# Pendulum Substrate Number of validators Methodology

## 1. Overview

Number of validators measures the number of active nodes that produce blocks and secure Pendulum Substrate. It reflects the degree of decentralization and resilience of the network by identifying the unique block producers (collators) participating in consensus. This metric is a key indicator of the network's security budget and infrastructure health.

## 2. Data sources

- **Blockchain events**: Block metadata and author identities from Pendulum Substrate
- **External data**: Migration metadata for validator identity adjustments

## 3. Step-by-step calculation

### Component A: Block author identification

- **Purpose**: Identify the unique entities responsible for block production.
- **Logic**: Block headers are parsed to extract the `author_id` for every block produced on the network. This field represents the cryptographic identity of the validator or collator that successfully proposed and finalized the block.
- **Key fields**: `author_id` (validator identification), `block_timestamp` (temporal sequencing).

### Component B: Daily aggregation and migration adjustment

- **Purpose**: Calculate the daily count of active validators while correcting for network upgrades.
- **Logic**: The number of distinct `author_id` values is aggregated per UTC day. A specific adjustment is applied for March 17, 2025, where the raw count of unique authors is divided by two. This correction accounts for a validator address migration that occurred on that date, which would otherwise result in an inflated count due to single entities appearing under two different identities.

### Component C: Metric finalization and continuity

- **Purpose**: Ensure a continuous and formatted time series for reporting.
- **Logic**: The daily validator counts are processed to ensure data types are standardized. A fill-forward strategy is applied to handle any potential gaps in block production data, ensuring the metric reflects the last known state of the validator set. Data is filtered according to the established chain availability and freshness parameters.

*This methodology was automatically generated by Token Terminal's methodology analyzer.*

Number of active validators securing the network.

Number of validators

Blockchains (L1)

Collators aggregate parachain transactions block candidates and producing state transition proofs for validators based on those blocks.

Pendulum is a decentralized blockchain for cross-border payments and traditional finance infrastructure powered by Polkadot Relay chain.

PEN holders own and govern the protocol. Pendulum is a subsidiary of SatoshiPay. SatoshiPay's investors include Blue Star Capital, KR1 plc, Stellar Development Foundation, etc.

Pendulum Substrate

Archived

Number of validators

Number of validators

Chain breakdown