Unichain White Paper: Node operators need to stake UNI tokens on the Ethereum mainnet to become UVN validators

ChainCatcher message, the Unichain white paper states that to become a validator in UVN, node operators must stake UNI tokens on the Ethereum mainnet. The staking status is tracked in Unichain's smart contract, which receives notifications of staking and withdrawal operations through a native bridge. Unichain's blocks are divided into fixed-length Epochs. At the beginning of each Epoch, the current staked balance is snapshot, and Unichain chain fees are collected and calculated for the reward value of each staked token.

Participants can also stake and vote for validators, thereby increasing the staking weight of that validator. A limited number of validators with the highest staking weight will be considered the active set and will be eligible to publish proofs and receive the designated rewards for that Epoch.