Delegators are holders of XTZ that join the PoS system that secures Tezos. The amount of active delegators has just reached + 50,000. A great milestone.
Short recap of Tezos' Proof of Stake model: blockchains that use the Proof of Stake consensus algorithm, instead of the Proof of Work algorithm, enable people that hold coins to join the PoS network and earn staking rewards in exchange of validating blocks. This in contrast to PoW, where miners instead of holders earn all the rewards that are created as incentive to run the network.
In the traditional PoS system, to join the network and earn rewards, you need to set up a node (a computer that joins the network and runs the LPoS Program), and fixate a certain amount of coins. This is called "Staking" and is like "mining" in the PoW system.
Tezos uses a variation of PoS: Liquid Proof of Stake (LPoS). Setting up a node in LPoS, is called "Baking". But in LPoS, anyone that holds XTZ (Tezos native coin), can join the LPoS network and earn staking rewards. So also users that do not set up a node. These people can point their coins towards a Baker. This process is called "delegating".
Delegating contributes to the bakers baking rights: the mathematical "right" to validate blocks and earn staking rewards. These rights are accumulated per "roll", which is 8,000 XTZ. You need at least 1 roll to enable your node to bake and 10% of your roll needs to be fixated as "bond", which is sort of a collateral. This is what is at "stake" for you as a baker to ensure you play by the rules. (Thus "Proof of Stake") This means that a baker needs to own around 10% of a roll. This is where delegators come in to play and add to the network. Theoretically you only need 800 XTZ to start baking. But this means you need to find someone, or several people, to delegate the rest of the 8,000 XTZ to you before you can start earning rewards for everyone involved. However, most bakers start out baking with a full roll. Every full 8,000 XTZ that is delegating to them adds another roll to their Baker.
Delegating your XTZ is not a fixating process. This means that people who delegate, can spent their XTZ at any time: your XTZ is always stored on your own address. You simply "point that address towards a baker" without sending the actual XTZ. This means that delegating is a very simple process. This also means that you can switch bakers within minutes. This creates an incentive for Bakers to be competitive, responsive and means that all these delegators are part of the LPoS ecosystem. A baker can be compared to miningpools in a way. The amount of XTZ is in a sense what hashingpower is in PoW. It gives a Baker more validationrights. Where miners delegate their hashingpower to miningpools, owners of XTZ delegate their XTZ to bakers.
The growth of the amount of delegators shows the growth of the Tezos LPoS ecosystem and diversification and redistribution of the amount of delegators.
1,000,000th block
Another milestone has just been reached: the 1,000,000th block has just been created. Other interesting numbers:
- Total Funded Accounts: 568,101
- New Accounts in the last 30 days: 56,139
- 423 active bakers
- 79.90% of all XTZ is being staked
- 24h Transactions: 32,269
- 24h on-chain transaction Volume: 6,736,383 XTZ
