Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) is a form of Proof-of-Stake in which token holders use their economic or voting power to select a limited set of participants responsible for producing or confirming blocks. These participants may be called delegates, block producers, or other protocol-specific names.

In a conventional PoS model, users may directly delegate assets to validators, while DPoS often places greater emphasis on voting for a limited set of block producers. The exact implementation differs significantly between blockchains, so DPoS should not be reduced to one universal formula.

Basic DPoS model

  1. token holders receive a defined amount of voting power;
  2. they vote for participants that will perform block-production duties;
  3. selected participants operate according to the protocol's schedule or rules;
  4. they may receive rewards for correct operation;
  5. token holders can change their votes according to the network's governance mechanism.

DPoS can limit the number of active block producers, which may simplify coordination and support higher throughput in a particular architecture. At the same time, the distribution of influence depends on how voting works and how widely tokens and voting rights are distributed.

DPoS should be distinguished from the general concept of delegation. Delegation can be one operation within a PoS system, while DPoS describes a broader consensus architecture in which token-holder voting is used to select block producers.