Staking Concepts

This document introduces the core concepts for economic security on Tangle.

Key Roles

• Blueprint: A reusable service template that defines interfaces, execution requirements, and expected outputs.
• Service Instance: A live deployment of a Blueprint that runs on operators.
• Operator: A node that runs service instances and earns fees for execution.
• Staker (Delegator): A participant who delegates assets to operators to back service execution.

Staking Flow

1. Deposit assets into the staking contract (MultiAssetDelegation).
2. Delegate to an operator and choose blueprint exposure:
   • All: exposure to all blueprints the operator supports.
   • Fixed: exposure to a specific set of blueprints.
3. Earn rewards from service fees and optional TNT budgets.

Incentives and Fees

• Service fees are paid by customers and split across developers, operators, stakers, and the protocol treasury.
• Optional TNT incentives come from InflationPool when governance funds them.

See Incentives for details.

Liquid Staking

Liquid staking uses liquid delegation vaults to tokenize a delegation position into transferable shares. Each vault is tied to one operator, one asset, and one blueprint selection mode.

See Liquid Staking for the vault architecture and redemption flow.

Slashing and Security

Operators can be slashed if they violate service requirements or fail to meet commitments. Stakers share in that risk based on their delegated exposure.

Review risks before delegating or choosing exposure settings.