Staking on Dusk

Staking is a vital component of Dusk, ensuring decentralization and security. By staking your DUSK, you contribute to the network’s integrity and consensus mechanism, enabling efficient and secure transaction validation. Staking is a way for everyone to actively support the network while earning rewards for their participation.

Why Stake?

Staking DUSK allows you to:

• Earn rewards and grow your holdings.
• Participate in consensus and increase the security of Dusk.

What do you need to start?

To begin staking, you need:

• At least 1000 DUSK: this is the minimum amount required to participate.
• A running and fully-synced node: you can learn how to run a node here
• Time for maturity: your stake becomes active after 2 epochs (about 4320 blocks).

Important

After having staked your tokens, it takes some time before you start earning rewards. This is because your stake becomes active after the maturity period (4320 blocks). The maturity period of 4320 blocks corresponds to approximately 12 hours (based on an average block time of 10 seconds). Before expecting rewards, ensure to account for this waiting period.

How are Rewards determined?

Rewards are probabilistically allocated based on your node’s participation in the network’s consensus process.

Once your stake is active, you start earn rewards, which come from:

• Your node proposing a block.
• Your node voting on a block.
• Token emissions as outlined in the tokenomics page.

Your rewards depend on the size of your stake relative to the total network stake. Larger stakes increase your likelihood of being selected to propose or validate blocks, leading to more frequent rewards. Conversely, smaller stakes may experience longer intervals between rewards.

You can learn more on how the Succinct Attestation consensus works here.

Important

The more DUSK you stake, the more likely you are to earn rewards as an active participant in the network.

Slashing

Dusk uses a slashing mechanism to maintain network security. If your node submits invalid blocks or goes offline, your stake may be partially reduced. This mechanism ensures the network rewards reliable participants and discourages harmful behavior.

Important

To prevent slashing, ensure your node is operational and synced before staking.

Re-stake Rewards & Increase Stake

You can increase your stake at any time without needing to unstake first. When you do, 90% of the added amount becomes active immediately and begins accruing rewards, while the remaining 10% is moved to your inactive stake. However, if your stake is not active yet, no penalties are applied, and the full added amount will be available as soon as the original stake becomes eligible.

The inactive portion does not generate rewards and remains locked. It can only be accessed by fully unstaking your holdings. Withdrawn rewards are available immediately and can be restaked if you choose. Any new staked amount is directly eligible (without the need of waiting for the maturity period), except for the 10% inactive portion (which will never become eligible).

Important

When you increase your stake, keep in mind that:

• 90% is added to your active stake and starts earning rewards.
• 10% goes to your inactive stake, accessible only if you fully unstake.
• This applies only if the stake is already eligible.

This mechanism promotes fairness and prevents potential exploitation of compounding effects, ensuring a balanced staking system.

Example

As an example, suppose you initially stake 5,000 DUSK. After 2 epochs (4320 blocks), your stake becomes active.

Some time passes, and you decide to add 4,000 DUSK to your stake:

• 90% of the newly added amount (3,600 DUSK) is immediately added to your active stake.
• 10% of the newly added amount (400 DUSK) is moved to your inactive stake.

At this point:

• Your active stake becomes 8,600 DUSK (5,000 + 3,600).
• Your inactive stake holds 400 DUSK.

If you later withdraw 8,000 DUSK, leaving 600 DUSK staked:

• You immediately have 8,000 DUSK, fully liquid.
• Your active stake is now 600 DUSK.
• Your inactive stake remains 400 DUSK.

If you then fully unstake the remaining 600 DUSK, the 400 DUSK in your inactive stake is unlocked and becomes available.

Ready to Stake?

Staking is a great way to earn rewards and participate in Dusk’s ecosystem.

Staking not only benefits you through rewards but also strengthens the Dusk network’s security and decentralization.

Start staking now using the web wallet!