Proof of Stake
What is staking?
Staking is the process of securing the network by locking up your tokens. It serves the same purpose as mining in a proof-of-work network such as Bitcoin.
Validator nodes validate transactions and the staked tokens act as an economic incentive for them to play by the rules of the network. Since validators are anonymous to make the network decentralized and resilient to attacks from the outside, Fantom employs proof of stake to prevent Sybil attacks.
A Sybil attack is an attack where a malicious actor runs a large number of validators to allow them an unsafe amount of influence over the network. Proof of stake makes it costly to set up these validators and allows the network to punish validators for malicious behavior, increasing the costs of attacks.
Fantom requires validator nodes to lock up at least 500,000 FTM (Fantom's native token) to prevent Sybil attacks.
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