With direct nomination, you can select up to 16 validators. Polkadot's election process selects the active validator set for each era, which lasts approximately 24 hours. The status of each nominated validator describes its position in the current era and whether your stake is backing it.

Active: The validator is in the active set and your stake is backing it for the current era. You may be eligible for rewards, but payment is not guaranteed or immediate.

Inactive: The validator is in the active set, but your stake is not backing it for the current era.

Waiting: The validator is not in the active set for the current era. Newly submitted nominations may also appear as waiting before they take effect.

Your stake must actively back at least one elected validator to be eligible for direct-staking rewards. The network usually assigns a nominator's stake to one validator per era, so it is normal for other nominations to appear inactive or waiting.

The minimum amount needed to submit a nomination is not the same as the dynamic minimum active nomination. Check the current threshold and your nomination status in the Polkadot staking dashboard. New nominations can take approximately one to two eras to become active. If no nomination is active after this period, check the minimum number of active nominations and whether your chosen validators are in the active set.

Rewards also depend on validator performance. An elected validator that earns no era points earns no era-point rewards for its nominators that era. Earned rewards are paid only after a payout is triggered on Polkadot Hub (Asset Hub). Anyone can trigger an eligible payout; unclaimed direct-staking rewards expire after 84 eras.

These status and payout details describe direct nomination. If you are a nomination-pool member, check your pool's status and reward controls instead.

For more information on staking Polkadot (DOT) with P2P.org and our special offer for large DOT delegations, visit https://p2p.org/polkadot.

For additional staking support, visit the P2P.org Polkadot Help Center

You can also contact a live agent by selecting the speech bubble at the bottom right of this page, sending a message to the Telegram bot, or emailing letsgo@p2p.org.

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