What is Staking?
Since Cumulon is a data-driven staking platform, we'd love to introduce staking first.
Staking is one of the most popular activities in blockchain. When a user stakes their crypto assets, they're essentially pledging those coins to the blockchain to help secure the network. In return for pledging their coins for network security, the user receives a staking reward that is generated from the fees that collators earn from confirming transactions.
Proof of Stake(PoS)
PoS is a set of rules for selecting the validator set and does not specify a chain selection rule or how a chain might reach finality. PoS algorithms have traditionally been paired with an algorithm for coming to Byzantine agreement between nodes.
Round
A specific number of blocks around which staking actions are enforced
Collators
Collator produces blocks and supports block liveness on the network. From there, collators offer up blocks to validators on the relay chain for finalization. Collators maintain parachains by collecting parachain transactions from users and producing state transition proofs for Relay Chain validators. In other words, collators maintain parachains by aggregating parachain transactions into parachain block candidates and producing state transition proofs (Proof-of-Validity, PoV) for validators.
This is similar to the role of miners in Proof of Work networks but, unlike miners, collator nodes do not contribute to the safety of the network and are critical to liveness, decentralization, censorship resistance, and security. Essentially, collators work to produce state transition proofs for validators based on the Polkadot and Kusama relay chains and maintain a full node on both the relay chain and parachain in which they operate.
Delegators
As an ordinary user, staking allows you to earn cryptocurrency as a reward for using your existing holdings to vouch for the accuracy of transactions on an underlying blockchain network, which makes you a delegator.
When a user stakes their crypto assets, they're essentially pledging those coins to the blockchain to help secure the network. In return for pledging their coins for network security, the user receives a staking reward that is generated from the fees that collators earn from confirming transactions.
The specific rewards will depend on the network. It may be helpful to think of crypto staking as similar to depositing cash in a savings account. The depositor earns interest on their money while it’s in the bank, as a reward from the bank, which uses the money for other purposes (lending, etc.). Staking coins is, then, similar to earning interest.
There're several protocals on Cumulon. Each protocals has different mechanisms. For more information, please check docs of each protocal:
Moonbeam/Moonriver: https://docs.moonbeam.network/learn/features/staking/
Turing Network: https://oak-turing.pathrocknetwork.org/
Last updated