Validators are individuals or entities responsible for securing and maintaining the Axelar blockchain network. They verify transactions, create new blocks of transactions, and help make decisions about the network's future. To become a validator, they must stake a significant amount of AXL tokens. In return, they receive rewards for their services, which include transaction fees and newly minted AXL tokens. Validators play a crucial role in ensuring the network's security, reliability, and overall success.

Staking Rewards are distributed to the Validators, who then, in turn, take a commission and pass the remainder to the token holders that delegated to them. This commission is determined by the validator, and will depend on the number of nodes they run, the overall complexity of their operation, and the resulting operational costs.

Given higher resources required to maintain the network, the Axelar network implements a minimum validator commission rate on the network of 5% [this parameter can be upgraded by governance, later].

To become a validator, Validators must stake a significant amount of AXL tokens. Delegators are individuals or entities who want to support the network but may not have the resources or technical expertise to become validators themselves. They can delegate their AXL tokens to existing validators. In the context of this dashboard, Delegators may be referred to as Stakers.

In essence, the relationship between validators and delegators is one of mutual benefit. Validators benefit from the increased staking power provided by delegators, while delegators benefit from the rewards and security advantages of participating in the network through delegation.

Delegator can delegate and even redelegate their tokens from one Validator to another, without havng to undelegate/unstake

The "Weekly Volatility of Staking Amounts" measures the fluctuations in the amount of tokens being staked on a weekly basis. Each bar represents the standard deviation of the staked amounts for that week. Taller bars indicate higher volatility, meaning there were larger fluctuations in the amount of tokens staked during that week. The line helps in understanding the overall trend in staking activity.

If you see high volatility bars along with an increasing trend in the total staked amount, it might indicate that more participants are entering the staking pool, but with varying amounts. Low volatility bars with a stable or slightly increasing total staked amount suggest consistent staking behavior, with participants staking similar amounts each week.