# Validator Guides

### Tasks and Responsiblities <a href="#tasks-and-responsiblities" id="tasks-and-responsiblities"></a>

Validators are critical to maintaining the network. They maintain the Creditcoin network by producing and finalizing blocks through the Nominated Proof-of-Stake system. When performing validation tasks, validators are accountable not only for their own stake but also the stake of the nominators that back them.

Node operators have two main responsibilities:

* Keeping their validator nodes highly available.
* Protecting their signing keys to prevent attackers from taking control and performing malicious actions using the validators identity.

Currently, operators run validator nodes and manage session keys, produce new block candidates in BABE, vote and come to consensus in GRANDPA, and, possibly, hold certain other responsibilities regarding data availability and XCM.

### Rewards and Slashing <a href="#rewards-and-slashing" id="rewards-and-slashing"></a>

Validators get rewarded at the end of each era according to how many era points they have collected. These points are earned by producing blocks. When an era ends, rewards are distributed between validators and their nominators according to their relative stake and the validator's commission parameters.

Validators have the ability to configure and receive a commission, allowing them to earn a percentage of nominator block rewards based on their chosen parameters. Validators can only set a percentage-based commission, rather than a figure-based commission. 0% commission means that the validator does not receive any proportion of the rewards besides that owed to it from self-stake, and 100% commission means that the validator operator gets all rewards and gives none to its nominators.

{% hint style="info" %}
The Creditcoin Staking system is based on Polkadot’s NPoS. For more details about the implementation, refer to the [Polkadot Staking documentation](https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/maintain-guides-validator-payout).
{% endhint %}


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.creditcoin.org/validator-guides.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.