The Open Network (TON)

Validators

Kiln offers both Pooled and Single Nominator contracts for TON staking. Below are the specifics of each solution.

If you plan to stake through Single Nominator, please contact your Kiln CSM to set up your dedicated contracts.

Staking mechanics

Stake activation time	Next Epoch (~18 hours)
Stake lock-up time	One Epoch (~18 hours) + 9 hours
Re-delegating activation time	Instant
Rewards frequency	First rewards: First epoch after funds where send to single nominator contract Rewards frequency: every epoch (~18 hours).
Auto-compounding	Yes
Minimum requirement	Pooled: 10 TON Single Nominator Pool: 700k TON
Maximal optimal stake per pool	The optimal stake is correlated to how the elector smart contract selects the validators and their effective stake. It currently works the following way: For each epoch, the elector selects all the candidates of more than 300k TON For each epoch, the elector selects all the candidates of more than 300k TON The elector orders all those candidates in descending order If there are more candidates than the maximum possible (Currently 400) the elector trims the candidates in the lower end All those 400 or fewer candidates will then enter the active set A parameter called the max_factor outlines that the maximum effective stake can only be as high as the minimum stake that entered the active set multiplied by the max_factor. Currently, this max_factor is 3 and the minimum active stake for each epoch is usually seating around 400k-500k TON making the maximum effective stake around 1.2M-1.5M TON. Depending on the staking solution the maximum per pool varies: Single Nominator pool: Each pool can accommodate a maximum of two validators—one for even epochs and another for odd epochs. Assuming 400k TON as the minimum active stake, a pool with two validators can hold up to 2.4M TON while still maintaining optimal rewards. Pooled contract: The pool automatically balances the total pool amount across the optimal number of validators, with no limit on validators per pool. This makes it the easiest "stake and forget" solution, as it eliminates the need to manually balance funds across pools.
Active set	Yes (400 validators)
Slashing	Yes, if validator is idle or behaves maliciously can get slashed.
Relationship between validator stake balance and rewards	Linear. The more stake balance there is on the validator, the more rewards it will earn, until max_factor (detailed above).

Staking workflow

What is the staking process?	Single Nominator pool: Once your dedicated contract is deployed, you can send funds directly to it Pooled contract: Simply specify your desired staking amount, and the pool automatically handles all validation processes
Do funds move out to another wallet?	Funds move to the contract (single nominator contract or pooled contract) which the user owns and can withdraw at any time.
Can I keep staking/unstaking from/to the same wallet?	Yes
Can I select how much of my wallet balance I want to stake?	Yes
How does auto-compounding work?	After every epoch the additional TON earned is used to generate additional rewards
How do I unstake?	You can unstake by withdrawing from the contract (single nominator contract or pooled contract). The funds will become available in the following epoch after they are no longer being used for validation.
Can I unstake part of the staked balance?	Yes, you can select the amount of tokens you want to unstake
What is the slashing risk?	Downtime: During an epoch if a validator signed less than a certain threshold of the blocks, he will get slashed for 101 TON Double signing: Validator won't be able to validate for the epoch so it will get the downtime slashing
How is commission paid?	Single Nominator pool: Commissions are invoiced to the customer as there is no commission dispatching on chain for the single nominator contract. Pooled contract: Commissions are taken onchain.
Is the single nominator smart contract custodial?	No, this staking is 100% non custodial as the user holds the private key of the wallet that can withdraw from the single nominator contract. The validator can only "Borrow" the TON in order to validate and gives it back at the end of the epoch. At a protocol level there's no way a validator can use the funds for any other task

Staking guide

The Open Network (TON)