Validator

A validator is a server that participates in TON’s consensus. Unlike proof-of-work, where compute decides who writes the next block, TON uses proof-of-stake: validators lock (stake) a substantial amount of TON as collateral, and voting weight is proportional to stake.

Minimum threshold

Running a full validator node in 2025–2026 requires staking around 300,000 TON (the exact number is governance-tunable). That’s hundreds of thousands of dollars — accessible to companies or foundations, not to a single retail user.

Nominators and pools

To let smaller holders participate, TON has nominator pools: a user delegates TON to a pool, the pool runs a validator, and rewards are distributed proportionally.

The major pools:

• Tonstakers — the largest by TVL.
• Hipo — issues a liquid-staking token, hTON.
• bemo — also issues a liquid-staking token, stTON.

The minimum stake in a pool is typically 1 TON.

How consensus works

Validators are selected per cycle (~18 hours) at random, weighted by stake. Each round assigns a committee of validators to each shard; the committee votes on blocks. A validator that misses a vote or attempts to cheat (double-signing) gets part of its stake slashed.

Current pool staking yield is roughly 3–5% APR in TON.