Nominator
A nominator is a TAO holder who stakes with a validator in Bittensor delegation vocabulary (Glossary: Nominator, Staking and delegation overview).
The term names the supplying side of the staking relationship. It should be read separately from the validator role that receives delegated stake and performs validation work.
Delegation Role
In Bittensor staking vocabulary, a nominator supplies TAO support to a validator. A delegate is the receiving validator role, while a nominator is the holder role supplying delegated stake (Glossary: Delegate, Glossary: Nominator).
This keeps the relationship clear: nominator names the TAO-holder role, nominate names the staking action, and delegate names the receiving validator role.
The Glossary: Nominator entry is specific about the target: a nominator stakes TAO on a validator’s hotkey, not on the validator as a general identity. The hotkey is the staking destination that ties nominator support to a particular validator instance.
Nominate and Stake Context
Nominate is the action vocabulary for staking TAO with a validator. Nominator is the role label for the holder associated with that action (Glossary: Nominate, Glossary: Nominator).
Stake is the related amount vocabulary. Delegated TAO contributes to the validator’s stake context, while the nominator term identifies who supplied that support (Glossary: Stake, Staking and delegation overview).
Wallet Authority Boundary
Nominator describes the holder side of a delegated-stake relationship, not control over the validator’s wallet. Bittensor wallet documentation keeps wallet authority tied to key ownership, while delegation documentation describes staking TAO to validators (Bittensor wallets, Staking and delegation overview).
That boundary keeps role vocabulary separate from custody. A nominator can supply delegated stake without receiving the validator’s private keys or becoming the validator account.
Emissions and Dividends
Nominators sit in the broader staking-emissions picture through delegated stake. Emissions documentation distinguishes validator dividends and staking roles from miner incentives (Glossary: Nominator, Emission: Distribution).
That does not make nominator a reward quote or validator ranking term. It names the role that supplies delegated TAO support; dividends are an outcome term in the emission system.
Development Stage Context
The Introduction to Bittensor describes subnet development as moving from localnet to testnet and then mainnet. Nominator examples from one environment should not be treated as evidence for another because validator sets, balances, and delegation relationships are environment-specific (Bittensor Networks).
Localnet examples can test nomination wiring in isolation. Testnet examples add shared non-production staking state. Mainnet nominator interpretation concerns production delegation relationships on the active network.
Relationship to Yuma Consensus
Nominator and Yuma Consensus describe related parts of Bittensor’s incentive system. Yuma Consensus is the on-chain process that aggregates validator weight signals within a subnet into miner incentives and validator dividends, applying consensus clipping, bonding, and emission calculation (Yuma Consensus).
For readers, nominator names a specific part of that incentive picture, while Yuma Consensus names the consensus process that turns validator weights into the resulting incentives and dividends.
Reader Boundary
Nominator should not be collapsed into delegate. The nominator supplies support, and the delegate receives support as the validator role (Glossary: Nominator, Glossary: Delegate).
The role label does not by itself identify a subnet, validator, balance, or reward outcome.
Delegated Stake Adds to Effective Stake
Official delegation vocabulary describes nominators as TAO holders who stake with validators. That delegated TAO combines with a delegate’s own stake to form effective stake, the total staked amount associated with the receiving validator (Glossary: Delegate).
Nominator language names the supplying side of that total. Effective stake names the combined backing behind the validator after both self-stake and nomination are counted.
Validator Take Splits the Nominator Return
Emission: Distribution documentation places validator take inside the distribution stage that follows consensus. The validator keeps its configured share from emissions tied to delegated stake before the remainder flows to stakers.
That split explains why nomination does not automatically mean receiving the full validator-side emission total. Take vocabulary names the validator-kept portion; nominator vocabulary names the TAO-holder role whose return depends on that later split (Staking and delegation overview).
Nominate Is the On-Chain Staking Action
The Glossary: Nominate names the action of staking TAO with a validator, while nominator names the holder role associated with that relationship. Delegation documentation treats nomination as attaching TAO support to a chosen validator rather than transferring wallet control (Glossary: Stake).
Readers comparing terms should keep action and role separate. Nominate describes what a TAO holder does; nominator describes who supplies the delegated support in staking vocabulary.