Delegate to Validator

Delegating to a Validator

Delegation allows token holders to earn staking rewards without running a validator node. Delegators lock their tokens with an active validator and receive a share of the staking rewards, minus a delegation fee set by the validator.

How Delegation Works

When a delegator stakes tokens with a validator:

• The validator's weight increases on the P-Chain (more stake = more consensus influence)
• The delegator earns rewards proportional to their stake
• The validator earns a delegation fee (percentage of the delegator's rewards)
• Both are subject to the validator's minimum stake duration

Phase 1: Initiation (L1)

The delegator calls initiateDelegatorRegistration on the Staking Manager contract:

function initiateDelegatorRegistration(
    bytes32 validationID
) external payable returns (bytes32 delegationID)

Under the hood, the contract:

• Validates the target validator is Active
• Validates the delegation amount meets minimum requirements
• Locks the delegated tokens in the contract
• Converts the token amount to weight
• Calculates the new total validator weight (existing + delegation)
• Enforces churn constraints
• Increments the validator's nonce
• Sends a L1ValidatorWeightMessage to the P-Chain to update the validator's weight
• Returns a unique delegationID

Phase 2: P-Chain Processing

The weight update message must be signed and submitted to the P-Chain as a SetL1ValidatorWeightTx:

1. Aggregate signatures for the weight update message
2. Submit to the P-Chain
3. The P-Chain acknowledges the weight change
4. Returns a signed L1ValidatorWeightMessage acknowledgement

Phase 3: Completion (L1)

Call completeDelegatorRegistration(messageIndex) with the P-Chain's signed response:

• Verifies the Warp message and nonce correspondence
• Activates the delegation (status → Active)
• Sets the delegation start time
• Emits CompletedDelegatorRegistration

Anyone can call this function with the signed message.

Important Constraints

Validator must be Active: You can only delegate to validators with Active status. Once a validator has initiated removal, no new delegations can be added.

Churn limits apply: Delegation weight changes are subject to the same churn constraints as validator additions, preventing rapid weight fluctuations.

Delegation fee is fixed: The fee percentage is set by the validator during registration and cannot be changed for that validation period.

Appendix: Delegation Flow