# Staking & Delegation

Staking is the economic foundation of Vola Network. It aligns the incentives of everyone who participates.

Storage and compute node operators commit capital to demonstrate reliability, delegators back operators they trust, and the network rewards performance with $VOLA.

### How Staking Works on Vola

**Validator Staking**

Validators need between 50,000 and 100,000 $VOLA to be staked to become an active validator. This stake acts as collateral, it is locked while the validator is active and returned after a bonding duration of 7 eras (≈ 49 hours) upon exit. Rewards are earned per era through transaction fees and staking rewards.

**Vola Smart Node Staking**

Storage Node operators stake $VOLA proportional to the storage capacity they commit to the network. 

Unlike validators, operators can open their nodes to delegators, allowing other $VOLA holders to contribute stake and share in the node's rewards. Rewards are distributed per epoch (≈ 5 days) based on the node's on-chain utilization and on-chain performance score.

### Delagated Staking

**Not Ready to Run a Node?**

You can still participate in the network and earn rewards through Delegated Staking**.**\
Delegate your $VOLA to an existing Vola Smart Node and earn a share of its rewards without running any hardware yourself, learn more:

{% content-ref url="/pages/SrIob2jhz2NibYMEluAH" %}
[Delegated Staking](/docs/vola-node-economy/staking-and-delegation/delegated-staking.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

#### In This Section

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Node Staking</strong></td><td><em>Full staking mechanics for Validation Nodes and Storage Nodes: requirements, formulas, slashing, and how to unbond.</em></td><td><a href="/pages/1Z3WvSS7obhDHKQnv0JD">/pages/1Z3WvSS7obhDHKQnv0JD</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Node Rewards</strong></td><td><em>How rewards are calculated and distributed for node operators:</em><br><em>storage fees, staking rewards, and the revenue multiplier.</em></td><td><a href="/pages/3Xr3L81JEkDpfquNCjaW">/pages/3Xr3L81JEkDpfquNCjaW</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Delegated Staking</strong></td><td><em>How to open your Storage Node to delegators, or how to delegate your $VOLA to an existing node.</em><br><em>Key considerations for delegated staking &#x26; rewards.</em></td><td><a href="/pages/SrIob2jhz2NibYMEluAH">/pages/SrIob2jhz2NibYMEluAH</a></td></tr></tbody></table>


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