What is a “validator”?

Mohamed DW
2 min readNov 8, 2022

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A validator is a member of a consortium blockchain network who is responsible for validating transactions and maintaining the ledger. What they do as a validator is verifies whether a transaction is valid or not.

To put it in simpler words, a validator is a person or entity that validates digital transactions. In the context of cryptocurrency, a validator is a person or entity that verifies the legitimacy of a digital transaction by ensuring that it is valid according to the rules of the cryptocurrency’s protocol.

So why validator is important in cryptocurrency protocol?

A validator is important in a cryptocurrency protocol because it helps to ensure the security of the network. Validators help to verify transactions and blocks, and they also help to keep the network secure by keeping track of the validator set.

It is also the same with blockchain in general, the validator is important in blockchain protocol because it is responsible for validating the blocks of transactions that are added to the blockchain. Without a validator, it would be possible for someone to add invalid or fraudulent transactions to the blockchain, which would undermine the trustworthiness of the entire system.

What happens if there are not enough validators?

If there are not enough validators, then the protocol may not be able to function properly. This could lead to errors and/or delays in transactions, and may even cause the protocol to fail entirely.

Apart from that, we can also say the other crucial function of the validator in any protocol is to keep a record of all the transactions that take place in the network, to ensure that all the nodes in the network have a copy of the same blockchain, and to prevent double-spending.

So to recap, there are three main functions of a validator on a blockchain, they are to validate transactions, to produce new blocks, and to maintain the blockchain.

Therefore we can conclude that the validator is important in the blockchain network as they are responsible for validating new blocks of transactions. Without validators, the blockchain network would not be able to function as it would be unable to reach a consensus on which transactions are valid.

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Mohamed DW

General Knowledge | Web 3 | Random Stuff | Rational Optimist