Validator
A staked network participant that proposes and attests blocks in Proof of Stake — rewarded for uptime, slashed for cheating.
A validator runs the software that proposes and attests blocks on a Proof-of-Stake network, with coins staked as collateral. Selection is stake-weighted; rewards flow from issuance and fees; provable misbehavior (double-signing) or extended downtime costs stake via slashing. Ethereum requires 32 ETH per validator; other chains vary widely in entry cost and validator-set size.
Validators are PoS’s miners-equivalent — but the role is bonded and accountable rather than purely computational. Decentralization health checks: how many independent validators, what stake share do the top few control, and how much sits with liquid-staking intermediaries. Delegators share rewards and, on many chains, share slashing — choosing operators is part of the risk.