Proof of Stake Validator Reward Share

Commission is the validator's cut of the protocol-issued block reward — new tokens created by the chain for securing it. MEV (maximal extractable value) is a separate income stream from transaction ordering — the extra profit a validator can extract by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions within a block. On Ethereum, MEV is often 2–5× larger than the protocol reward itself, and different validators pass on different amounts of it to delegators. Some pass on 100%, some keep it all, and it is usually not listed as a commission rate. When evaluating a validator, check both the commission rate and the MEV policy — a validator with 5% commission and 0% MEV passed through may actually pay worse than one with 10% commission and 90% MEV passed through.

From the protocol's issuance schedule plus transaction fees. On Ethereum, block rewards come entirely from priority fees and MEV since the Merge (there is no new ETH issuance for block production, only for attestations). On Solana, the network issues a fixed inflation schedule that declines 15% per year toward a long-term rate of 1.5%. On Cosmos chains, the inflation rate is typically set by governance and often targeted to achieve a specific bonded-stake ratio — if too few tokens are staked, inflation rises to incentivise more bonding. In every case, the reward pool is set by protocol rules, not by validators, and the proportional split applies regardless of how large that pool is.

Not automatically. Commission is one factor, but a validator charging 0% is often a warning sign — they may be running at a loss (and could disappear), or they may be planning to raise commission sharply once they have attracted delegations, or they may be keeping all MEV for themselves to compensate. Consider the whole picture: uptime history, slashing record, length of operation, stake size (very large validators can be bad for decentralisation; very small ones can have higher variance in reward due to missed blocks), and MEV policy. A 5% commission from a validator with a multi-year unblemished record is usually a better delegation than 0% from a validator you know nothing about.

Slashing is the protocol's penalty for provable misbehaviour — most commonly double-signing (voting for two conflicting blocks at the same height) or prolonged downtime. The penalty varies by network. On Ethereum, the initial slashing penalty is 1 ETH plus a correlation penalty that grows if many validators are slashed at the same time; the validator is also ejected. On Cosmos chains, the typical slashing is 5% of the bonded stake for double-signing and 0.01% for downtime. Critically, on most networks the delegators share in the slashing loss — their delegated stake is partially burned along with the validator's. This is why the uptime and slashing history of a validator matters enormously, and why spreading stake across several validators is a common risk-management practice.

Because the reward pool and the total staked amount both change. On many networks the reward pool is set by a fixed issuance schedule (Solana, for example), so as more tokens get staked, the APR falls — the same reward is divided among more stake. On Cosmos chains the inflation rate is often adjusted by governance to hit a target bonded ratio: if staking is below target, inflation rises to attract more stake; if it is above, inflation falls. On Ethereum, the reward per validator falls as the total validator count grows (the base reward per validator scales with the inverse square root of the active validator count), so the APR has fallen from over 20% at the Beacon Chain launch to around 3% today. This is normal and expected — staking yield is not a fixed number.

Not from the protocol reward pool — the proportional rule is enforced by consensus. But there are three ways a validator's effective income can exceed their share. First, MEV: the validator can extract transaction-ordering profit on top of the protocol reward, and this income is not distributed proportionally (it depends on which blocks they propose). Second, commission: the validator keeps a percentage of the delegators' rewards before passing them on, so a validator with a large delegation and high commission can earn more per unit of self-stake than a solo validator. Third, tips: priority fees on busy chains can go almost entirely to the block proposer, which again is not a proportional reward. All three are legitimate parts of PoS economics, but they mean the "proportional share" formula captures only the protocol-issuance part of validator income.

Take the network's gross APR, multiply by (1 − commission), and that is your net APR before slashing or downtime. For example, if the network APR is 5% and your validator charges 10% commission, your net is 5% × 0.90 = 4.5%. If they pass on all MEV, add a fraction of a percent. If they miss 1% of their blocks, subtract a similar amount. Then remember that this yield is paid in the staked token, so your actual return in dollar terms also depends on the token's price change over the period. A 5% staking yield on a token that falls 20% is still a 16% net loss — staking reduces the volatility of holding but does not eliminate the price risk. The share calculation on this page tells you how the validator's portion of the reward pool is split; your delegator yield is that split applied to the network APR.