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Stakers
Stakers using the ssv network come in various forms; these are mainly staking services/providers, staking pools, or individual ETH holders that supply the initially required capital to enable validators on the beacon chain. To enable the operation of a validator, stakers must pay a fee in SSV to their chosen operators for them to manage their validator(s). Users that leverage the network’s SSV/DVT technology will promote optimal liveness, security, and decentralization for their validator(s).

## Validator Onboarding

To run a validator through the network a user must distribute their validator key to their selected group of operators and register it to the network’s smart contract.
This can be done via the web app interface or through the smart contracts and developer tools (see get started guide).

### Operational Costs

The associated costs for running validators on the ssv network are determined by operator fees and network fees.
With the network embracing a free-market approach, where operators set their own fees, the cost for each validator will vary based on its operator setup.
In addition to fees, there’s a minimum balance requirement, known as liquidation collateral, that has to be deposited for each validator a user runs through the network.

### Payment Account

Payments are facilitated by maintaining an account balance in the ssv network smart contract.
Accounts created when registering validators to the network are accessible and owned by the wallet address that transmitted the transaction.

### Validator Funding

A user's account must be funded with the appropriate amount of SSV to carry their validator’s operational costs.
• To calculate how much funding is needed to run each validator according to a certain operation period and the required liquidation collateral:
$Required\;Funding= (O1_{fee}+O2_{fee}+O3_{fee}+O4_{fee}+N_{fee})*(Runway + LTP)$
• Legend
• $O1\dots4_{fee}$
- operator fee ($SSV per block) • $N_{fee}$ - network fee ($SSV per block)
• $Runway$
- operation period (blocks)
• $LTP$
- liquidation threshold period (blocks)
Validator Funding Example
Assuming there are 100 blocks per day, operators and network fee of 0.001 SSV (per block) and a liquidation period of 1 month, the required funding for 1 year of operation period would be 197.5 SSV = ((0.01 + 0.01 + 0.01 + 0.01 + 0.01) * 100 * (365+30)).
Please note that maintaining your validators operational runway is essential and a user could always deposit more balance to their account, or withdraw as they see fit.