Staking and Delegating

The Smart AI Network is a proof-of-stake network. This means that the voting power of an entity in the network is determined by the amount of tokens staked to that entity. For example, this amount determines, how frequent the validator will be elected to propose a new block. Each epoch, the staking reward is distributed among the validators based on the amount of staked tokens. You can check out the current staking rewards in the Token metrics chapter.

But it's not just the validators that can stake. You can delegate your tokens to a validator and earn passive income, when the validator receives the staking reward. Of course, the validator may take their cut (the commission fee) for running the validator node hardware, but in essence staking improves the security of the network because paying the commission fee rewards good validators and expels the malicious ones. Keep in mind that the validator's misbehavior will result in slashing or even losing a portion of the staked tokens!

When you undelegate your tokens, you will need to wait the debonding period to pass in which you will not earn any rewards. Currently, this period is 336 epochs (~14 days).

How to Delegate?​

Staking can only be performed on the consensus layer. Currently, the Smart AI Wallet - Web and the Browser extension require that you delegate your tokens explicitly from your consensus account. The Smart AI CLI and some dApps running in ParaTimes also allow you to implicitly delegate tokens from your ParaTime account.

Check out the current validator set, their escrow of staked tokens, the commission rate, and the availability in the Smart AI Scan explorer.