Delegates

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Delegates
What is a delegate?
As a general definition, a delegate is a person selected by a group of people to represent them in a governing organization. Delegates are used to funnel the decision-making process of a large group to a smaller subset of representatives. This has benefits and drawbacks, some of which are described below.
In the case of the ICON network, a delegate can be and often is a group of people representing an organization. For example, the ICON Foundation itself runs for delegate status so that it can vote directly on decisions regarding the current and future status of the network.
Benefits
It is often simpler to come to an agreement within a smaller group, because they can communicate more directly with a larger portion of the group
It is computationally more efficient to take a poll of a smaller group
By funnelling decisions from a large group into a smaller group, community members with a smaller stake may be able to directly communicate with a delegate to gain a larger voice 
Drawbacks
It is difficult to represent every party's opinions when delegates are used
Alternative methods, such as sharding, can eclipse the computational efficiency of delegated systems by taking a poll of small groups and also having a larger overall bandwidth
How are delegates incentivized and penalized?
ICON Network delegates are subject to the system of Rewards & Penalties for a balanced and fair group of delegates. This ruleset is voted upon by the delegates themselves.
Additionally, the delegates are voted upon by the general ICON community members. In this way, delegates are held accountable for their actions under the penalty of being voted out of their position.
Who should become a delegate?
The major prerequisite to becoming a delegate in the ICON network is that delegates are required to run a Validator node. These nodes should be highly-available and reliable, and as such they may be prohibitively costly for certain groups or individuals to run. One efficient way to run a validator node would be to split the cost among a group of people and structure that group such that all members are given a portion of the decision-making power.
That being said, anyone may nominate themselves to be a delegate. A delegate should generally follow a set of guidelines that will lead to the healthy growth of the ICON ecosystem, for example:
Promote good communication practices and overall conduct. See the ICON Forum Contributor Covenant for an example
Have a reliable way to manage a Validator node. See here for an intro to cloud computing
Engage with both the ICON community and the general cryptocurrency community for topics and causes that interest you, including business development or open-source idealogies
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What is a delegate?
How are delegates incentivized and penalized?
Who should become a delegate?