Overview

The easiest way to stake your $Hash to a validator is by using the Provenance Blockchain Explorer.

How to stake HASH (Provenance)

1. Connect Your Wallet to Explorer

If you have a Provenance Blockchain or Figure Wallet, navigate to the Provenance Blockchain Explorer and click the "Connect Wallet" key in the upper right-hand corner and select your wallet type:

Once your wallet is connected, the Explorer will show the wallet address is in use and the Key will change to a User profile icon:

2. Select validator

With your wallet connected, click the Staking menu option to display the list of Validators:

The Validator list shows the Validators that are available to Delegate to. Clicking the Moniker or Address column for the Validator will show details about the Validator. These details are important when considering a Validator as they demonstrate the Validator's shares, commissions, and delegators:

From the Validator List, click the Delegate button next to the Validator you wish to stake with:

3. Enter the amount of Hash

Explorer will display important information about the selected Validator and provide an input to enter the amount of Hash you wish to delegate:

4. Sign

Once the Delegate button is clicked, Explorer will prompt you to sign the transaction with your wallet. Once signed and submitted, the delegation will show in the Provenance Blockchain Validators List:

How to Manage Your Delegations from Explorer

Once you have delegated Hash to a Validator you can undelegate or redelegate your Hash. When you undelegate, your Hash will not be available for 21 days. You can redelegate to a different Validator at any time.

From the Staking menu the My Validators list shows the Validators you have delegated to. Click the Manage button to adjust your delegations:

Your rewards for a given validator are immediately claimed when you change your delegation against it, which is reflected in the transaction log.

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Overview

How to stake NEAR (Near Protocol)

1. Create an account

To get started with everything, you will want to go to https://wallet.near.org/. If you have already created an account and you don’t want to connect a new Account to that existing one, then you can open up an incognito browser. If it’s your first time it will bring you to this page below:

Assuming you are planning on creating an account, you will want to select the blue box on the left — Create Account. The screen below is what will pop up:

This is where you have the opportunity to create a NEAR Account. You pick your account name and then click Create Account

You cannot change your account name once you have claimed (although you can buy and sell it).

In the next step, you need to choose your security method. Note: This can be changed after the account is created, but you should still select the one that is going to be most secure (i.e. use a Recovery Phrase or a Ledger Nano S or X).

After you click Continue you are shown the passphrase. It should be 12 words long.

Store the mnemonic (passphrase) very securely. Anyone with the phrase can access your account and transact!

To make sure you have got the seed phrase correctly recorded, you will be prompted to input one of the words at random.

After you do that, you will be brought to the Account Verify screen. You will need to either fund it or use an email/sms to verify your account.

If you use email you will be taken to the next screen to enter the 6-digit verification code.

2. Fund your account to get Near ID

Here is where things can get a little tricky. NEAR is built around an Account model, where users have human-readable ID’s. In order to get that ID though, you need to fund your account with 0.1 NEAR.

So here is how you get the ID you selected earlier on in the process:

1. You keep the window open. Under no circumstances in the process should you close the window! If your computer freezes and you have to restart, you will have to start all over again!.
2. Open another window and use that to fund your one-time funding address. You can use an exchange to transfer NEAR to your account or you can borrow funds from someone who already has NEAR. A list of exchanges that currently offer $NEAR can be found here.

Once you receive the near you will see an Account Funded screen. Congratulations your account is funded and that account ID is yours forever (or until you decide to sell it)!

3. Set up your account

Now that your account is funded you click Continue to Account to get onto the wallet home interface.

Once you are on the home interface there are different options available on the top left of the bar. On the right column, you can see your different security permissions. You can enable Email and Phone access on top of your seed phrase for quicker access.

You can also Enable 2 Factor Authentication from your email. In general, 2FA is highly recommended, as it means that even if your account is compromised, no action can be taken without first confirming that action with a special code sent to your email.

4. Add or import an existing account

You might want to connect other existing NEAR Accounts you have set up to the wallet interface. This will allow you to navigate quickly between accounts. On the top right corner, you can either click import or create new account

If you want to Import an existing account you just have to click the recover seed phrase box and input that account’s seed phrase.

You are now set up with your NEAR Account and ready to stake.

From the moment your account has been funded the sole method of receiving and sending NEAR and any token from the wallet is via your newly created Account ID. DO NOT ever use the one-time funding address again.

5. Staking NEAR tokens

This next part will go into the details on how to stake and unstake from the NEAR wallet. Go to the Staking tab on the top left of the screen. Click on it and you will get a screen as displayed below.

This is the first step in staking. You will want to click the blue button Stake My Tokens. Once you do that, you will be prompted to Select a Validator from the list of NEAR Validators.

Select chorusone.poolv1.near and click Stak with Validator. Then you are asked to input the amount that you would like to stake. If you want to stake everything in your wallet click Use Max’ Note as explained in the photo below, there is always 0.35 NEAR reserved for Fees.

Select the amount you would like to Stake:

Once you have entered an amount, you must then confirm your stake as depicted in the picture below. All you have to do is click ‘Confirm’.

You will see the following screen upon successful staking!

Congratulations you are now staking on NEAR Protocol! You can check in on updates and rewards from the Staking tab of the wallet.

6. Withdrawing Rewards (Unstaking)

Your account will start earning rewards upon staking and after some time you will be able to withdraw them. Your earned rewards are automatically restaked. If you want to unstake you have to select the ‘Unstake’ on the right hand side.

This will then prompt you to select which validator you would like to unstake from. Unless you are staking through multiple different validators there should only be one option.

The following screen will then prompt you to input the amount of NEAR you wish to unstake. You can then choose to either unstake just your earned rewards or more if you like.

Finally, confirm that you are ready to unstake that amount of NEAR that you entered.

The tokens become available on the 4th epoch after release which is usually between 52–65 hours in time.

After hitting confirm you will then get the Success message. Shortly after, the staking tab of your wallet, will reflect your tokens pending release and eventually they will become available for you to withdraw. Once they are available to withdraw you can simply select Withdraw to have them deposited back into your wallet.

7. (Optional) Connecting NEAR Wallet to a Dapp on NEAR?

NEAR Wallet can also be used to connect to existing dapps on NEAR. Just head over to a NEAR Dapp. You can check out the different dApps at Awesome NEAR. Look for the ‘Sign in with NEAR Wallet Option’. Give that a click.

It will then take you to this screen in your wallet. Note that if you have multiple accounts connected through the wallet you can decide which account you would like to allow the Dapp to access.

Once you click Allow you are good to go, and your Account will be automatically connected to the dapp going forward

Make sure to review the Dapps before allowing them access to your account. Malicious apps may try to steal your funds!

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How to Stake KSM (Kusama)

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Overview

Validator Addresses

Faaf2qgwtaFum78U8TdEPnUd4u7HPk65cdaFj7KbEA6wi2Y

HRMhY2CtVMp2yVSieKvq8Y8FHAhRKrGGMd6MoQe3iN6uJ2D

FiBHHbxDiVysvn5YBV78YFVUUykZRfQYhjxymu8VXnTqNMr

DriCrAgdVV57NeQm5bWn5KQpVndVnXnm55BjRpe6qzZ5ktJ

GcqKn3HHodwcFc3Pg3Evcbc43m7qJNMiMv744e5WMSS7TGn

Introduction

In this step-by-step guide, you will learn how to stake your KSMs, the native token of the Kusama blockchain, using Polkadot JS and the Polkadot Browser Extension. You will go through the following key steps:

1. Creating a Kusama Stash Account.
2. Creating a Kusama Controller Account.
3. Staking your KSM token.
4. Managing your Kusama Staking Operations

Before you get started

Since it is recommended by Polkadot / Kusama for most users to use the Polkadot.js Browser Extension to create their addresses, we are focusing on this method. In case you want to explore alternatives, have a look here.

Make sure to install the Polkadot.js Browser Extension before you get started. You can download the extension for Chrome/Brave and FireFox.

How to stake

Step 1: Create a Kusama Account

Once you successfully installed the extension, click on the icon for Poladot extension - a P button in your browser bar to open the interface. You will be prompted to create an account if you don't have one already.

Click the little Gear Icon in the upper right corner and choose Kusama Relay Chain under Display Address Format For.

Then, click on the + Icon followed by Create new account. Uncheck the box next to “Derive new account from existing” & click “Create an account from new seed”.

Write down your mnemonic seed phrase and securely store it. Whoever has access to the mnemonic seed also has access to your funds! Check the box on the bottom and click “Next step”. Choose a descriptive name for your Stash account as well as a strong password. Then click “Add the account with the generated seed”.

Never share your Mnemonic Seed Phrase!

Congratulations, you have successfully created your Kusama account. You will now also find the address on the Polkadot JS Website under “Accounts” — reload the page, if this is not the case. You can now fund this account.

Step 2: Create a Kusama Controller Account

In order to successfully bond your funds and nominate your validator set, you need a separate account, namely your Controller Account. You will perform everyday staking operations like changing validators or claiming rewards using this account.

To create your Controller Account, use the Polkadot browser extension. Click the plus icon in the top right corner. Then click Create new account.

Now you have two options:

1. Derive the new account from your existing account: it will be accessible with the same seed (mnemonic phrase) of the account it was derived from
2. Or, Create a new account with a new seed: the new account will be independent of the old one and have a separate seed (mnemonic phrase)

The second option is preferable because this lets you have independent keys. So, click Create  new account.

Congratulations, you have successfully created your Kusama Controller account. You will now also find the address in Polkadot JS under Accounts — reload the page if this is not the case.

Step 3: Stake your KSM token

On the Polkadot JS website, make sure that you are connected to the Kusama mainnet. You can change the network by clicking the network symbol in the top left corner of your screen.

Polkadot JS supports several networks, make sure to choose “Kusama” before you continue

Before starting the Nomination process, send some funds from your Stash to your Controller account in order to cover transactions fees (1 or 2 KSM should be plenty).

To start the staking process, click “Staking” in the “Network” drop-down menu.

Afterward, visit the “Account actions” tab and click the “+ Validator” — button.

You can perform all staking operations under the Account actions tab in the Staking menu

Choose the Stash & Controller accounts accordingly, choose the amount of KSMs you want to use for staking under value bonded. Make sure to leave some funds in your Stash account. Bond a max. of 95% of your tokens so that you are still able to pay for transaction fees.

Choose a destination account for your rewards under payment destination.

Then click next to bond your token.

Make sure to leave some KSM unbonded, so that you can pay for the transaction fees

You can nominate up to 16 validators. Simply select the validators of your choice by clicking on them in the left box. You can unselect them from the right box by clicking on them again. Alternatively, you can also use the search bar at the top to look for specific validators by name or address.

Our Validator Addresses:

4gF1YM8TioXtEPheVfA2XwqS4iMcwHXBXquwULxPbuvMv2Si

JLKcPk652UTtQfyrk7keyU6vqAEj5JXzDAvQdPxB1DJTnZ3

HRMhY2CtVMp2yVSieKvq8Y8FHAhRKrGGMd6MoQe3iN6uJ2D

Faaf2qgwtaFum78U8TdEPnUd4u7HPk65cdaFj7KbEA6wi2Y

EyibGsAttxpNBkgjMxNTArskxkdEFFbwghYuuaZyvu9rmo2

Then click Bond & Nominate.

Please note that you cannot specify the amount delegated to a particular validator. Your bonded DOTs will be spread out among the validators you selected according to the NPoS algorithm.

Choose your validators wisely — we recommend doing some research about them before your nomination

In the following window, click Sign & Submit. Afterward, enter your password and click “Sign the transaction” to conclude your nomination.

Almost done! The only thing left is signing the transaction!

Congratulations, you are now a Nominator on the Kusama network!

Your nominations will be effective in the next era (~ in up to 6 hours).

Step 4: Manage your Kusama Staking Operations

You can manage your staking operations with Polkadot JS. In the Staking menu, click Account Actions and then click the three dots on the very right to perform the following operations:

• Bond more funds

• Unbond

• Change controller account

• Change reward destination

• Set nominees

Please note that if you have bonded your tokens, a period of 7 days needs to pass before you can unbond. Once your tokens are unbonded, you need to issue another transaction, namely Withdraw Unbonded in order to be able to transfer your funds.

Understanding Active Nominations

Active nominations & Inactive nominations are the validators of your nominations that are currently in the active validator set. In general, your only one validator will be shown as active. That is because the algorithm used to distribute your stake is optimized so that each validator in the set roughly has the same amount of stake backing him/her. Your stake is therefore usually only backing one of the validators you nominated.

Waiting nominations are the validators that are currently not in the active set.

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Overview

How to stake MINA (Mina Protocol)

1. Create Account and Login

First of all, you have to log into your wallet.

Head to the Clorio web app or open the Clorio Desktop App and select Access with Ledger or Access with Private key.

In case you do not have an account click on Create a wallet and note down the passphrase and private key in a secure place.

Do not share your passphrase or private key with anyone. Doing so may cause loss of funds!

If you already have a wallet, insert your Private key to log in to your wallet. Once the Private key is inserted, the button Access the wallet will be enabled, allowing you to enter inside your wallet.

2. Delegate to Chorus One

On the left-side-menu click on Staking Hub item.

You will be brought to a new page, here you will have the staking status and the list of Validators.

To start delegating, you can scroll to Chorus One and click on the Delegate button, or you can manually delegate by clicking on the Custom delegation button.

After you click the Delegate button, a confirmation screen will show up.

Once you click on Confirm button you will be asked to insert a fee. The field will be pre-compiled with the Average fee, but you can choose the one that you want.

After you click on Proceed button, you will be asked to put your Private key in order to proceed with the delegation.

If the Private key is valid the modal will disappear, then will pop out an alert on the bottom right side of the screen confirming that your transaction has been successfully broadcasted to the network.

3. Using Ledger to delegate

If you are using a Ledger, Clorio will send all the information of the delegation to your Ledger in order to sign them on the device.

For instructions on how to install Ledger App for Mina visit here

Please be sure that your Ledger is connected, Ledger Mina app is open and your device is unlocked and your browser meets the minimum requirements.

If there are no issues with the delegation data, Clorio will wait for the Ledger signature and then broadcast the transaction to the network.

4. Delegation done

After entering your private key or signing with Ledger you will see the message Delegator successfully broadcasted. This means that delegation was successfully done!

Congratulations you are now staking Mina!!

5. (Optional) MINA Staking with Command-Line Interface (CLI)

If you are technically savvy and have a hardware wallet, we’ve included how to delegate to Mina using CLI.  First, if you haven’t already, you’ll need to generate a keypair and connect to the network.

Second, make sure you’ve unlocked your account and enter the following in the terminal:

mina account unlock -public-key $MINA_PUBLIC_KEY

Then run this command to delegate your stake:

mina client delegate-stake \

• receiver <DELEGATE-PUBLIC-KEY> \
• sender $MINA_PUBLIC_KEY \
• fee 0.1

1. The receiver is the public key of the validators to receive your stake delegation.
2. The sender is the public key of the account from which you want to delegate
3. The fee is the transaction fee required to record your transaction.

Chorus One's Public Key: B62qmFf6UZn2sg3j8bYLGmMinzS2FHX6hDM71nFxAfMhvh4hnGBtkBD

There is a 2-4 week delay (also known as a latency period) before your new stake delegation comes into effect.

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Overview

Osmosis is a heterogeneous, interoperable AMM that gives users and LPs flexibility and customization never before seen in existing AMM protocols. LPs can select their time horizons for providing liquidity, third-parties can incentivize pools ad-hoc, governance can distribute OSMO rewards where they deem fit, pool creators can play with mathematical expressions (curves) for lower-slippage swapping and users can swap assets, cross-chain.

Osmosis uses the standard DPoS staking mechanism found in the Cosmos SDK. Users can delegate their OSMO tokens to Chorus One to receive a share of rewards generated by the network.

Please note that the unstake period is 21 days. This means that you can only unstake and withdraw coins to your wallet after this time has passed. We wish you profitable staking!

How to stake

1. Install Keplr Wallet Extension

In case you don't have the keplr extension installed in your browser visit https://www.keplr.app/ and click on Install extension.

Click on Install Keplr for Chrome if you are using a Chrome browser or Brave if you are using the Brave browser and follow the installation instructions.

2. Create/Import Account

Click on the extension in the Chrome/Brave toolbar and the following page will open up.

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In case you do not have an existing Keplr account you can create a new account

You will be shown 12 words as your mnemonic seed. Select24 words option for a more secure mnemonic. Back it up securely (read the warning below)

Back up your mnemonic seed securely.‍

• Anyone with your mnemonic seed can take your assets.
• Lost mnemonic seed can't be recovered.

Enter an account name and a passphrase to unlock your wallet. You will be asked for the mnemonic again. Enter the 24 words in order. This is to make sure you remember the mnemonic.

Finally, click on Next to create your account

3. Log in to your account

Regardless of whether you already have an account or if you created it just now you may now click on the extension to view your address or visit https://wallet.keplr.app/#/osmosis/stake to see the full dashboard.

4. Stake your OSMO

If you don't already have OSMO in your account fund it with some tokens. You may use an exchange to transfer the OSMO tokens to your address or get it from someone who already holds those.

To stake click on the Osmosis network in the left panel and click on Stake

You will be shown a list of validators with whom to stake on the right side. Scroll to Chorus One and click on Manage.

A modal with Chorus One's description will pop up. Click once on Delegate to enter the amount of tokens you want to stake.

Clicking on Delegate again will take you to Keplr wallet for approval. Approve the transaction and you will be able to see your stake.

There is a 21-day unbonding process for staked OSMOs during which delegator OSMOs do not earn rewards and cannot be transferred, exchanged, or spent. OSMOs can, however, be slashed during the unbonding period.

5. Claiming rewards

After some time you will see rewards getting accumulated in your account. You can simply go to the Keplr extension to claim them.

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Overview

Centrifuge is building the operating system to connect the global financial supply chain.

Centrifuge is bridging real-world trade finance assets like company invoices into the world of decentralized finance through the Tinlake asset-backed lending protocol. Through Tinlake, users can tokenize non-liquid assets such as invoices (e.g. ConsolFreight) or streaming royalties (e.g. Paperchain) and borrow against these securitized assets.The Centrifuge Chain, which hosts the Tinlake protocol, is a Substrate-based Proof-of-Stake chain secured by a small set of validators including Chorus One. By delegating Centrifuge (CFG) tokens, stakers help maintain the network and its bridge to Ethereum, for which they earn staking rewards.

How to stake Centrifuge (CFG) tokens

1. Create a wallet using Polkadot JS extension

1. Download the extension here and add it to your browser.
2. Go to https://portal.chain.centrifuge.io and  authorize the connection to the extension
3. Go to settings and update the metadata.
4. Now go to the extension and create a new address by adding an account.
5. In the next step change the network name to Centrifuge Mainnet and create an account name and passphrase.
6. You can then refresh the portal, check the Accounts tab. Your address should appear there.

Make sure to note down your mnemonic seed in a safe place! You will lose access to your funds if you forget or lose it. It is not recommended to store them on an unsecured laptop

2. Create 2 accounts

To stake CFG tokens you require 2 funded wallets. Follow step 1 twice to create these two and some CFG to both.

1. The stash account - Main wallet.
2. The controller account - Used for transactions and thus requires a small amount of tokens only.

3. Selecting a Nominator

1. Once you have both the wallets funded with some amount head over to the Network tab and select Staking.
2. Under the Staking tab select Account Actions and add a nominator by clicking on +Nominator.
3. The Setup Nominator modal will appear. Make sure you select the correct stash and controller accounts.
4. In the value bonded field add the number of tokens you want to stake.
5. In the next step, nominate Chorus One as the validator.
6. Finally, click on Bond and Nominate and authorize the transaction by clicking on Sign and Submit.
7. Your nomination will become active in the next session and your CFG tokens will start earning staking rewards

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Overview

Kava is a cross-chain, decentralized finance project focused on providing collateralized, USD-pegged stablecoin borrowing for assets from different blockchains. Kava is making use of interoperability solutions to bring its services to tokens like Binance’s BNB and Bitcoin.

Users of the Kava CDP system earn KAVA tokens and can delegate them to validators like Chorus One, which maintains and govern the protocol with the goal to create a stable platform for cross-chain decentralized finance.

Please note that the unstake period is 21 days. This means that you can only unstake and withdraw coins to your wallet after this time has passed. We wish you profitable staking!

How to stake KAVA (Kava Network)

1. Install Keplr Wallet Extension

In case you don't have the keplr extension installed in your browser visit https://www.keplr.app/ and click on Install extension.

Click on Install Keplr for Chrome if you are using a Chrome browser or Brave if you are using the Brave browser and follow the installation instructions.

2. Create/Import Account

Click on the extension in the Chrome/Brave toolbar and the following page will open up.

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In case you do not have an existing Keplr account you can create a new account

You will be shown 12 words as your mnemonic seed. Select24 words option for a more secure mnemonic. Back it up securely (read the warning below)

Back up your mnemonic seed securely.‍

• Anyone with your mnemonic seed can take your assets.
• Lost mnemonic seed can't be recovered.

Enter an account name and a passphrase to unlock your wallet. You will be asked for the mnemonic again. Enter the 24 words in order. This is to make sure you remember the mnemonic.

Finally, click on Next to create your account

3. Log in to your account

Regardless of whether you already have an account or if you created it just now you may now click on the extension to view your address or visit https://wallet.keplr.app/#/akashnet/stake to see the full dashboard.

4. Stake your KAVA

If you don't already have KAVA in your account fund it with some tokens. You may use an exchange to transfer the KAVA tokens to your address or get it from someone who already holds those.

To stake click on the Kava network in the left panel and click on Stake

You will be shown a list of validators with whom to stake on the right side. Scroll to Chorus One and click on Manage.

A modal with Chorus One's description will pop up. Click once on Delegate to enter the amount of tokens you want to stake.

Clicking on Delegate again will take you to Keplr wallet for approval. Approve the transaction and you will be able to see your stake.

There is a 21-day unbonding process for staked KAVAs during which delegator KAVAs do not earn rewards and cannot be transferred, exchanged, or spent. KAVAs can, however, be slashed during the unbonding period.

Once your transaction is approved you will be able to see your Kava getting staked. Congratulations you have successfully staked your $KAVA!!

5. Claiming rewards

After some time you will see rewards getting accumulated in your account. You can simply go to the Keplr extension to claim them.

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Explaining how a crypto holder can earn rewards on their assets

What is Staking?

Your crypto-assets earn while you sleep!

Staking is an umbrella term used to denote the act of pledging your crypto-assets to a cryptocurrency protocol to earn rewards in exchange. Staking allows users to participate in securing the network by locking up tokens. Consequently, users are rewarded for securing the network in the form of native tokens.

The higher the amount of crypto-assets you pledge, the higher the rewards you receive. The rewards are distributed on-chain, which means the process of earning these rewards is completely automatic. All you have to do is to stake them. This means your crypto-assets earn while you sleep!

Where do these rewards come from?

Every time a block is validated new tokens of that currency are minted and distributed as staking rewards

Proof-of-stake (PoS) assets like Solana, Tezos, etc let you earn rewards on your staked assets. There are two types of rewards that get distributed

1. Staking rewards/inflationary rewards
2. Transaction fees

Note: I use the terms protocol, network, and cryptocurrency interchangeably. They mean slightly different things but convey the same logical concept

Staking rewards — You stake your crypto-assets with a PoS node (a server running the protocol stack) to validate a block of transactions. If the node you have delegated to successfully signs or attests to blocks, you receive staking rewards — thereby increasing your net crypto-assets. In case your node is unresponsive or malign (double-signing), a portion of the node’s assets, and hence your assets, can get slashed or destroyed.

The staking rewards are, thus, an incentive for these nodes to perform the process of ordering the transactions, verifying them, collecting them in a block, and subsequently validating the block. When these rewards are freshly minted they get the name inflationary rewards.

Every time a block is validated new tokens of that currency are minted and distributed as staking rewards!

Transaction Fee — In addition to the staking rewards, each transaction carries with itself a small fee making it easier for the node to prioritize the selection of transactions to be entered into the block. The accumulated fees from the underlying transactions also go to the node.

Transactions are what make up a cryptocurrency. For different protocols, these transactions could mean different things. They vary from token transfers to smart contract executions. Despite the dissimilarity in transaction types, the common thread is that these transactions always get ordered and clubbed into a new block so that all nodes in a network can agree on the state of the network.

In a centralized institution like a bank, every transaction can be verified by the central authority (bank’s central server). However, the lack of centralized authority in the crypto world requires the verification and subsequent validating of these blocks by the decentralized nodes of the network. These nodes are known by a variety of names — validators, bakers, etc. Their counterparts in the proof-of-work networks are called miners!

How can I participate in staking?

If PoS were a democracy, your stake would be your vote!

Staking does seem like a fairly useful investment instrument for anyone whose assets are lying idle in a digital wallet or a ledger. One can perform two roles when participating in staking.

1. Validation — Appropriate for companies or technical enthusiasts
2. Delegation — Appropriate for most individual crypto-asset holders

Delegation is the method by which an individual can reap the rewards of staking. However, to understand delegation we will have to get into the details of how proof of stake (PoS) works!

If you already know how PoS works you can skip over to the delegation section.

Proof of stake

Proof of stake, just like Bitcoin’s proof of work, is a type of Sybil resistance mechanism used to ascertain participation in blockchain consensus by utilizing assets as collateral. In simpler terms, to become a validator node in such a network crypto-asset holders are required to stake their tokens as collateral, instead of spending electricity as is the case with Bitcoin nodes.

Additionally, validators are selected randomly to create the block. The probability of a validator’s selection is directly proportional to the volume of crypto-assets staked.

This means that PoS is a system where the value at stake is the main determinant of which blocks are added to the blockchain. If PoS were a democracy, your stake is your vote! Participants in a Proof-of-Stake network essentially vote with their assets on blocks of transactions that they deem valid. They get rewarded if the majority of the network agrees and risks losing their stake (deposited tokens) if they try to cheat, e.g. by voting on two different blocks of transactions at the same time. The former encourages a rise in the number of nodes and the latter discourages malicious behavior.

Does this mean that anybody who holds even 1 token can become a validator? The answer is an obvious NO! Generally, the requirements to become a validator are much more stringent and difficult to achieve practically. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

To become a validator some of the hurdles one can possibly face.

• Stake a minimum amount of tokens — For example in Ethereum 2.0 one would need to stake 32 ETH
• Set up secure and performant infrastructure that should ideally be online 24x7
• Build a team of skilled engineers to run and continuously upgrade the infrastructure in accordance with the protocol.

These are just a few of the hurdles to become a validator. Not all of them apply to every network but most networks demand steep requirements that an individual may find difficult to fulfill.

Delegation

Owning a huge number of tokens of a single currency or operating validation infrastructure may not seem worthwhile to a lot of people. Fortunately, most PoS protocols foresee this problem and incorporate ways to enable asset holders to stake their tokens with a validator that they do not run themselves.

The process of staking your assets with a validator without actually sending them your tokens is commonly called delegation.

Delegating your assets means letting them count towards the stake of a validator in return for a share of the reward received. In practice, a delegator deposits tokens in a smart contract specifying the validator whose influence in the network she wants to increase. As a result, the rewards earned in the validation process increase, but instead of only the validator receiving compensation, the rewards are automatically split between the validator and the delegator, usually by applying a simple commission rate as pictured below.

Choosing a validator

When delegating your assets it is extremely important to put special emphasis on choosing the validator. A more reliable validator will keep your funds secure as well as grow them reliably. Some of the factors for deciding your validator are as follows.

1. Uptime — Percentage of time a validator is available online. This indicates a validator’s reliability.
2. History of slashing — Slashing is the process of punishing a validator for being unavailable or making mistakes while signing blocks.
3. Years of operation and supported networks — it is likely that validators that support multiple networks and are operating for a long time are more experienced and reliable.
4. Financial health — There are costs associated with building and maintaining secure validator infrastructure which include hardware costs, employment costs, etc.
5. Governance support — How actively do they participate in protocol governance and similar discussions indicate their intent to further the cause of decentralization.
6. Community — Anyone who makes an effort to put out blogs of high quality, podcasts, Telegram responsiveness, and other ecosystem support is bound to be there for the delegators always.
7. Team — Always check out the validator’s team page, Twitter accounts of founders, and Github repos. A validator with respected founders, excellent engineers, and helpful Telegram channels is assured to keep your money safe.

Staking v/s other investment strategies

Keeping crypto-assets liquid is a good strategy for the short-term investor but is not wise for those who are in it for the long haul.

The end of Hodling

The traditional method of crypto-investing was a rather straightforward experience — you obtain the desired crypto asset, store it (or leave it on an exchange), and wait.

Simply holding a PoS token is no longer an optimal strategy now! Many networks reward participation by inflating tokens and handing them out to participants resulting in a dilution of the assets of non-participating token hodlers.

But is staking the best alternative out there for the Hodlers? Let’s take a look at some of the investment strategies.

Continue Hodling

Keeping tokens liquid is a good strategy for the short-term investor but is not wise or recommended for those who are in it for the long haul.

Stake

When staking, an investor has one of the 2 options

1. Delegate to other validators — Easy but fewer rewards
2. Validate yourself — Difficult and average rewards

Other strategies

1. Loan tokens (e.g. using lending protocols like Aave or Compound)
2. Use tokens as collateral (e.g. issuing DAI with a Maker vault, or using tokens in other decentralized finance protocols)
3. Liquid staking — Liquid staking combines the benefits of staking with the liquidity of the above-mentioned strategies. The staked positions are tokenized and by doing that one is able to achieve liquidity. The liquid tokens provide further leverage through collateralization and investment in DeFi.

Assessment

Staking is the more reasonable investment for the long-term investor but liquid staking is emerging to be a clear winner among all the strategies. It provides the benefits of reward accrual through staking while hedging the liquidity risk. Liquidity risk mitigation is a huge need that gets addressed through liquid staking and might become the reason for its success.

Chorus One published a comprehensive report last year that turned out to be foreshadowing in many ways. It is worth a read and goes into great detail about what this strategy entails.

Ethereum is moving towards fully migrating to Proof-of-Stake and Lido Finance is providing a liquid staking solution for it. This article by Paradigm covers how a decentralized eth2 stake pool provides liquidity to staked assets:.

Chorus One is also building a liquid staking solution for Solana on behalf of Lido:

Introducing Lido for Solana

Explaining the SOL liquid staking solution by Chorus One

medium.com

The benefits of staking come bundled with some risks as well. Let’s take a quick look at that.

Risks of staking

From an economic perspective, a rational investor should choose the option with the highest risk-adjusted return. In practice, this means that a token holder should figure out

• The kind of risks involved (ideally quantify them)
• The expected returns (after subtracting costs and considering other limitations) of the various options
• Compare the various alternatives to each other to make the optimal decision based on her risk profile

Let’s analyze risks associated with staking.

1. Liquidity risk associated with having to lock up staking tokens — There is often a lockup period associated with staking to be able to penalize potential malicious nodes and to prevent long-range attacks. Without this period a malicious party could attack the network and withdraw their stake immediately leaving no chance for the protocol to punish his offense. However, liquid staking alleviates this risk neatly by making staking a more capital-efficient process.
2. The risk of losing deposited crypto-assets due to slashing — Staked crypto-assets in a PoS network are often subject to being slashed (destroyed) should a malicious action be detected by other network participants. A common slashable offense is the signing of two blocks at the same height, also referred to as double-signing.
3. Low returns due to bad validator performance — Operating validation infrastructure is an extremely challenging responsibility. Failing to propose or verify blocks of transactions means missing out on rewards and being offline for some extended periods of time can even result in liveness-slashing. Continuously signing and sending messages on behalf of staked crypto-assets as part of the consensus process requires technical and operational excellence. There are additional functions that validators may need to perform like providing prices as oracles. All of this requires technical expertise. The lack of it is a risk to the delegator.
4. The opportunity cost — There is an opportunity cost of using the token differently, e.g. loaning it. Additionally, there is an opportunity cost to stake with a different validator. The liquidity risk makes it difficult to move the staked money quickly. This risk too is largely mitigated by liquid staking making it easy for the asset holder to reap rewards on the liquid tokens.
5. Minimum staking balance — Sometimes protocols impose a minimum staking balance. This becomes a hindrance for small ticket investors. However, again liquid staking can help here by enabling smaller delegation limits as is done by Lido on Ethereum 2.0.

The following table compares the risk-reward scenarios for the various strategies available to a crypto investor. Clearly, liquid staking wins across the board.

Why Chorus One?

We are growing quickly and have been entrusted with $1.4 Billion worth of assets!

Chorus One is a provider of staking services and validation infrastructure with a focus on providing the highest degree of security and quality possible. Our goal is to help token holders earn interest on their crypto assets securely and consistently.

We support close to 20 networks and one of the top validators on networks like Solana, Cosmos, SKALE, and many others.

We have been reliably operating for the last 3 years and have been around for longer than most of our competitors. We are growing quickly and have been entrusted with $1.4 Billion worth of assets! We are also venturing into the space of liquid staking with the proposal for Lido for Solana already approved by the Lido DAO.

For more information follow our social media channels.

Website: https://chorus.one

Twitter: https://twitter.com/chorusone

Telegram: https://t.me/chorusone

Newsletter: https://substack.chorusone.com

Thanks to the editors

Felix Lutsch

and

Xavier Meegan

for resources, contribution to the text, images, and feedback.