staking

Post was updated on November 14 2021.

Each of you have a different level of knowledge about staking.
So we have written a small guide on how to stake in the future to receive rewards.

For the German speakers among us we additionally have uploaded a video that shows of all of this in detail. If you prefer reading or can’t speak German, keep reading below.

Guide

What does staking actually mean?

In short means Staking To stake cryptocurrencies to get rewards.
Here you will find a detailed explanation.

How can you earn more Radix by using your Radix coins?

Step 1: Buy Radix

So far you can only buy eXRD (the Radix ERC20 token on the Ethereum blockhain). You can get eXRD via decentralized trading platforms (DEX) like uniswap. In addition, some central platforms (CEX) such as Bitfinex , Gate or KuCoin let you trade and buy Radix as well. You can find further options here.

Step 2: Convert eXRD to XRD

In order to be able to stake it, the eXRD must first be converted into the native XRD (Radix) tokens. In the future, this will be possible directly on Bitfinex, among other platforms. Until then, you can use Radix’s own instabridge platform to exchange eXRD for XRD.

To be able to exchange your eXRD on instabridge, you have to register with instapass.io and complete the KYC (know your customer, i.e. identity check) process there. Then you have to register both the address of your Ethereum wallet, which contains the eXRD, and your Radix wallet address. For the former, you can either use your Ethereum wallet via Metamask, or you can use WalletConnect.

When converting you transfer your eXRD to the instabridge account. After a delay, the same amount will be transferred in XRD, the native Radix token, to your registered Radix address. Usually this should happen in a few minutes. You can see the status of the conversion on instabridge.io. In some cases the transfer can take longer. But don’t worry, you’ll get your XRD eventually!

Radix wallet

If you don’t have a Radix Wallet yet, you can go here to download the application for Windows, OSX and Linux.
There you can then create a new address or import an existing one using the seed phrase. You can find detailed instructions for setting up the wallet on the Radix website .

Step 3: Stake Radix (XRD)

Open the wallet and click on “Stake & Unstake” in the menu on the left.

The staking view then looks like this.

There is currently no view in which you can directly select a validator (also called staking pool).
You have to enter or copy the address directly where you want to stake.

In the Radix Explorer you can view the list of registered validators and then copy the addresses of the validators you want to stake with. Our address, for example, is the following.

    rv1qw6m5nrwnjx2estgkv8zsvp77es6yea0p99zkregud6dqad8q5wg7yvr4na

More on the topic of how to pick a validator (or staking pool, more information also here ) at the bottom of the page.

Now you enter the address of the validator (or validators) of your choice and set the desired amount of XRD (Radix) before you stake them. On the right side you can see your current stakes.

Important: Make sure not to stake all of your XRD as you will still need some XRD (between 0.5 and 1) to pay for the unstaking transaction later should you want to unstake.

Rewards

Depending on the size of the stake, you will receive rewards for each epoch. How exactly these are calculated can be found on the official Radix website here. Here is a quick summary:

Every year around 300 million XRD of network emissions are generated by the Radix network.
This is an incentive for XRD token holders to stake their tokens for the proof of stake mechanism in order to secure the network.

This means that these 300 million XRD are paid out proportionally to all those who stake XRD, depending on how large their share of the total stake in the network is.

Let’s assume all owners together staked (as described above) 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) XRD.
Let’s also assume that you staked 1000 XRD yourself. Then that’s 0.0001% of the total stake in the network. Let us also assume for the sake of illustration that the situation does not change for a year, i.e. no one adds or removes new stakes.

Then after one year you will have received 0.0001% of the emissions (the 300 million).
0.0001% of 300 million are 300 XRD . That corresponds to an APY ¹ of 30% .

The real amount will be a little smaller, however, since the delegators charge a fee for the operation of their servers. You can see the respective fee for a validator in the e xplorer before you choose one. You have to weigh up yourself what you think is a fair value.

Let’s say your chosen validator takes a 2% fee. Then that’s 2% of your 300 XRD. So 6 XRD.
That means you only get 294 XRD, so 29.4% APY.

Exactly how high these numbers are varies with the amount of stake in the network and with how large your share of it is. In the future the current exact value will be displayed here on our home page.

The rewards are generated proportionally for each epoch. That means if you didn’t join the staking straight away, that’s by and large not a problem. An epoch consists of around 10,000 “consensus rounds”, which corresponds to around 30 to 90 minutes, depending on the activity in the network.

Risk

When staking you cannot lose any XRD. They are only reserved for staking and can be released again at any time (see below).

The only thing you can lose is potential rewards.
If selected validators do not work reliably, e.g. because their servers fail, then a penalty is applied to their generated rewards. That would then reduce your profit beyond the fees mentioned above. It is therefore important to choose validators who you trust will be permanently available.

We ourselves staked the majority of our XRD with ourselves instead of with other validators.
In other words, if we perform poorly, we will also be punished directly because we receive fewer emissions.

On the one hand, this should show that we are convinced of ourselves and, on the other hand, it is a good additional motivation to keep our servers as reliable as possible.

¹ annual percentage yield, ie annual interest rate

Unstaking

One more word about unstaking.
If you want your stake back, you have to request a reduction in your stake via the wallet.

Important : It can take 1 to 3 weeks (500 epochs) until the removed part of your stake is actually available again.

Selection of validators and further information

You can find more information about staking, unstaking, and what validators actually are on the Radix website.

We want to briefly explain to you how you can best select the validators for which you want to use your XRD (Radix). In short, you should pay attention to the following points.

• 5×5 rule: Split your stake over at least 5 validators, each with a maximum of 5% of the global stake.
  • You can see the size of the percentage in the explorer.
• Choose validators with a good geographical distribution. Some in Europe, America, Asia etc.
• Choose validators who make a professional and reliable impression.
  • You can see active teams on reddit or in discord.
• Don’t just vote for the top representatives. It is important to distribute the stakes well. If everyone just sticks to the biggest validators, it endangers the security of the network and can also slow it down.

We hope this short guide has helped you a little.