Today, staking — locking up funds in a wallet to facilitate transactions in a blockchain network — is one of the most popular ways to make money in crypto space. Alongside with famous yield farming (that uses the same mechanism to generate liquidity pools on DeFi exchanges), staking attracts both veterans and new users looking for high returns.
Unlike mining or trading, income-generating activities that require advanced technical knowledge or initial investment, staking opens the door to crypto for many. We at Ankr are making this access even easier, providing one-click node hosting services for users who want to stake or develop on over 50 protocols!
New users who are looking to get into staking often come to us with a misconception, thinking that running a developer node (usually called a full node) will provide them with staking rewards — while what they need to earn interest is a staking node (usually called a validator node) that can be easily spinned up and maintained by Ankr.
In app.ankr.com each node is labelled developer or staking node. For many protocols we have both node types available.
This material is a new user’s guide to choosing the type of node that meets your needs and seamlessly running it at Ankr.
Let’s take a look at the difference between the two:
Full node: for developers
Starting with the basics, a node is essentially a computer that acts as a server where blocks of data are stored, and verifies all transactions and blocks against the blockchain’s consensus rules before broadcasting them to the network.
Active full nodes are synchronized with the blockchain, meaning that they are constantly updated, downloading new blocks (for instance, the size of an Ethereum full node is currently about 180 GB). The more full nodes a network has, the more decentralized and trustless it becomes.
Running a full node is often an ideological decision and an act of support to the peer-to-peer network of your choice, and is also required for software developers and businesses who are building on a blockchain, to get access to the network via an API.
Validator node: for staking rewards
A validator node is a type of a full node that participates in the validation and consensus process. Essentially, a validator is a participant in a network who locks up tokens in a wallet and runs a node to help the network function by verifying transactions and carrying out other tasks.
Staking means active participation in the network, and is rewarded with tokens, which generates passive income.
Ankr solutions for staking
With Ankr, you can easily deploy and manage a validator node on your favorite blockchain and earn passive income without paying any commission fees and without any technical knowledge required.
Ankr offers direct access to 30+ staking nodes as easy as it can be, with a custom UI and a mobile app.
Step-by-step tutorials
How to run a Binance Smart Chain Validator on Ankr
How to deploy a Polkadot Validator on Ankr
How to run a PCHAIN Validator on the Ankr Cloud
P.S.: Staking. Reimagined
With Ethereum 2.0 about to launch, we are getting ready to introduce a new service to the Ankr product line: Stkr. Stkr is a decentralized protocol and platform that combines staking and DeFi, implementing elements from traditional staking with non-custodial staking, Micropools and decentralized governance, set to change staking forever.
While Ankr’s one-click deployment support for dozens of different nodes and Validators removes technical barriers, Stkr now removes financial barriers as well, adding a plethora of new utility for the ANKR token in the process.
The Stkr protocol will first launch with the Ethereum 2.0 implementation. Learn more here and keep an eye on our announcements for more information about our upcoming public testnet!
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