VALIDATORS

The Venom network is maintained by validators and delegators. The network maintainers help to maintain the availability, performance, and security of the Venom blockchain and are therefore important ecosystem participants.

Validators are participants of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains. They are responsible for maintaining the blockchain's security and form validating its transactions. Validators have a vested interest in the blockchain they are maintaining by stacking their tokens which are often subject to slashing in case of malicious behavior.

The validators of a blockchain verify transactions and add them to the chain. As compensation for their work, validators receive a share of the generated transaction fees.

The validators of the Venom blockchain stake their $VENOM tokens to maintain the security of the network. By staking their tokens, validators have a vested interest in the safety and tamper resistance of the network. Staking of tokens makes it more difficult for attackers to take control of the network. Since a Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) algorithm is used in combination with PoS, the network can resist attacks and is able to continue operating uninterrupted.

Staking also gives validators the ability to process transactions and to vote on blocks proposed by other validators. The underlying BFT algorithm ensures that this consensus process (i.e. reaching an agreement about the state of the blockchain) cannot be manipulated.

Validators propose candidate blocks and vote on the block proposals of other validators. Once the defined voting threshold (2/3 of validator nodes) has been reached, the block is added to the blockchain. All the validators in the network are connected by Venom's network-layer protocol, which acts as an overlay network.

Each new block that is included in the Venom blockchain provides a reward. The reward is used as an incentive for the litigators to participate in the blockchain's block production process by proposing blocks and voting on proposed blocks.

The staked tokens of validators are subject to slashing in case of malicious behavior or poor performance (such as being offline).

The validators of the Masterchain are selected based on the number of staked tokens. The number of Masterchain validators is limited and only those with the largest stakes in the network are allowed to generate masterchain blocks.

Masterchain validators play a critical role in maintaining the security of the Masterchain which Workchains rely on. Shardchains are able to share messages, network configurations, and the state of smart contracts between each other by creating master blocks on the Masterchain.

The remaining validators propose Shardchain blocks and vote on shardchain block proposals.