# Delegated Staking
Not everyone who wants to participate in Vola Network needs to run hardware. Delegated Staking lets any $VOLA holder back an existing Storage Node and earn a share of its rewards, proportional to their contribution and the node's performance.
For node operators, delegation is a way to meet staking requirements without fronting the full capital themselves, while building a community of stakeholders invested in their node's success.
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**Delegation is only available for Storage Nodes.**\
Validation Nodes on Vola are self-bond only. There is no nomination or delegation of stake to validators.
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### How It Works
**For Operators**
Storage Node operators can open their nodes to delegators by staking only a portion of the required stake themselves. The remainder can be filled by delegators. In return, the operator sets a commission percentage on both revenue streams: file storage fees and staking rewards.
Operators get their share based on the percentages and the rest is distributed to delegators proportional to their delegation.
**For Delegators**
Delegators browse active Storage Nodes via the Vola Nodes dashboard. They select a node, stake their $VOLA, and begin earning rewards from that node's activity, all without running any hardware themselves.
### Reward Streams
Every Storage Node earns from two sources, and delegation applies to both independently:
Revenue Stream
Description
File Storage Fees
Fees paid by users to store files on the node + revenue multiplier.
Staking Rewards
$VOLA rewards based on total network stake.
Node operators can set a percentage for each stream:\
`Operator's Revenue Share` from storage fees (+revenue multiplier) & `Operator's Reward Share` from $VOLA staking rewards.
If the node operator has set `30%` for revenue share, then `70%` of the revenues will be distributed to the delegators. If a node operator has set `25%` for the rewards share, then `75%` of the staking rewards will go to the delegators.
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#### **Delegators: be sure to check the node operators' share before delegating.**
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### For Operators: Enabling Delegation
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#### **Register and Stake Your Node**
Your node must be registered and have operator stake placed before delegation can be configured. Follow the [Vola Smart Node](/docs/vola-node-economy/vola-nodes-overview/vola-smart-nodes-storage.md) setup guide if you haven't done this yet.
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#### **Set Your Delegation Parameters**
Configure your commission percentages via the Vola Nodes Dashboard. Set your revenue share and stake-reward share, these are the percentages you keep from each stream.
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#### Your Node Appears to Delegators
Once delegation parameters are set, your node becomes visible to delegators in the Vola Wallet dashboard. They can view your share percentages before deciding to delegate.
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#### **Monitor and Manage**
Track your delegators, monitor node performance, and earn your operator rewards each epoch.
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#### **Consider carefully before setting & changing your revenue/reward percentages.**
Changes to delegation parameters take effect after 2 epochs. Frequent or large increases in commission may cause delegators to leave. Build trust by keeping your terms consistent.
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### For Delegators: Staking to a Node
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#### **Browse Available Nodes**
Open the Vola Wallet dashboard and navigate to the delegation section. Browse active Storage Nodes and filter by:
* Operator commission percentages
* *Uptime and reliability, Expected ROI, Node lifetime and history (coming soon)*
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#### **Select a Node and Stake**
Choose a node and click delegate, sign the delegation transaction and that's it!\
Minimum delegation is 100 GiB worth of stake.
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#### **Earn Rewards**
Rewards accrue each epoch as long as the node you've backed is active and being scored. Once the epoch is complete, your rewards for the relevant epoch become claimable.
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#### **Claim Your Rewards**
Click "Claim Rewards" any time to claim your accumulated rewards. You can do this as frequently as you like, there is no penalty for claiming often.
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**Your rewards depend on the node's performance.**\
A node with a poor DOP score earns less, which means delegators earn less too. Choose nodes with strong uptime and consistent proof submission history.
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