How to Delegate $KYVE to Further Secure the Network

Did you know, you don’t have to run your own node on KYVE to earn rewards? By delegating your $KYVE to a node, you can earn rewards while also helping secure the overall network!

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Let’s get a refresher on what delegation is:

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In an ideal world, everyone would be able to run their own node, leading to a very secure, decentralized network with millions of nodes. However, in the real world, this leads to many technological issues since each node generates traffic, leading to the chain slowing down and eventually halting if there are too many.

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In PoW, you are securing the network with external capital in the form of hardware, while in PoS, you are providing security by locking internal capital in the form of tokens.

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With KYVE being DPoS, we can take advantage of this and allow people to delegate their tokens. Delegating is a form of staking which does not require you to run your own node.

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Instead, you provide stake as network security to a node and generate rewards. Doing so allows KYVE to get the best of both worlds where there are not an overwhelming amount of nodes but still high network security.

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On KYVE, you can delegate to both protocol and chain nodes, allowing you to have multiple ways of earning rewards for your delegated $KYVE.

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Now that you’re up to speed, let’s learn how to delegate! →

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How to Delegate to a Protocol Validator

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One way to delegate your $KYVE and earn rewards is to delegate to a protocol validator* on KYVE.

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Protocol validators are in charge of fetching, uploading, and validating the data requested per data pool.

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→ In order to delegate to a validator, you can visit the KYVE App’s Validator page in order to look through the different protocol validators you could delegate to.

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When selecting a validator, you’ll be taken to their profile where you can see their user metrics, for example, their slashing history, rewards-score, and others. This can help you see if they are a reliable and successful validator or not.

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Making sure you delegate to a stable and successful validator is very important in order to maximize your rewards. This is important seeing that if a validator gets slashed, you as a delegator will also get slashed.

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→ From there, you can delegate to the validator directly via their profile page. Or, you can visit a data pool and see which validators are within the pools and delegate to them.

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Once you have delegated, you will be able to follow along your rewards on your personal user profile.

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****Please note:** Always DYOR, this does not constitute any sort of legal, tax, investment, or any other advice.

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How to Delegate to a Consensus Validator

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To delegate to a consensus validator, we recommend using the explorer and the built-in process in the Staking-Tab for easy delegation. Note: The KYVE team does not manage this process; treat it as your responsibility.

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The other option is to delegate to a consensus validator*.

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KYVE’s consensus validators are in charge of securing the KYVE blockchain. They handle all of the transactions as well as keeping track of the valid bundles of data.

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In order to delegate to a consensus validator, we recommend using the explorer and built-in process in the Staking-Tab for easy delegation.

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When delegating on Korellia, KYVE’s devnet, you can visit the KYVE devnet explorer.

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When delegating on Kaon, KYVE’s official testnet, you can visit KYVE testnet explorer.

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When delegating on KYVE mainnet, you can visit the KYVE mainnet explorer.

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*Please note that both do not generate real $KYVE rewards. You must wait until KYVE mainnet is live in order to delegate real $KYVE.

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Now, it is very important to review a consensus validator before delegating to them, because if they misbehave and get slashed, so will you! And in this case, the KYVE team does not manage the chain delegation process, therefore, it’s your responsibility.

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Conclusion & Resources

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Congratulations! You made it through the KYVE Delegation course! You are now a pro when it comes to understanding delegation on the KYVE blockchain!

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Want to go deeper into the technology of KYVE? Feel free to check these resources:

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- Visit the KYVE App or KYVE’s testnet Kaon explorer to start delegating!
- Find KYVE token resources via CoinMarketCap.
- Learn more about delegation on KYVE Docs.
- Run into any terms marked with * that you’re not aware of? Visit the KYVE Glossary to learn what they mean!

As always, DYOR, this course does not constitute any sort of legal, tax, investment, or any other advice.