# Staking In order to become a **Maintainer** in Swaps.io, one is required to stake a certain amount of tokens. This staking mechanism serves as a form of a security deposit and incentivizes **Maintainers** to act in the network's best interests. It ensures internal coordination and protects against possible misconduct or abuse. In any distributed network, there is a risk that malicious actors could attempt to manipulate the system, for instance, by requesting more rewards than they are entitled to. The consensus algorithm and staking mechanism in Swaps.io work together to mitigate these risks. Swaps.io employs a robust consensus algorithm to maintain cooperation among all system participants and safeguard against potential malicious actions. This consensus protocol facilitates secure and efficient coordination within the network, ensuring that all transactions and operations are carried out reliably and accurately. If **Maintainers** fail to provide valid proof for the transactions they are responsible for or constantly refuse to execute assigned tasks, they are penalized accordingly based on their impact on the system's integrity. This fine is deducted from their staked tokens, providing a strong disincentive against malicious behavior and promoting the overall security and reliability of Swaps.io. It is worth noting that **Maintainers** are not responsible for validating transactions or verifying light client updates. The staking does not guarantee the correctness of proofs because they cannot be invalid by design. As the network's security is provided by ZK technology, a transaction fails when someone tries to provide an invalid proof. Therefore, the staking mechanism is designed primarily to distribute the work among the nodes fairly and maintain consensus between them, as well as to ensure the timely provision of proofs and, accordingly, keep the network up to date. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.swaps.io/swaps.io-protocol/staking.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.