Becoming a Validator
Validators are the attesting layer of the Notareum protocol. They approve or reject verification requests, earn NOTA from fee distribution, and put stake at risk through slashing if they misbehave. This guide walks through tier selection, stake deposit, daily limits, and reward mechanics.Requirements at a glance
Higher tiers attest more per day and capture a larger share of the fee pool, but expose more stake to slashing. Pick the tier your operational risk appetite supports.
Full economics are on the Staking and Tiers page.
Prerequisites
- An Ethereum account funded with enough NOTA for the tier you target.
- Native gas for a handful of transactions (approval, stake, later unstake).
- A service or script that subscribes to
VerificationRequestedevents and submits attestations programmatically. Validators who attest manually will not survive at higher tiers.
Step 1: Acquire NOTA
Acquire NOTA on the primary listed DEX/CEX pairs (see Resources for links to official trading venues). Send the tokens to the operator account you plan to use for attestation.Step 2: Approve the staking contract
Step 3: Stake
Step 4: Verify your tier
isActive becomes true immediately and slashCount is 0.
Step 5: Run a notary service
Subscribe toVerificationRequested events, fetch the referenced .nota file, run your policy checks, and submit attestations:
Daily verification limits
Each tier has a daily attestation budget. The contract enforces it atomically per UTC day:Rewards
Attesting with the majority accrues your share of the verification fee pool, multiplied by the tier multiplier. Rewards are distributed in epochs by theFeeManager; see Fee Model for exact math.
Exiting
Callunstake(), wait out the 14-day unbonding window, then call claimStake():
Next
- Slashing
- Validator Network protocol page
- Participating in Governance to vote on protocol parameters

