Staking and Validating on Kusama and Polkadot

About this Episode

Gautam Dhameja (Solutions Architect, Parity) talks to Joe Petrowski (Research Analyst, Parity) about staking, validating, and nominating on Kusama and Polkadot. If you want to learn more about how Kusama's and Polkadot's nominated proof-of-stake system works, or if you're interested in staking or validating, this episode is a great place to start.

To get more information on staking, validating, and validator setup on Kusama, check out the Kusama network guide at https://guide.kusama.network/.

Highlights:
01:43 - What is consensus?
02:48 - Polkadot and Kusama’s block production and finalization algorithms, BABE and GRANDPA
06:35 - Polkadot’s two types of accounts: stash and controller
09:11 - Session keys
15:41 - Key management
20:19 - Understanding nominated proof-of-stake
23:50 - How to nominate
25:30 - Rewards
28:35 - Slashing
36:05 - Validator setup
41:40 - Step-by-step validator process review
44:30 - How to upgrade/maintain
47:40 - Common misconceptions
49:18 - Validator DOs and DON’Ts

NOTE: At 8:00, Joe mistakenly mentions that the controller account can be used to vote on governance proposals. Actually, the stash account can set a proxy account to vote on its behalf. It could be the same as the controller but does not have to be.