Ankr Proposes to Join Canton as a Super Validator With a Milestone-Based Weight of Up to 6
A draft CIP from the node infrastructure provider would earn weight in four stages, from running nodes to an "Ankr Forge" rewards campaign and white-label RPC support. It has not been voted on.
Ankr, a provider of blockchain node infrastructure, has proposed becoming a Super Validator (SV) on the Canton Network. A draft Canton Improvement Proposal was opened as a pull request in the Canton Foundation's CIP repository on 24 September 2026. It asks for a maximum SV weight of 6, earned through milestones. The pull request says the draft was also sent to the cip-discuss mailing list for community review. It has no CIP number yet and has not been voted on.
What Ankr is offering
The draft, dated 22 September and written by Ana Cruz and Reanna Garbutt, describes Ankr as an institutional infrastructure provider for node-as-a-service and staking. According to the draft, Ankr:
- has operated validators since 2017 on more than 15 networks, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Polygon and Sui;
- runs 50 or more nodes worldwide on dedicated bare-metal infrastructure, in the US and Europe;
- is audited annually under SOC 2 and offers a standard 99.9% uptime commitment.
It says Ankr would run a participant node together with a sequencer for the Global Synchronizer, and that its clients across more than 63 chains could bring new activity to Canton.
How the weight would be earned
Weight would accrue to escrow, in line with other recent SV approvals, and be released as an Accountability Committee confirms each milestone:
| Milestone | Weight |
|---|
| Sync TestNet and MainNet nodes, then one month under Ankr's SLA | 2 |
| Two months of validator operation with an agreed throughput target | 2 |
| An "Ankr Forge" campaign with a rewards programme to drive on-chain activity | 1 |
| White-label RPC infrastructure for part of Canton's traffic | 1 |
The draft itself notes that the throughput target and the RPC terms are still placeholders to be agreed with the Canton team. It plans TestNet deployment within five business days of approval, which requires a two-thirds supermajority vote.
Where it fits
September brought a wave of approved Super Validators with weights held in escrow, including a16z crypto, Paxos, Marex, TreasurySpring, Shinhan Asset Management and LSEG. CCView counted 43 Super Validators at the end of September. Part of Ankr's proposed weight is tied to a user rewards campaign, alongside its infrastructure milestones.
Why it matters
Super Validators run the Global Synchronizer and receive a share of each round's CC issuance, so every new seat changes how rewards are distributed. Ankr would add an operator focused on node infrastructure. Its campaign milestone is the part most likely to draw debate, as it would reward activity generated through a points programme. Any approval still depends on discussion and an SV vote.
