Darknode operator must lose profit for 2 epochs even if the darknode is serving the network for a year or more.
Assuming the monthly income is fixed at $1,000 per epoch:
If 100k REN locked for 6 epochs the total profit will be $4000 instead of $6,000 (-33.33%)
If 100k REN locked for 12 epochs the total profit will be $10,000 instead of $12,000 (-16.66%)
If 100k REN locked for 24 epochs the total profit will be $22,000 instead of $24,000 (-8.33%)
Not considering the increases in the network income in the long term.
What is the reason to enforce REN holder to pay penalty after serving the network for while?
How this could incentivize more DN registrations?
As long as the bonded REN is locked, the profit should be counted (my opinion).
Epoch times will be changed to be much shorter (24 hours instead of 28 days), and this also means deregistration times will change (not decided what this initial value will be).
But the deregistration penalty is intentional anyway. It’s an incentive to keep nodes registered. Also while deregistering, nodes aren’t part of the network anymore, so they shouldn’t be earning rewards. The lockup is to have a recourse if the node was malicious.
If deregistrants are to be penalised for uncoupling their DN from the VPS and the REN eco-system, maybe the fees that they lose from the locked DN that is still operational could go to the community fund.