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Where Nimiq staking rewards come from

Last updated Written by the ImpactZero validator team

In short

Staking rewards are newly issued NIM plus the transaction fees collected in a batch. The protocol pays them to the validator's reward address every batch, and the payment for one batch is made at the end of the following one. Validators then distribute to their stakers off chain, under their own policy.

Two ingredients, combined once a batch

A Nimiq staking reward is made of exactly two things, and the developer documentation states it in one line: the rewards comprise the coinbase and transaction fees.

  • The coinbase. NIM the protocol newly issues at the end of each batch. This is new supply, created by the chain itself under its issuance schedule. Unlike Bitcoin, where the coinbase is per block and halves every few years, Nimiq's is calculated per batch.
  • The transaction fees. The fees paid by everyone who sent a transaction during that batch, pooled and added to the coinbase. The sender sets the fee, and staking transactions themselves carry none.

Add them together and you have the batch reward. Notice what is not in the list: nothing is taken from other stakers, nothing is contributed by the validator, and nothing arrives from outside the protocol. Staking rewards on Nimiq are issuance plus usage, and nothing else.

This is the single most load bearing fact on the page, and almost every generic explainer skips it.

The batch reward is paid to the reward address of the validator that held the slot. Not to you. The documentation is explicit that while validators receive their rewards on chain, they distribute rewards to stakers off chain, according to their arrangements with their stakers.

So there are two distinct steps with completely different properties, and conflating them is the source of most confusion about Nimiq staking.

Step 1: protocol to validator Step 2: validator to staker
Who performs it Consensus, automatically The operator, by its own arrangement
Where it happens On chain, in the batch reward Off chain
Timing Every batch, fixed by the protocol Whatever schedule the validator publishes
Amount Proportional to slots held The validator's published split, minus its fee
Enforced by The chain Reputation

That right hand column is why choosing a validator is a real decision rather than a formality. The left hand column is identical no matter who you delegate to. The right hand column is not.

Every batch, one batch late

The protocol pays the reward address every batch, and the payment for a given batch is made at the end of the following batch.

The delay is not an implementation quirk, it is a safety property. If a validator misbehaves in the last block of a batch, the network needs a window in which that offence can still be proved before the reward for the batch is handed over. Paying one batch in arrears creates that window, so a proof submitted just after the fact can still burn the reward it should burn.

None of that is visible to a staker. It sets the rhythm of the validator's income, not yours, and it is worth knowing mainly so that the next section does not surprise you.

What decides a validator's share

Slots. Every epoch, the election macro block shares 512 slots among validators in proportion to total stake, which is the validator's own deposit plus everything delegated to it. The batch reward is then spread evenly across slots, so a validator holding 50 slots receives more than one holding 15, in that proportion.

Two consequences follow, and both matter more than any rate.

  • Your delegation increases your validator's slot count, not your own. You have no slots. You are part of the weight that earns your validator its slots, and your share of what they produce is a matter between you and the operator.
  • A validator with no slots in an epoch earns nothing that epoch, however much stake is sitting behind it and whatever fee it charges. Registered is not elected.

The ways a reward becomes nothing

Rewards are not a constant background process. The protocol has several ordinary states in which the flow stops, and all of them show up as "my stake is not earning".

  • Stake with no delegation. Stake that names no validator is not eligible for rewards at all. It is not idle in a slightly worse sense; it simply is not staking.
  • A validator that is not elected. No slots, no blocks, no batch reward, so nothing to distribute.
  • A missed block. The reward for that slot is burned. A validator holding 15 slots that delays one block collects 14 of the 15 slot rewards.
  • A jailed validator. After equivocation, the rewards for all of its slots are burned and it receives nothing for at least eight epochs.
  • Inactive or retired balances. Only the active balance counts toward a validator. The moment you deactivate part of your stake, that part stops earning, for the whole of the wait described in how to unstake NIM.

Note what is absent from that list: none of these take your delegated principal. Nimiq punishes validators by burning rewards and by jailing, not by confiscating what stakers delegated.

Why "when am I paid" has a validator answer

Put the pieces together and the most commonly asked staking question turns out to be addressed to the wrong party.

The protocol's answer is fixed and identical for everyone: every batch, one batch in arrears, to the validator's reward address. Your answer is set entirely in step two, and step two is a policy. Some operators restake your share into your delegation so it compounds. Some send NIM to your address. Some publish an interval, some publish a cron expression, some publish nothing. Nimiq's own staking FAQ says the same thing: the periodicity and the method are the validator's, not the protocol's.

Which makes it a question to ask before delegating rather than after. The validators page shows each operator's declared payout type and schedule from the live list, and choosing a validator covers how to read a blank one.

Why there is no rate on this page

You will have noticed there is no percentage anywhere above. That is deliberate, and the reasoning is worth stating rather than hiding.

A reward rate is the output of at least three moving inputs: how much NIM is staked across the whole network, which divides the same issuance among more or fewer coins; whether your particular validator is elected and online, which is re-decided every epoch; and what that validator's off chain policy actually sends you. We can describe all three mechanisms honestly. We cannot turn them into a number that stays true, and a number printed here today would be quietly wrong within weeks while continuing to look authoritative.

So: no APY, no calculator, no projection, no worked example with a figure in it. Nimiq publishes its own estimate on its official staking page, with its own disclaimer attached. Read any rate, including that one, as variable and unpromised. Rewards on this network are never guaranteed or fixed, by anyone, including us.

Check it on the chain

The on chain half of this is fully public. Look up any validator's reward address in our block explorer and the batch rewards are there, arriving batch after batch. The validators page shows each one's stake, fee and declared payout policy from live data. If you have not staked yet, how to stake NIM covers the delegation itself, and the rest of the Learn hub covers the chain underneath it.

Nothing on this page is financial advice, we publish no price figures anywhere on this site, and nothing here should be read as a promise of any return.

Questions people ask

Where do Nimiq staking rewards actually come from?
Two sources, combined once per batch. The coinbase is NIM the protocol newly issues at the end of each batch, and the transaction fees are the fees paid by everyone who transacted during that batch. Together they are the batch reward. Nothing is taken from anyone else who is staking, and nothing comes from the validator.
Does the protocol pay stakers directly?
No, and this is the fact everything else follows from. The protocol pays the whole batch reward to the reward address of the validator that holds the slot. Distribution to stakers happens off chain, handled by the validator according to its arrangements with them. The chain sees one payment to one address.
How often are Nimiq staking rewards paid?
The protocol pays validators every batch, with the payment for one batch made at the end of the following batch. That delay exists so an offence committed in the last block of a batch can still be proved and punished before the reward is handed out. How often a staker receives anything is set by the validator, not the protocol.
What decides how much a validator earns?
Slots. The election block shares 512 slots among validators in proportion to total stake, which is the validator deposit plus everything delegated to it, and the batch reward is spread evenly across slots. More stake means more slots means a larger share of each batch. A validator with no slots in an epoch earns nothing that epoch.
Why does staked NIM sometimes earn nothing?
Several ordinary reasons. Stake not delegated to any validator is not eligible for rewards. A validator that is registered but not elected produces no blocks. A missed block burns the reward for that slot. A jailed validator has its rewards burned for at least eight epochs. And inactive or retired balances are outside the active balance that earns.
What is auto restaking?
A payout method, not a protocol feature. A validator that restakes adds your share to your delegated stake instead of sending it to your address, so it compounds. A validator that pays directly sends NIM to you. Both happen off chain in the distribution step, and the validators list states which one an operator uses.
What reward rate can I expect?
We do not publish one. A rate depends on the total NIM staked across the network, on whether your validator is elected and online, and on the payout policy it applies off chain. All three move. Nimiq publishes its own estimate on its official staking page with its own disclaimer; treat any rate, including that one, as variable rather than promised.

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