# 3.6. Node Sales & Staking for AI Agents

**3.6.1. How It Works**

Choose your participation model:

* **Run a Node**: Stake **$AAA** tokens + hardware investment.
* **Rent a Node**: Pay-as-you-go **cloud access** for AI compute power.

*“Become a validator or leverage shared AI compute power.”*

**3.6.2. Node Tiers & Requirements**

| **Tier**   | **Use Case**        | **$AAA Stake** | **Hardware**            |
| ---------- | ------------------- | -------------- | ----------------------- |
| **Light**  | Data validation     | 100K           | VPS (2 CPU, 4GB RAM)    |
| **Medium** | Content generation  | 500K           | Dedicated server        |
| **Pro**    | LLM/DeFi processing | 1M+            | GPU cluster (A100/H100) |

**Key Q\&A:**

* **Rewards**: 8-15% APY (network-dependent).
* **Lock-up**: 90-day minimum stake.
* **Slashing**: 1-5% penalty for downtime > 1%.
* **Delegation**: Yes, with a 10% fee via smart contracts.

**3.6.3. Economics**

* **Node Operators Earn**:
  * **Block rewards** + **ecosystem revenue share**.
  * **ROI**: 6-18 months (varies by tier).
* **Renters Pay**:
  * **$0.10 – $5/hour** (based on resources used).

**3.6.4. Tech Specs**

* **Decentralization**: Rented nodes capped at **20%** of the network.
* **Security**: **ZKP-based** node auditing for transparent validation.

*“Nodes power the AI economy. Be a validator, resource provider, or consumer.”*


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# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
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```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.