What is staking?

Staking means putting your TAO behind a validator. In return, you get a share of the rewards that validator earns.

You choose two things: a validator, picked by its hotkey, and where to stake, either on one subnet or on root. Your stake is recorded against that validator, but it stays yours. The validator cannot spend it or send it anywhere.

Validators keep part of the staking rewards for themselves, called the take, and share the rest with the people staking behind them. Those people are called nominators.

Staking also matters to the network. A validator's scores count for more when more stake is behind it, so by choosing a validator you are also choosing whose judgement of the miners carries weight.