How to Become a Ronin Validator
Join the movement. Earn rewards.
Key Points
In the first year, our calculations show the possibility of earning an average of 617 RON per day as a Validator, which implies the possibility of up to 225K RON rewards in year 1. The minimum stake required is 250,000 RON.
The validator onboarding process is simple, seamless, and secure. Set up your node in under 10 minutes.
Our co-founder Aleksander Leonard Larsen shares important information for Validator Candidates.
If you’re interested in becoming a Ronin validator, this guide is for you. Ronin is a battle-tested blockchain forged for gaming on a journey of progressive decentralization. Today, our network is secured by community members from Google to everyday Axie Infinity players – and everyone in between. Here’s how you can support our growing movement and start earning rewards for doing so:
Validator Rewards
Ronin Validators have the critical responsibility of making sure all transactions on Ronin are processed correctly. That’s why we’ve allocated a total of 180M RON to encourage validators to validate blocks during the network’s early days, while we expect that after 8 years rewards will mainly come from user transaction fees. If you’re interested in carrying this important mantle, make sure to read through our Reward Schedule and feel free to reach out to our team or other validators at the button below.
As a validator, you can expect to receive a portion of the 180M RON rewards each year for supporting our powerful ecosystem. Here are a few key terms validators need to know followed by a reward formula.
Block Rewards
Each block that a validator produces emits ~2.85 RON, which is shared between the validators and its delegators.
Commission Rate
Validators receive some commission for running validator nodes to generate new blocks.
Self-staking reward
Similar to delegator’s staking rewards, validators receive staking rewards emitted from their self stake amount.
Bridge Rewards
Ronin has allocated 1,000,000 RON to reward validators who keep the bridge operational for the first year of our DPoS upgrade, this is shared between 22 validators.
Sample Calculations
Imagine a validator sets their commission rate to 10%, and has a total stake of 7,000,000 RON. 250,000 is the self stake and 6,750,00 comes from delegators.
In one day, the chosen validator is supposed to produce 1,309 blocks. The rewards for the validators are as follows:
Commission reward: 10% of (2.85 * 1,309) = 373 RON
Self staking reward: 90% of (2.85 * 1,309) * (250,000 / 7,000,000) = 120 RON
Daily bridge reward in year 1: 1,000,000 / 365 / 22 = 124 RON
In this example, the validator earns 617 RON per day in the first year.
See our Rewards Schedule for more calculations and future projections.
Simple and Secure Onboarding
We’re thrilled to share that anyone, anywhere who meets the basic requirements can become a validator in less than 10 minutes. You’ll need a minimum stake of 250,000 RON and hardware that adheres to the specifications above. We encourage you to read all of our supporting documentation as you follow the six easy steps at the link below.
Note that validators are chosen every day, where each day has 144 epochs. The statements about epochs in the video above are dated.
Important Information for Validators
The Ronin blockchain uses a Delegated Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to validate transactions. We’re proud to count Google, DappRadar DAO, QU3ST, and many other passionate community members among our Governing Validators. If you’re interested in becoming a Ronin validator, note that you would begin as a Validator Candidate before becoming a Standard Validator. In the video above, our co-founder Aleksander Leonard Larsen explains the difference between Governing (Trusted) Validators and Standard Validators, as well as the essential role of delegators in validator selection.
It’s important to understand that validator candidates will compete with each other in order to be chosen as a block-producing Standard Validator. Total stake size will determine which validator candidates become Standard Validators. That means validators who are not selected will not receive or emit any rewards. If a validator is unavailable when needed or shows signs of malicious behavior, they are penalized by having their stake or reward reduced, or slashed, as follows:
Reward slashing: Withholding rewards that the validator would otherwise have earned.
RON slashing: Charging a fixed amount of RON tokens from the validator's self-stake.
The validator may be temporarily or permanently banned from the network, or jailed.
Learn more about slashing in our documentation here.
These features ensure Ronin is secure while supporting responsible validators in their important work.