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This page answers the questions ATOM holders ask before and after delegating. Parameter values are from cosmoshub-4 on 2026-10-15, each with the query that returns the current value. Commands for doing any of this are on the Delegator CLI guide.

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What is a delegator?

A delegator is an ATOM holder who bonds stake to a validator without running a node. Validators enter the active set by total stake (their own plus delegated). Delegators therefore decide who validates. When a validator misbehaves, delegators move their ATOM, and the validator loses power or drops out of the set. The active set is the top 180 by stake.
max_validators: 180, unbonding_time: 504h0m0s (21 days), max_entries: 7, bond_denom: uatom, min_commission_rate: "0.050000000000000000". Delegators share the validator’s revenue after commission. They also share the validator’s slashing. To delegate, send a delegate transaction naming the validator and amount. To get the ATOM back, unbond and wait 21 days. To move between validators, redelegate. It takes effect at once.

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Choose a validator

Pick validators by behaviour, not by the lowest commission. Explorers such as Mintscan validators show for each validator:
  • Moniker, description, and website: who they are and whether they publish anything about their setup.
  • Commission rate: the share of your rewards the validator keeps. It cannot be below 5 percent on the Hub.
  • Commission max rate and max change rate: the ceiling and the most the rate may rise per day. Both are fixed when the validator is created and cannot be raised later. They therefore tell you the worst case.
  • Self-bond: how much of the validator’s own ATOM is at stake alongside yours.
  • Uptime and missed blocks: a validator that signs fewer than 5 percent of the blocks in any 10,000 block window is jailed for 10 minutes and slashed 0.01 percent.
  • Governance participation: whether they vote, since your stake votes with them unless you vote yourself.
  • Jail and slashing history: a validator that has been tombstoned for double signing is gone for good. One that has been jailed for downtime more than once is a warning.
The same data from the chain:
The first prints commission, min_self_delegation, jailed, and status. The second prints the signing info for the validator’s consensus key: start_height, jailed_until, and missed_blocks_counter and tombstoned when they are not zero or false. Zero values are omitted from the output.

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What delegators are expected to do

Choose validators carefully and keep choosing: delegation is an ongoing decision, not a one-off.
  • Do due diligence before delegating, because a slash hits every delegator of the validator.
  • Keep watching the validator: uptime, commission changes, governance votes. Redelegate if it stops meeting your bar. There is no waiting period for that.
  • Vote. Your voting power equals your bonded stake. If you do not vote, you inherit your validators’ votes. If you do, your vote replaces theirs for your stake. Voting needs at least 1 ATOM staked.
  • Spread stake across several validators so one slash or one jailing costs less.

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Revenue

Delegators earn two things. Block provisions, paid in newly minted ATOM. Inflation moves between 7 and 10 percent a year depending on how much of the supply is bonded, targeting 67 percent bonded. It is at the 10 percent ceiling now.
inflation_min: "0.070000000000000000", inflation_max: "0.100000000000000000", goal_bonded: "0.670000000000000000", blocks_per_year: "4360000"; inflation 0.100000000000000000. Transaction fees, paid in uatom (and in Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) denoms when a transaction pays with them). Fees and provisions go to the distribution module. The module first takes the community tax and then splits the rest across validators by stake.
community_tax: "0.020000000000000000": 2 percent of all rewards goes to the community pool before anyone else is paid.

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Validator commission

A validator takes its commission from the rewards of its delegators, not from its own self-bond. Example: a validator holds 10 percent of all bonded stake, 20 percent of that is self-bonded, and commission is 10 percent. For a block paying 1,000 ATOM in provisions and fees after community tax, the validator’s pool gets 100 ATOM:
  • Delegators’ share before commission: 80 percent of 100 = 80 ATOM.
  • Commission: 10 percent of 80 = 8 ATOM.
  • Validator receives: 20 ATOM (self-bond share) + 8 ATOM commission = 28 ATOM.
  • Delegators receive: 72 ATOM, split in proportion to their delegations.
Your rewards are claimable at any time with gaiad tx distribution withdraw-all-rewards. They do not compound until delegated again.

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Liquid staking

The Hub’s liquid staking module lets a delegator turn a delegation into transferable tokenized shares without unbonding. That lets liquid staking providers accept already staked ATOM. The module caps how much of the bonded supply can be liquid (25 percent globally, checked with the query below). It also caps how much of a single validator can be liquid (100 percent on the Hub, which means no per validator limit in practice).
global_liquid_staking_cap: "0.250000000000000000", validator_liquid_staking_cap: "1.000000000000000000"; total liquid staked 93816159624 uatom on 2026-10-15. Tokenizing removes a protection: with plain staking, a thief who gets your key still has to wait 21 days to move staked ATOM. An account that will not use liquid staking should lock itself:
Running enable-tokenize-shares lifts the lock only after the full unbonding period. Commands and the full parameter list are on Liquid staking module.

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Risks

Staked ATOM is locked for 21 days after unbonding. It can also be slashed for faults of the validator it is bonded to. Two conditions are slashed on the Hub:
  • Double signing: slash_fraction_double_sign: "0.050000000000000000". The Hub burns 5 percent of the validator’s entire stake, including yours. The validator is tombstoned (removed permanently). Unbonding and redelegating stake is still slashable for faults committed while it was bonded.
  • Downtime: slash_fraction_downtime: "0.000100000000000000", signed_blocks_window: "10000", min_signed_per_window: "0.050000000000000000", downtime_jail_duration: 600s. Missing more than 95 percent of a 10,000 block window costs 0.01 percent and a 10 minute jail. While jailed, the validator earns nothing for anyone.
Two risks are not slashing. A validator can raise commission (within its declared max change rate). A validator can also drop out of the active set, after which its delegations earn nothing until it returns or you redelegate.

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Verify

Check your own position with one query each:
The last returns status: TOKENIZE_SHARE_LOCK_STATUS_LOCKED if the account is locked against tokenization and UNLOCKED otherwise.

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