What Is ‘Staking’ in the Context of Proof-of-Stake?

Staking is the act of locking up a certain amount of cryptocurrency in a wallet to participate in the network's consensus mechanism. By staking, a participant becomes a validator, responsible for proposing and attesting to new blocks.

Validators are rewarded with new coins and transaction fees for honest behavior, and penalized (slashed) for malicious or negligent actions. It is the economic commitment that secures the PoS network.