Staking ADA With GeroWallet
Staking ADA
If you’ve seen the announcement about ADA staking in GeroWallet, we hope you’re as excited as us! If you’re wondering how it all works, we’ve got you covered.
Today, we’ll give a primer on ADA staking terms, and show you how to delegate your ADA using the GeroWallet web extension. Read here for an overview of how staking drives the Cardano blockchain.
You can find important information about stake pools at adapools.org. Below is the information you’ll see there for each pool:
Let’s define some important terms users frequently ask about:
Saturation: A pool that reaches its stake cap is fully saturated and will start to offer fewer rewards, encouraging delegators to seek other pools and thereby discouraging centralization. If you’d like to read more technical details on Cardano’s saturation mechanics, see here. For delegating, the important part is choosing a pool with less than 100% saturation.
Pledge: This is the total amount of ADA a stake pool operator intends to keep staked in their own stake pool. As a delegator, in most cases, you won’t need to worry about this number.
Fixed Cost: This is a flat fee deducted from rewards before distribution. The minimum amount is 340 ADA, set by the Cardano protocol as the estimated server costs for running a stake pool. When choosing a pool, look for one that charges the minimum 340 ADA or close to it. 99% of stake pools have a fixed fee of 340 ADA.
Margin: This fee is added to the Fixed Cost, and is also deducted from rewards before distribution. Pools will usually charge between 1% and 5%, with newer pools often charging lower amounts.
Note: The fixed + variable fees are not taken directly from your rewards; they are deducted from the total pool of rewards before distribution. The fees are shared between all delegators.
Luck: This number represents a pool’s performance versus its estimated performance. For example, if a pool mints more blocks than estimated, its Luck score will be over 100%.
How to stake ADA with GeroWallet
- Open GeroWallet. You’ll need at least 4 ADA in your wallet to begin staking.
2. Click the “Stake” icon to begin the staking process, and then click “Start Staking” as shown below:
3. Search for the staking pool of your choice by typing its name in the search bar. Adapools.org is a good source for stake pool information. In this example, we will use Grow Your Stake (GYS), a stake pool contributing all proceeds to providing clean water to communities around the world. However, we urge you to do your own research when deciding on a stake pool.
4. Select the pool from the displayed list in your GeroWallet, and review the details.
5. If everything looks correct, click continue to proceed to the next step.
6. Review these details carefully, and enter your wallet password to proceed.
7. Last step! Here you will see the transaction fee and a one-time registration hold fee of 2 ADA. The 2 ADA hold is refunded when you unstake. Once you’re ready, press confirm to submit your transaction to the blockchain.
9. Congratulations! You have just submitted your transaction. Keep in mind, it might take a few minutes for this information to be reflected in your wallet.
10. You can now check the status of your delegated ADA including past rewards, upcoming rewards, and the option to unstake.
Your ADA is now staked, and you are supporting the ecosystem! Rewards are distributed with the new epoch every 5 days. The first rewards can take up to 15–20 days to be distributed. Thanks for reading, and happy staking!
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