auctions scheduled are left:

5 to be held during LP19, onboarding on LP20 (Start: 20 Feb 2022)

20 Feb 2022 - block #11,491,800
28 Feb 2022 - block #11,592,600
07 Mar 2022 - block #11,693,400
14 Mar 2022 - block #11,794,200
21 Mar 2022 - block #11,895,000

5 to be held during LP20, onboarding on LP21 (04 April 2022)

04 April 2022 - block #12,096,600
11 April 2022 - block #12,197,400
19 April 2022 - block #12,298,200
26 April 2022 - block #12,399,000
03 May 2022 - block #12,499,800

Leases are 48 weeks long.

Proposed schedule for Kusama:

In order to allow existing parachains to renew while new chains onboard, the first step is to replace the last 5 auctions scheduled for LP21 and replace them with the following schedule:

By replacing the current schedule for LP20 for the one above, we ensure that those parachains ending their lease on LP20 can participate in a new auction to onboard on LP21, and add two more auctions for new parachains that want to participate.

Kusama Target for the new schedule:

30 new auctions by the end of the year - dates approx:

1st Batch:

2nd Batch:

3rd Batch:

4th Batch:

5th Batch:

Auction design:

Duration: 27,000 blocks (45hs, 3hs overall - time for the winner to be picked).
lease_period_index: LP22, LP23, LP24, LP25, LP26.
threshold: 13 / 19 council (greater than 2/3)
Ending period: will be an additional 5 days (this is hardcoded on-chain)

Considerations:

Auctions of 7 days long each;
Chains onboarding on the next LP (ensuring full period for projects) with the expectation of the first 3 auctions per lease, this will allow having at least 3 previous parachain to renew and some more for new parachains;
This would cover 6 auctions per LP.

Call Design

utility.batch(
    calls: [
        // First, we need to cancel the set of auctions for LP21. We'll replace
        // them with a new schedule.
        scheduler.cancel_named(
            id: 'Auctlp21'
        ),
        // First 5 auctions, for LP21. during LP 20.
        // LP21 starts on block 12,700,800, estimated 15 May 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            // Auction ID
            id: 'auctlp21',
            // Start block of first scheduled auction
            when: 12_197_400,
            // How often to start auctions, and how many of this config to hold
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 5),
            // Top priority
            priority: 0,
            // The auction configuration
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                // Opening period of 27,000 blocks
                duration: 27_000,
                // The first (of 8) lease periods for bidding
                lease_period_index: 21
            )
        ),
        // 3 more auctions for LP21. during LP 21.
        // LP21 starts on block 12,700,800, estimated 15 May 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp21r2',
            when: 12_701_100,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 3),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 21
            )
        ),
        // Now for our regularly scheduled programming...
        ///
        // 6 auctions for LP22
        // LP22 starts on block 13,305,600, estimated 26 Jun 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp22',
            when: 13_003_500,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 22
            )
        ),
        // 6 auctions for LP23
        // LP23 starts on block 13,910,400, estimated 07 Aug 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp23',
            when: 13_608_300,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 23
            )
        ),
        // 6 auctions for LP24
        // LP24 starts on block 14,515,200, estimated 18 Sep 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp24',
            when: 14_213_100,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 24
            )
        ),
        // 6 auctions for LP25
        // LP25 starts on block 15,120,000, estimated 30 Oct 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp25',
            when: 14_817_900,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 25
            )
        ),
        // 6 auctions for LP26
        // LP26 starts on block 15,724,800, estimated 11 Dec 2022
        scheduler.schedule_named(
            id: 'auctlp26',
            when: 15_422_700,
            maybe_periodic: (100_800, 6),
            priority: 0,
            call: auctions.new_auction(
                duration: 27_000,
                lease_period_index: 26
            )
        ),
    ]
)

We ask the community to leave feedback and ask questions on the schedule above!