> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.clarity.vote/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.clarity.vote/clarity-v1/participating-in-a-dao/staking.md).

# Staking

Members of an Agora DAO need to stake their tokens to the DAO in order to gain governance power in on-chain Agora governance actions. A user's power in an on-chain [Proposal](/clarity-v1/key-distinctions/polls-vs-proposals.md#proposals) vote is calculated by the amount of [Governance Tokens](/dao-fundamentals/agora-overview.md#governance-token) they have staked to that DAO.

### What happens to my tokens when I stake them on Clarity?

When you [create a stake](/clarity-v1/participating-in-a-dao/staking/creating-and-editing-stakes.md#creating-a-new-stake) on Clarity, your tokens are sent to a validator which is generated and published on-chain at the time of your DAOs creation. When funds are sent to a DAOs validator to create a stake, information about the wallet that sent the funds is encoded on-chain so that only the stake's creator can redeem those tokens.

### Can I unstake my tokens at any time?

Yes! The requirements to be able to remove funds from a stake are that:

1. You are using the wallet that created that stake.
2. Your stake has [no locks](/clarity-v1/participating-in-a-dao/staking/removing-stake-locks.md) on it.

### Why do I need to send my tokens to a validator to vote?

By holding governance tokens in a validator, Agora is able to verify the exact vote results at any given time with 100% accuracy . Without the funds being held in a validator, Governance Tokens could potentially be sent around and used to double vote.