If QRL 2.0's Proof-of-Stake replaces miners with validators, the obvious question is: what does a validator actually do, and what's at stake? This guide answers that.
What a validator is
A validator is a participant that has locked up QRL as a security deposit and, in exchange, is allowed to take part in consensus. Its job is two-fold:
- Propose blocks when chosen (relatively rare), and
- Attest to blocks it sees as valid (frequent) — these votes are how the network agrees on the canonical chain.
Validators are identified by an index and a public key. On QRL 2.0 those keys are post-quantum (ML-DSA-87), not the BLS keys other Proof-of-Stake chains use — consistent with QRL's quantum-resistant design.
Staking: skin in the game
To become a validator you stake — deposit QRL to the protocol as collateral. That deposit is the heart of Proof-of-Stake security: it gives the validator something to lose. Behave honestly and the stake is safe and earns rewards; cheat in a provable way and part of it is destroyed.
Staking your deposit is what lets the network trust a validator without trusting the person — the economics do the work.
Rewards and penalties
The incentive structure is symmetrical:
- Rewards — for proposing and attesting correctly. On QRL 2.0 these reach validators as protocol withdrawals, not as mined block rewards.
- Inactivity penalties — small amounts lost for being offline and failing to attest. These are gentle nudges, not punishment.
- Slashing — a serious penalty that burns a portion of the stake for provable misbehaviour, such as proposing two conflicting blocks. Slashing is rare and reserved for clear attacks on the chain.
Tracking validators on Quantascan
This explorer surfaces the validator set directly. You can:
- browse the validators page for the leaderboard and decentralisation metrics,
- open a single validator to see its consensus performance, and
- watch validator-reward withdrawals and any penalties.
Running a validator node itself — the hardware, the client setup, the deposit flow — is outside this explorer's scope. Start from the QRL foundation's official documentation.
Where to go next
- Slots, epochs and the beacon chain — the timing validators work to.
- Slashing explained — what gets a validator penalised.
- Withdrawals explained — how rewards are paid out.