# EWC Validator Roles & Responsibilities

The Energy Web Chain (EWC) is a **public, Proof-of-Authority EVM blockchain**. 

Unlike other consensus mechanisms that depend on solving arbitrary difficult mathematical puzzles (Proof-of-Work) or locking up funds (Proof-of-Stake), [**Proof-of-Authority**](https://openethereum.github.io/Proof-of-Authority-Chains) **(PoA) relies on a trusted set of "authorities" - nodes that are explicitly permissioned to create blocks and secure the network**. The EWC uses a specific PoA algorithm called AuRa (for a technical specification of AuRa, see [here](https://openethereum.github.io/Aura)). 

In the EWC, these authorities are called **validator nodes**; the organizations who host these nodes are referred to as Validators. To maintain credibility and trust, EWC Validators must be known, reputable entities with valid market influence and/or activity in the global energy sector. 

EWC Validators have three primary responsibilities:

1. **Securely host validator nodes:** Each Validator organization is expected to host a validator node on the main EWC as well as the Volta test network (maintaining both is critical to have a test environment that mirrors the production EWC as closely as possible). Hosting a node includes installing, maintaining, and monitoring their node while following best practices for key management, regular maintenance / updates to the node host environment, and proactively alerting the EWC community if they identify any potential bugs, vulnerabilities, or risks that can impact validator nodes. <br>
2. **Participate in the EWC Governance**: Validators are expected to offer opinions and contribute to technical and non-technical decisions (i.e. voting) relating to modifications of the Energy Web client, protocol, and governance mechanism itself. <br>
3. &#x20;**Actively participate and contribute to the EWC community:** All validators are expected to proactively contribute to the EWC community in one or more of the following ways on a regular basis: Developing Applications & projects on the EWC; Contributing to open-source EW-DOS code; Contributing to Community Fund Proposals; Contributing to Governance Proposals; Community Building. &#x20;

To view the current list of EWC validators, visit <https://validators.energyweb.org/>


---

# 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:

```
GET https://docs.energyweb.org/ewc-validator-documentation/ewc-governance/ewc-validator-roles-and-responsibilities.md?ask=<question>
```

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.