# Staking Menu Overview If you would like to start staking right away, please jump to [how-to-start-staking-with-the-developer-wallet](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/use/stake/how-to-start-staking-with-the-developer-wallet "mention"). The section below presents more detailed information about various tabs and menus available on[ https://azero.dev/#/staking](https://azero.dev/#/staking). Most of the staking related functionalities can be accessed by the **Staking** menu present in the **Network** tab:

{% hint style="warning" %} Note that screenshots provided in this guide are from Aleph Zero Testnet ([test.azero.dev](https://test.azero.dev)), but the Mainnet interface ([azero.dev](https://azero.dev)) is exactly the same. {% endhint %} The staking menu has the following tabs: **Overview, Accounts, Payouts, Pools, Targets, Slashes, Validator stats, Performance, Future Committee, and Suspensions**. Below, we explain the contents and purpose of each of them. ## Overview

Staking overview tab on the AlephZero Testnet

This tab presents a handful of global staking-related data: * `era validators`: number of validators elected in the current era, * `active / nominators`: number of nominators in the current era (and *submitted* for the next era - see note below), * `staked`: a total percentage of staked AZERO, as a fraction of all AZERO in existence, * `inflation`: current yearly inflation: taking effect on October 14th, 2024, for the first year, 27M coins will be emitted. This number will be reduced exponentially every year until the community-agreed max supply (520M coins) is reached, * `session`: current session number, * `era`: a current era number. {% hint style="info" %} Number of `active` nominators is roughly ten times less than submitted nominators for the next era is a side effect of *permissioned decentralization* that happened on December 17th 2024. As a result of that event, 9 foundation validators were decommissioned, but their nominators still have not changed their nominations. {% endhint %} Then, there's a table that contains a detailed view of all **current era** validators: * a validator's account ID or identity, * `other stake`: a toggle displaying sum of all nominators stake of the given validator. You can click on it to see full list of individual nominators stakes, * `own stake`: stake of the validator itself, ie excluding its nominators, * `nominators` : a list of nominators of the given validator (for the **current era**), * `commission`: % of reward taken solely by the given validator, see [Staking Rewards](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/use/stake/staking-rewards) You can search for a given validator using table filter. It accepts either part of account id (e.g. `5CGTtu` ) or identity (e.g. `AZF/` ). Last but not least, there are two toggle groups, that filters a list of validators as a whole: * `Own validators`: displays only the validator accounts that you added in `Staking/Accounts` tab, * `All validators`: displays all validators for the **current era**. ## Accounts This tab presents a list of all your accounts involved in staking. Please mind the fact that an account will be visible here only if it is added to your accounts in the [Accounts](https://azero.dev/#/accounts) tab (or injected by a [browser extension](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/wallets#browser-extension)).\ Here you can perform all actions related to staking: * bond tokens and add more bond tokens, * choose and change a validator to nominate, * unbond tokens, * withdraw unbonded tokens, * change reward destination - see below, * change validator commission, * kick nominators of your validator, * change session keys. {% hint style="info" %} *Staking reward destination* is either of below:\ 1\. Stash account (increase the amount at stake) - claimed rewards is sent to stash account, and bonded to own stake amount immediately, which takes an effect in the next era\ 2\. Stash account (do not increase the amount at stake) - claimed rewards is sent to stash account, but not bonded - and can be transferred immediately\ 3\. Controller account - deprecated\ 4\. Specified payment account - as point 2., but you can use here a specific account/ Useful if you want to have all rewards from your various staking account to land in the same place. {% endhint %} In the **Stashed** view, you can perform actions related to the direct nomination (`Nominators` toggle) or to the validator account (`Validators` toggle). `All stashes` toggle combines both functionality, ie all your validator and nominator accounts. Please note a single account must be either a direct nominator, a validator, or a nomination pool.

Staking Accounts tab on the AlephZero Testnet

In the **Pooled** view, you can perform actions related to nomination pools: * see the pools you are a member of, * bond more tokens, * unbond tokens, * withdraw claimable rewards, * withdraw unbonded tokens, * set pool's nominess (only pool's admin).

Staking Accounts tab the AlephZero Testnet

## Payouts This tab presents a list of *pending* staking rewards - ie those that are already awarded but not yet claimed. If there's no such rewards, ie all have been already claimed or period of 84 eras passed, this tab shows empty data. On the AlephZero Mainnet, there's an automatic service that claims a reward each era, so you don't need to worry about claiming a payout yourself. If you would like to see your historic payouts, we recommend using[ Subscan](https://alephzero.subscan.io/)—simply paste your Account in the search bar to display the details of your account, including staking rewards.

## Pools

You can view the list of Nomination pools. See[how-to-start-staking-with-the-developer-wallet](https://docs.alephzero.org/aleph-zero/use/stake/how-to-start-staking-with-the-developer-wallet "mention") to learn more about what they are. On top of the list, on the left-hand side, you can select **Own pools**, **All pools**, or **Foundation pools**. The last option will display nomination pools associated with validators operated by the Aleph Zero Foundation. ## Targets

Targets tab displays summary of staking algorithm parameters and details of all **current era** validators. In the summary of staking algorithm you can find: * `total staked`: summary of all AlephZero tokens staked, divided by total issuance of all AlephZero tokens, * `returns`: this is `inflation` (from Overview tab) divided `total staked` (from this tab, expressed in percentage), multiplied by 0.9 * `lowest`: minimum staked value of current era validators, * `avg staked`: summary of total validators staked, divided by nymber of validators in the current era, * `min nominated`: direct nomination minimum value, * `threshold`: direct nomination threshold, * `last reward`: number of tokens minted in the last era by the staking algorithm. In the details of the validators, you can find below info for a given validator: * the validator's account id or identity, * blue arrow left to the identity indicates that the validator is elected in the current era, * `last era payout`: era number which was last paid for the validator, * `nominators`: two numbers denoting respectively current era nominators and next era nominators of the validator, * `comm.`: the validator's commission, * `total stake`: summary of the validator own stake and all its nominators stakes, * `own stake`: solely own validator stake, * `other stake` : sum of all nominators stakes of the validator, * `return`: this is `returns` multiplied by `1 - validator commission` . As in the Overview tab, you can search for a validator by its Account ID or identity, and sort table by `total stake` , `own stake` , `other stake` , `return` columns. Each entry in the list has small green icon which ![](https://1927958252-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FjxGnEsASyxizmuYQHzry%2Fuploads%2FntymKOCN0xPLctL9UOhp%2Fimage.png?alt=media\&token=d8d2dba9-5459-485a-8c28-c078c6586359) which redirects you to Validator Stats tab (see below). ## Slashes This tab is empty - there's no slashing algorithm implemented on the AlephZero chain. ## Validator stats

Validator stats tab on the Aleph Zero Mainnet

Here you can query an Account ID of any validator in order to see their basic block production performance statistics. This is useful mostly to validators. But, as a nominator, you can use it to check how your chosen validator is performing, in particular if there are any recent sessions during which your validator has underperformed. In each row of the table, you can find entry about performance in a given session: * The validators Account ID or identity, * session number, * amount of blocks created in that session, * percentage of block production score awarded for this session, in percentage. Below that you can see diagrams showing: * rewards received in a given era and the average reward till that era; * input total stake for a given era; * validator commission in a given era. {% hint style="info" %} The history accessible by this tab goes back 84 eras. {% endhint %} ## Performance

Performance tab on the AlephZero Testnet

The performance tab allows you to track in real-time the block production and finalization statistics. For the former, it is possible to query past sessions and see how many blocks were produced by which validators in the past, as well as the current era's future block production committees. For the latter, it is possible to see past and current ABFT finalization scores for the finalization committee. Regardless mode, the Performance tab displays session and era information. Depends on the Performance tab mode, it can be either `past session` , `current session` , or `future session` - those are self-explanatory. The `era` number displayed always corresponds to chosen session number You can change session number either by: * clicking on the `Previous session` or `Next session` buttons, * inputting manually session number. The text box has automatic session number validation - must be a number between a certain range, as hint in the text box states. After putting session number, press ENTER or click on the button on the right to the text box. Then there are three toggles, denoting display view of the Performance tab: * `Era validators`: this view displays list of the chosen era validators. * `Block production committee`: displays block production committee for the chosen session. There's committee size displayed, and expected block count (calculated as number of block in a session divided by era validators size). Then there's a table displaying detailed view of each validator's block production performance. As in the Overview or the Targets tab, you can filter list by Account ID or identity. In the `current session` mode, the numbers are refreshing in real-time. In the `future session` mode, the `blocks created` is always 0. * `Finality committee`: displays list of the chosen session finalization committee members, together with their ABFT performance scores. The `abft score` can lay down in the three categories: * `Ideal performance` - the validator is no more than 4 units behind, * `Acceptable performance` - the validator is from 4 to 11 units behind, * `Under-performance` - the validator is more than 11 units behind. In the current AlephNode chain context, this means respectively that the validator's finalization is no more behind than 0.8s, 2.2s, more than 2.2s respectively. ## Future Committee

Future committees on the Aleph Zero Testnet

The Future Committee tab displays information about next **block production** committees, withing the **current era**. The list contains all era validators. The current session block production committee members have the green tick in `current session committee` column. Regardless being in the current session committee, each validator on the list has next session in which they will be in the block production committee, or information that they won't be in the current era. You should use that tab to plan maintenance or upgrade of your node, and choose session in which your are **not** in the committee. ## Suspensions

Suspensions is a mechanism to penalize validators for insufficient performance that is less severe than slashing. A validator can be automatically suspended for underperforming a certain number of sessions in a short time period. In such a case, a validator is removed from the era committee and cannot join back until the suspension period is over. The above screenshot comes from the Testnet, where suspensions happen quite often, as there are no financial incentives to keep the nodes in good condition. There are two kinds of suspension that might happen to a validator, if they does not meet criteria for any of those two metrics: 1. Block production performance: there's an expected number of blocks a validator should produce in a session, 2. ABFT performance: the distance beetween a head of a DAG to the validator's DAG head. The less distance is better.