Staking & Nomination

Token holders can earn rewards by nominating validators to share in their block rewards, or staking for governance to earn real yield from network fees.

By participating in staking, you help secure the economic foundation that enables multichain AI agents to operate reliably across multiple blockchains.

Participation Options

Role	Minimum	What You Earn	How
Nominator	100 $ON	12-20% APR	Back validators, share their rewards
Pool Member	1 $ON	10-18% APR	Join nomination pool
Staker	Any amount	14.7% of user fees	Stake for governance, earn real yield

Want to run a validator? See Validators Guide for technical requirements (10,000 $ON stake, enterprise hardware, 15-25% APR)

Nominators

Back validators with your tokens and earn a share of their block rewards.

What You Get:

• 12-20% APR from validator rewards
• No infrastructure required
• Can nominate up to 16 validators
• Proportional rewards minus commission

What You Risk:

• Share in validator slashing penalties if they misbehave
• Requires active validator monitoring

Minimum: 100 $ON

Nomination Pools

Pool your tokens with others to nominate validators with as little as 1 $ON.

Benefits:

• Lower barrier (1 $ON vs 100$ON)
• Pool operator handles validator selection
• Auto-compounding available
• 10-18% APR

Trade-offs:

• Less control over validator selection
• Additional pool operator commission

Stakers (Governance + Real Yield)

Stake tokens for governance voting and earn passive income from network fees.

What You Earn:

• 14.7% of all user fees - Non-inflationary real yield
• Governance power - Vote on protocol upgrades and treasury
• Conviction multipliers - Lock longer for up to 6x voting power

How It Works:

• No minimum stake required
• Earn proportional to your stake
• Rewards come from actual network usage, not inflation

→ Learn more about Real Yield

How to Participate

Option 1: Nominate Validators (100+ $ON)

Earn by backing validators who produce blocks and secure the network.

Setup:

1. Bond your tokens (lock them for nomination)
2. Select up to 16 validators to nominate
3. Set reward destination (auto-compound or withdraw)
4. Submit nomination transaction

Reward Destination:

• Auto-compound: Maximize returns by reinvesting
• Stash account: Maintain liquidity
• Controller account: Separate reward account

Option 2: Join Nomination Pool (1+ $ON)

Lower barrier entry to validator nomination rewards.

Setup:

1. Browse available pools
2. Review pool performance and commission
3. Join pool with your tokens
4. Earn rewards automatically

Option 3: Stake for Governance (Any Amount)

Earn real yield from network fees and participate in governance.

Setup:

1. Lock tokens for governance voting
2. Choose conviction period (longer = more voting power)
3. Automatically earn 14.7% of all network user fees
4. Vote on proposals and treasury spending

Conviction Multipliers:

Lock Period	Voting Power Multiplier	Real Yield Earned
None	1x	14.7% of fees × 1x
8 days	2x	14.7% of fees × 2x
16 days	3x	14.7% of fees × 3x
32 days	6x	14.7% of fees × 6x

Understanding Rewards

Two Revenue Streams

Orbinum has two separate reward systems:

1. Nomination Rewards (Validators + Nominators)

Source	Amount	Who Gets It
Block Emissions	20% of total	Validators → Nominators (after commission)
Transaction Fees	Variable	Block producers → Nominators (after commission)
Quality Evaluation	17.64% of user fees	Permit validators → Nominators (after commission)

Expected APR: 12-20% for nominators, 15-25% for validators

2. Staking Rewards (Governance Participants)

Source	Amount	Who Gets It
User Fees	14.7% of all fees	All stakers proportionally

Expected APR: Variable, grows with network usage (non-inflationary)

Nominator Reward Example

Scenario:

• You nominate: 1,000 $ON
• Validator total stake: 200,000 $ON
• Era rewards: 1,000 $ON
• Validator commission: 10%

Your Earnings:

1. Validator commission: 1,000 × 10% = 100 $ON
2. Remaining for nominators: 900 $ON
3. Your share: (1,000 / 200,000) × 900 = 4.5 $ON per era

Annual: 4.5 × 365 ≈ 1,640 $ON (~164% APR)

Note: High APR in early network phase with low total stake. Returns normalize as network matures.

Validator Selection (For Nominators)

When nominating validators, choose carefully to maximize rewards and minimize slashing risk:

Look for:

• ✅ High uptime (99.9%+)
• ✅ Consistent block production
• ✅ Reasonable commission (5-15%)
• ✅ Strong on-chain identity
• ✅ Not over-subscribed

Avoid:

• ❌ Recent slashing events
• ❌ Frequent downtime
• ❌ Very high/low commission
• ❌ Unknown operators
• ❌ Near capacity validators

Unbonding & Unlocking

Nomination Unbonding (28 days)

When withdrawing nominated tokens:

1. Submit unbond request - Initiate withdrawal
2. Wait 28 days - Security delay
3. Withdraw - Tokens become available

During unbonding: No rewards, cannot vote, can rebond to cancel

Governance Unlock (Immediate after lock period)

Governance stakes unlock automatically after the conviction period ends.

Risks & Protection

Slashing Risk (Nominators Only)

Nominators share validator slashing penalties:

Offense	Penalty	Who Gets Slashed
Equivocation	0.1%+	Validator + all nominators
Unresponsiveness	0.01%/session	Validator + all nominators
Invalid Evaluation	0.5-5%	Validator only

Stakers (governance) are NOT subject to slashing - only nominators face this risk.

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Next Steps

• Validators - Run your own validator node
• Miners - Provide AI inference compute
• Governance - Vote on protocol changes
• Economic Model - Understand tokenomics