There are a couple different roles a member of the WorkQuest network can choose from, including delegators, validators, and users. Which one should you choose for yourself?
Validator
Validator is a member of the Work network who keeps a blockchain replica on their equipment, provides transaction verification, chain blocks formation, and participates in the consensus-building process.
One of the main characteristics of the validator is voting power, which is directly proportional to the size of the validator’s stake. The greater the validator’s stake in absolute terms — and the bigger its share in the aggregated stake of all validators — the more power the validator has.
The validator must ensure the reliability of their work, be available to the network, correctly perform the duties in the consensus-building procedure, and guarantee access of Work network internal services to its blockchain replica, ensuring the integrity of stored data.
Validators verify transactions and add new blocks. In return, they earn rewards. It’s interesting to note that validators on the WorkNet are not rewarded for empty blocks. On the contrary, they are rewarded for each block with a transaction.
Functioning as a validator has the major incentive of earning rewards, but it also runs the risk of being fined for improper performance of duties. A validator risks losing part of their stake as a result of these fines — as well as reputational loss, if users stop trusting them with their funds for delegation. A validator stack consists of their funds and funds delegated (leased) to them by other members of the network.
Delegator
A delegator is a WorkNet member who leases their funds to a validator. The transfer is not done literally, as the amount of transferred funds is merely blocked in the account of the delegator and cannot be disposed of until they are unbinded. The transfer process is called delegation, and the essence of it is to transfer the users’ rights and responsibilities to someone else in the network. A delegator increases the validator’s cumulative stake, thereby allowing the validator to perform duties on their behalf, within proportion to the amount of delegated funds. Accordingly, rights and responsibilities apply to both the reward payouts and fines/slashes. Rewards and penalties are distributed in proportion to the delegator’s share of the total stake of the validator. For example, if the validator receives a 5% fine, the delegator will receive the same 5% fine automatically.
User
All other members of the Work network are essentially regular users, though with the opportunity to potentially become either a delegator or validator.
