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Staking activates Arx nodes, determines Cluster eligibility, and weights reward distribution and leader selection.

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Operation requirements

Three requirements govern an Arx node’s participation:
  1. Registration stores the Arx node’s metadata, including its declared CU capacity (cu_capacity_claim). Stake requirements govern activation and Cluster eligibility.
  2. Activation requires the Node Operator to self-delegate at least 1,000 ARX. Additional self-delegation and third-party delegation increase the Arx node’s stake.
  3. Cluster eligibility requires the Arx node’s primary stake to meet a floor set by the Cluster’s mempool size:
Because activation already requires 1,000 ARX, that is the effective minimum for tiny, small, and medium Clusters. Large Clusters require 10,000 ARX. The program checks these requirements when a Cluster authority invites an Arx node and when the operator reduces its primary stake.

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Delegation flow

Once activated, an Arx node can receive additional stake from its Node Operator and third-party delegators. Delegation increases its stake-weighted share of rewards and leader weight.

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Delegation mechanics

  • Lockups: Delegated stake has a minimum lockup of four epochs. Primary stake has a minimum lockup of eight epochs.
  • Maturation: A stake change joins the Arx node’s reward and leader totals after two epoch-settlement rotations through the pending-stake queue.
  • Rewards: Each Arx node’s share is pot × node_stake / cluster_total_stake, where node_stake = primary_stake + delegated_stake.
  • Recovery Peers: Recovery Peers receive a separate stake-weighted reward share for an MPC eXecution Environment (MXE) they support.
  • Delegator payout: Delegators receive a pro-rata share of their Arx node’s rewards after the Node Operator’s percentage fee.
Epoch settlement records reward claims. Delegators claim accrued rewards to a destination account. A delegator can undelegate after the lockup ends, then withdraw after the removal matures through the settlement queue.

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Epoch-based rewards

Rewards are settled by epoch. Withdrawing stake or switching a delegation to another Arx node follows the same maturation process. For computation charges, see Pricing and incentives.

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Fee allocation

When epoch settlement is current, computation revenue is allocated as:
  • 70% Cluster pot: Distributed stake-weighted to the Cluster’s Arx nodes.
  • 20% Recovery Peer pot: Distributed stake-weighted to the MXE’s Recovery Peers.
  • Protocol fee pool: Retains the remainder, including integer rounding.
For a failed computation, the program allocates half of the base-plus-priority execution fee and the full callback reserve to rewards. It does not refund the unallocated half of the execution fee to the payer. Arx nodes and Recovery Peers must settle each epoch to keep their reward pools current and continue accruing their shares.

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Leader weight

Leader weights are refreshed during epoch settlement and use each Arx node’s primary plus delegated stake. The program applies the D’Hondt method across dispatches. When a valid leader choice is available, it can take one dispatch slot; otherwise priority-fee and account-lock ordering apply. This gives Arx nodes a stake-weighted opportunity to influence execution order without replacing the Cluster’s priority-fee market.

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Example workflow

To illustrate how the delegation process works:
  1. A Node Operator self-delegates stake to activate an Arx node.
  2. Third-party delegators contribute additional stake.
  3. The Arx node executes computations with its Cluster and accrues a stake-weighted share of the Cluster reward pot.
  4. Epoch settlement records claims, which delegators can withdraw to a destination account.
Key points:
  • Arx nodes need sufficient stake to activate and join Clusters.
  • Rewards are distributed stake-weighted across Cluster members and MXE Recovery Peers.
  • Stake changes have minimum lockups and mature through epoch settlement.