# Nominating with Staking Pools

Creditcoin provides users the option to create and join nomination pools. Nomination pools are a good alternative for smaller users who do not meet the minimum staking requirements for solo nominating. By joining nomination pools, users can pool their CTC stake together and act as a single nominator to meet the minimum staking requirements to earn rewards.

#### Staking pool benefits: <a href="#staking-pool-benefits" id="staking-pool-benefits"></a>

* No minimum stake requirement; start earning rewards with just 1 CTC
* Pool members do not need to actively manage nominations, which is the responsibility of the pool operator.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Staking pools share the same risks as Nominators when nominating validators. If any of the pool’s nominated validators misbehave, users may lose their funds due to slashing. Even if offences do not trigger slashing, they might still cause the validator to be chilled, meaning that any backing nominators will stop earning rewards, or have their rewards reduced due to validator chilling. See the [Validator Selection](/nominator-guides/nominating-without-staking-pools.md) section for more information.
{% endhint %}

### Pool members <a href="#pool-members" id="pool-members"></a>

By joining a nomination pool, members delegate control (but not custody) of their stake and nominations to the pool operator. While more convenient, it is still important for members to carefully choose which pools they join. For more information on how you should choose a nomination pool, go to the [Choosing a Pool guide](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/choosing-a-pool.md).

In exchange they get a portion of the [staking rewards](/staking/staking-rewards.md) that correspond to their locked CTC minus any fee the pool operator decides to charge.

### Pool operators <a href="#pool-operators" id="pool-operators"></a>

Pool operators are the accounts that created and manage a nomination pool. They are in charge of nominating honest validators and are able to change the pool’s settings; including commissions, nominations, and opening or closing the pool to new members. For more information on how to create or manage a nomination pool, go to the[ Creating a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/creating-a-pool.md) guide.

#### Start using Nomination Pools <a href="#start-using-nomination-pools" id="start-using-nomination-pools"></a>

* [Choosing a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/choosing-a-pool.md)
* [Joining a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/joining-a-pool.md)
* [Creating a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/creating-a-pool.md)
* [Exiting a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/exiting-a-pool.md)
* [Managing a Pool](/nominator-guides/nominating-with-staking-pools/managing-a-pool.md)


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