What are staking rewards and how are they calculated?

Staking rewards are earnings you receive for helping secure and support a blockchain network by locking up your tokens (such as OPT) with a validator.

When you stake, you're essentially participating in the network’s operations — like validating transactions and securing blocks — and in return, you receive a portion of the network’s rewards.

How Staking Rewards Are Calculated

Staking rewards can vary over time and depend on several dynamic factors:

1. Amount You Stake

   The more OPT you stake, the higher your share of the rewards — relative to the total amount staked with that validator.

2. Validator Performance

   Validators earn rewards by processing blocks and transactions. If your validator is reliable and performs well, you earn more. If it misses blocks or goes offline, rewards may be lower or even penalized.

3. Total Stake to the Validator

   Rewards are divided among everyone staking with the validator. If a lot of people are staking to the same validator, your portion may be smaller.

4. Network Activity

   The more transactions and blocks processed on the network, the more rewards are generated overall — which can increase what’s available for distribution.

5. Validator Commission

   Validators usually take a small cut (e.g., 10%) of the total rewards as a commission. The remaining (e.g., 90%) gets distributed to the stakers.