A combination of Masternode and Validator in the Nuls Ecosystem. Agent Nodes require a certain collateral like masternodes, but they can also receive delegations from Users.

The lending/borrowing interest rate for a whole year.

The annualized staking yield is the estimated annual rate of return from staking, taking into account the effect of compounding interest.

Native token of the Cosmos Network. The Validators of the Zones (See Cosmos Zones) must become a part of the Hub (see Cosmos Hub) by staking Atom coins. If the Zone acts maliciously, then their staked Atom gets slashed.

A consensus mechanism with a probabilistic safety guarantee. Every newly proposed block is broadcasted to a number of nodes, at random, and the question is posed to determine which blocks should be considered valid. The nodes then indicate their preference. Using the responses from the sample group will allow the insight to see which version the network is leaning towards before confirming and broadcasting produced blocks.

The term used for “Validators” in the Tezos Ecosystem.

The term used for producing new blocks in the Tezos Ecosystem.

A mechanism to operate a decentralised casino, where stakers provide their funds for casino bankroll funding. It usually has a certain lock up period and is very similar to cold staking.

The term used for “Validators” in the EOS Ecosystem.

Terminology used for the “Block Reward” in the IRISnet project.

Block Rewards that are not intrinsically generated through inflation of the network, but rather through additionally granted reward pools that are initially set up by the foundation to bootstrap the network with higher incentives for validators.

The newly issued coins or tokens that are assigned by the blockchain network to eligible cryptocurrency miners or validators for each successfully mined or produced block.

Reduction of block rewards, effectively decreasing the inflation rate.

The time between two blocks of the validated chain.

A key concept in PoS networks like Cosmos Network is “Bonding” which can be translated as building up a strong “binding” relationship with a PoS network. Cosmos Network is currently utilizing Bonded Proof of Stake (bPoS).

Expressing commitment to the network by locking a defined amount of network token for a certain timeframe. This means signalling the network that you are a trustworthy network actor and accept the rules and regulations of the network.

Receiving liquidity by collateralizing digital assets. Fees are paid to the lender.

The token symbol for Bitcoin. The most valued and adopted cryptocurrency to date.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance is the characteristic which defines a system that tolerates the class of failures that belong to the Byzantine Generals’ Problem. Byzantine Fault Tolerance has been needed in airplane engine systems, nuclear power plants and pretty much any system whose actions depend on the results of a large amount of sensors. Proof-of-Work in Bitcoin is a probabilistic solution to the Byzantine Generals Problem (please refer to Byzantine Generals Problem) with newer approaches like Proof-of-Stake to achieve BFT gaining adoption.

Funds are sent to a smart contract. The contract keeps the funds locked for a certain time, until they can be withdrawn. Rewards are automatically assigned at the end of each cycle.

Please refer to “development subsidy”

The compound return is the rate of return, usually expressed as a percentage, that represents the cumulative effect that a series of gains or losses has on an original amount of capital over a period of time. Compound return is viewed as a much more accurate measure of performance of an investment’s return over time than the average return.

Annual staking yield taking compounding into account. In the ideal scenario this is when the staking rewards are being used as a stake for future rewards. In some cases (Cosmos), the rewards have to be re-delegated manually. Tools for automated redelegation are in development.

One of the leading blockchain interoperability protocols. Powered by Tendermint and Cosmos SDK and enables asset and application-specific blockchain (Cosmos Zones) interoperability. Provides sovereignty to the Zones.

A profit share or reward regularly paid to holders of a digital asset (e.g. security token).

A Block Validator who accepts delegations from users. The term is used in the Ark/Lisk/Shift Ecosystem.

Similar to dPoS, every token holder can vote for individuals to be in charge of securing the network. Within the highest ranked individuals (nodes) a new “Speaker” is randomly chosen every few seconds to create a new block. The speaker then broadcasts his version of the blockchain with the new block. If 66% of the other elected individuals agree with the information, consensus is achieved.

dPoS is a system in which a fixed number of elected entities (called block producers or witnesses) are selected to create blocks in a round-robin order. Block producers are voted into power by the users of the network, who each get a number of votes proportional to the number of tokens they own on the network (their stake).

Activity performed by the Delegator, assigning tokens to a Validator of choice.

Delegators are token holders who cannot, or do not want to run a validator themselves. Token holders can delegate tokens to a validator and obtain a part of their revenue in exchange. Because they share revenue with their validators, delegators also share risks. Should a validator misbehave, each of their delegators will be partially slashed in proportion to their delegated stake. This is why delegators should perform due diligence on validators before delegating, as well as spreading their stake over multiple validators.

Delegators play a critical role in the system, as they are responsible for choosing validators. Being a delegator is not a passive role: Delegators should actively monitor the actions of their validators and participate in governance (if supported).

A certain percentage of the block reward that is reserved for the development team to fund operations.

A profit share or reward regularly paid to holders of a stock or digital asset.

The Interest Rate by holding dividend-bearing assets.

Native token of the Polkadot blockchain. Their role is staking, bonding in order to add parachains and protocol governance.

The actual return gained through staking rewards after 1 year.

The reward for endorsing a block on the tezos blockchain.

The Validators showing of public approval and support for a certain block (term used in Tezos only)

The total balance of funds that participate in the consensus of the network via staking, masternodes, delegating or voting.

A token symbol for Ether, native token of Ethereum public blockchain. Ether is also used by application developers to pay for transaction fees and services on the Ethereum network as well as users to interact with EVM Dapps.

All transaction fees spent in 24h on a blockchain network. For this metric we exclude all Coinbase transactions.

The term used for Staking in the Ardor, Nxt and Metahash Ecosystem.

Generalized mining is defined as “any supply-side service provided by a third party to a decentralized network in exchange for compensation allocated by the network” according to Jake Brukhman. It’s a new way of combining crypto investing and mining as many protocols move towards staking-based consensus mechanisms.

The term used for “Validators” in the Waves Ecosystem.

Total market capitalization of all crypto-assets.

The infrastructure cost for running a node or actings as a Staking Provider.

Harvesting is very similar to staking. But it not only considers the Coin Weight, but also the Importance to determine who harvests the next block.

The process of providing disk space to a decentralized storage network.

A Masternode in the Bismuth Network.

Incentive design is a process of designing the system and various rewards within it so that the malicious actions, or the ones harming the other actors are disincentivized, while the positive actions are incentivized. In blockchains, the main means of incentivisation is a token, and practical science of incentive design is called cryptoeconomics. Actors within the system earn tokens for e.g. maintaining the network and are losing some if they act in malicious ways. (see Slashing).

Earnings generated via network inflation to the governing parties

Interest is essentially a rental or leasing charge to the borrower for the use of an asset on an annual basis expressed as a percentage of the principal.

Workers who maintain blockchain networks. While operating working nodes, they provide anything beyond stake validation to the network. They could provide data, computational power, file storage or governance.

The terminology used for “Liquid Proof of Stake” in the Waves Ecosystem.

The terminology used for delegating in the Waves Ecosystem.

Providing liquidity in the form of digital assets to other people in exchange for a lending fee.

Token holders can transfer (“delegate”) validation/staking rights to other token holders without transferring ownership, which is defined as Liquid Proof-of-Stake. LPOS aims to maintain a dynamic validator set, facilitating token holder coordination and accountable governance.

The total balance of funds that is collateralized by Validators or Masternodes.

The value of circulating tokens that are currently participating in the consensus via staking, delegating or voting.

A Blockchain Full Node that stores an entire copy of the token ́s ledger in real time, to provide block validation services as well as additional extra features such as instant transactions, confidential transactions or other. A Crypto Masternode requires a certain amount of funds collateralized in the node to show commitment and availability.

The annual interest percentage a single masternode generates for its owner.

The process of new coins being created via staking. (In the PeerCoin Ecosystem minting is also referred to as staking in general.)

Oracles are trusted data providers. They provide data to a blockchain interface and earn rewards in return. The data is accepted and seen as legitimate as long most of the other Oracles provide the same data.

It is the first blockchain protocol based on proof of stake with rigorous security guarantees which powers the Cardano Blockchain. 

Passive income is the money being earned regularly with little or no effort on the part of the person receiving it. Staking rewards earned without running a node via voting or delegating can thus be considered a form of passive income.

One of the leading blockchain interoperability protocols. Main difference from Cosmos is that it enables asset AND smart contract interoperability. Unlike Cosmos it takes some of the parachains/zones sovereignty away.

Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (pBFT) aims to improve upon original BFT consensus mechanisms and has been implemented and enhanced in several modern distributed computer systems, including some popular blockchain platforms.

For the pBFT model to work, the assumption is that the amount of malicious nodes in the network cannot simultaneously equal or exceed 1/3 of the overall nodes in the system in a given window of vulnerability. One of the primary advantages of the pBFT model is its ability to provide transaction finality without the need for confirmations like in Proof-of-Work models (deterministic instead of probabilistic).

Please refer to Validator.

The term used for “staking” in the EOS Ecosystem.

Proof-of-Believability is a consensus algorithm developed by IOST, which enables higher transaction throughput speeds while ensuring nodes stay compliant, using factors including IOST token balance, reputation-based token balance, network contributions and user behaviors.

A sustainable alternative to PoW where an eXercise is a real world matrix-based scientific computation problem.

With the consensus algorithm of the NEM Blockchain every account is assigned with an importance score. To be eligible for harvesting blocks you need to have at least 10,000 XEM. Additional importance, which is gained via interactions with the network, increases the chance for successful harvesting.

Proof of Stake (PoS) is a class of consensus algorithms that depend on a validator’s economic stake in the network. In PoS-based cryptocurrencies the creator of the next block is chosen via various combinations of random selection and wealth or age (i.e., the stake). Unlike Proof of Work, the probability of creating a block and thus getting block reward is not “security comes from burning energy”, but rather “security comes from putting up economic value-at-loss”.

In PoSv3 everybody can be a staker and there is no minimum to participate. It was introduced by Pavel Vasin and first implemented in the Blackcoin Project. It is the latest iteration for UTXO-based Proof of Stake Chains. The biggest implementation today is in the Qtum Project.

The consensus algorithm of the Reddcoin Blockchain uses a coin-aging function. The longer you are holding your coins in the wallet, the higher is your chance to receive a reward. This function is linear in the first 7 days and logarithmic after. While you have a very good chance to find a block if you just close your wallet and open it after a long time, the overall reward is still higher, if you keep your wallet online and running.

In Proof-of-Work the consensus algorithm rewards miners who solve mathematical problems with the goal of validating transactions and creating new blocks. Bitcoin is the first and most prominent example of a PoW protocol using the SHA256 algorithm. With PoW the probability of mining a block and thus getting block reward is a function of relative hash power in the network, share of given miner’s hash rate in total network hash rate.

The number of staking coins required to get a reward at least once a year.

Oracles are reporting certain data and events to the network.

The number of coins required to be eligible and start staking.

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. ROI tries to directly measure the amount of return on a particular investment, relative to the investment’s cost. To calculate ROI, the benefit (or return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment. The result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio.

A Masternode (Staking Type) in the Horizen Network. 

An active Validator in the IOST Network.

A Masternode in the SmartCash Network.

The delegation process of staking power in the Ontology Network.

The total balance of funds that is directly or indirectly currently staking. 

Staking in decentralized crypto networks is seen as the exposition of native digital assets to a risk/reward scenario. 

Effectively it is the process of creating new blocks and validating transactions, similar to “mining” in Proof of Work.

Please refer to Staking Reward.

Many Proof of Stake Networks have specific requirements for the number of tokens required to become a validator and/or be eligible for staking. Pooling funds together with other investors for staking is similar to the concept of pooling hashing power in mining pools. Investors can so stake amounts even under the minimum requirements and achieve a higher reward frequency. Validators who accept delegations/votes can be seen as Staking Pools.

An entity maintaining the necessary staking infrastructure (e.g. Validator), offering token holders to stake with it and taking a fee for that in order to pay for the infrastructure.

Returns on staking activity (see Staking Yield)

Earnings generated via staking.

The Staking Score is a metric that Stakingrewards.com has developed to benchmark staking assets. It is considering the ease of Staking, Risk and Reward Rates.

Staking Services are Validators who accept delegations or votes from users.

The additional rewards generated through these user commitments are usually shared after deducting a certain fee.

Percentage of annualized earnings generated via staking or delegating.

An active Validator in the Tron Network with at least the 27th most votes.

A Masternode (Staking Type) in the Horizen Network.

Tendermint is a low-level protocol comprised of two main pieces: a blockchain consensus engine and a generic application interface. Tendermint Core, the blockchain consensus engine, facilitates the peer-to-peer network and provides a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. The Application BlockChain Interface (ABCI), on the other hand, acts as a tool for blockchains to link onto the Tendermint Core protocol.

The purpose of Tendermint is to be a blockchain engine. It’s meant to be a tool that developers can use to skip the nasty and technical cryptography and jump into the higher level blockchain and application development.

The return including price appreciation as well as staking rewards.

The value of coins or tokens that are in any way participating in the consensus or are otherwise collateralized. Usually nominated in USD.

The “Keepers” of the Livepeer Network, who also take input video streams and convert them into many different formats in a timely manner for low latency distribution.

Processing, confirming and writing transactions into a new block.

A Node in charge of processing, confirming and writing transactions into a new block.

The total number of coins that have used the voting right to indicate preference for a Blockchain Keeper or Validator.

Voting is either referred to as delegating, where validators are voted/elected to utilize staking and governance rights. Or voting describes the process of participating in the protocol on-chain governance. Various proposals can be submitted and based on the voting outcome can be accepted or rejected. Each coin of a blockchain protocol has the same voting power.

A Validator in the Decred Network, who accepts votes/delegations from users.

Percentage of annualized earnings generated via voting only.

Validators in the Bitshares Network are called Witnesses.