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The orchestrator and delegator roles are two sides of one economic engine. An orchestrator earns from two independent streams, and shares a configurable portion of each with its delegators. Understanding this split is what lets either side make good decisions.

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Two revenue streams

The streams are structurally independent. Fees track how much work you do; rewards track how much stake you have. Both require active-set membership.

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Service fees (ETH)

Gateways pay with probabilistic micropayment tickets. Each ticket has a face value and a win probability; the orchestrator redeems only winning tickets on-chain for ETH. Over many tickets, earnings converge to face value × win probability. How fees are split is set by the orchestrator’s fee share (feeShare) — the percentage of fees passed through to delegators:
A feeShare of 80% means delegators share 80% of fee revenue and the orchestrator keeps 20%. For delegators, higher feeShare is better.
Current Explorer surfaces label this Fee Share (the part passed to delegators), not “fee cut.” Read it as: higher is better for delegators.

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Inflation rewards (LPT)

The protocol mints new LPT each round. An active orchestrator’s pool receives a share proportional to its total bonded stake — but only if it calls reward() that round. A missed call forfeits that round’s LPT for the whole pool, permanently. How the pool is split is set by the reward cut (rewardCut) — the percentage the orchestrator keeps:
For delegators, lower rewardCut is better. rewardCut and feeShare move in opposite directions, which is a common source of confusion — see the table below.

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The two settings, side by side

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A worked example (delegator’s view)

Suppose in one round:
  • 900 LPT of issuance is available to delegators and orchestrators (after any treasury cut),
  • your orchestrator controls 5% of total bonded stake → its pool gets 45 LPT,
  • its rewardCut is 10% → delegators share 40.5 LPT,
  • you hold 10% of that pool’s stake.
Your reward for the round is 4.05 LPT. If many more delegators join the same orchestrator after you, your slice of the pool shrinks — your percentage of the pool is what matters, not the absolute stake.

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Why inflation matters even if you don’t operate

The protocol targets a bonding rate (~50% of LPT bonded) and adjusts inflation to steer toward it: under-bonded → inflation rises to attract stake; over-bonded → inflation falls to reduce dilution. Issuance can also carry a treasury cut (LIP-92 set 10%, currently paused at its balance ceiling). The practical takeaway for both roles: the mint rate is not static — check the live values rather than an old annualized figure.

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An orchestrator’s costs

Earnings are only half the picture. Orchestrator costs fall into three buckets:
  • Hardware — GPU(s), server, networking (capital, amortized).
  • Infrastructure — electricity, bandwidth, colocation/cloud (electricity is usually the largest recurring cost).
  • Staking opportunity cost — LPT locked in self-bond can’t be used elsewhere.
Unlike gateways, orchestrators don’t pay for the jobs they process — they’re paid. Very low-stake orchestrators should also check that reward-call gas doesn’t exceed the LPT earned; if so, disable automatic reward calling until stake grows (see Configure).

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Next

Set pricing (orchestrator)

Price competitively so gateways select you.

Choose an orchestrator (delegator)

Use these settings to compare operators.

Governance & the treasury

Where the treasury cut goes — and the vote your stake carries.