With cryptocurrency, one way to make a profit is to sell your investment when the market price increases. There are other ways to make money in crypto, like staking. With staking, you can put your digital assets to work and earn passive income without selling them. In some ways, staking is similar to depositing cash in a high-yield savings account. Banks lend out your deposits, and you earn interest on your account balance. In theory, staking isn’t too different from the bank deposit model, but the analogy only goes so far. Here’s what you need to know about crypto staking. Staking is when you lock crypto assets for a set period of time to help support the operation of a blockchain. In return for staking your crypto, you earn more cryptocurrency. Many blockchains use a proof of stake consensus mechanism. Under this system, network participants who want to support the blockchain by validating new transactions and adding new blocks must “stake” set sums of cryptocurrency. Staking helps ensure that only legitimate data and transactions are added to a blockchain. Participants trying to earn a chance to validate new transactions offer to lock up sums of cryptocurrency in staking as a form of insurance. If they improperly validate flawed or fraudulent data, they may lose some or all of their stake as a penalty. But if they validate correct, legitimate transactions and data, they earn more crypto as a reward.
Full explainer : What Is Staking In Crypto: How Does It Work.