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.