By simply owning Cardano (traded as ADA) you get the right to vote for a stake pool to support. Your Cardano stays in your wallet and if the pool you support validates a transaction you get rewards in the form of more Cardano.
This vote is called delegating and it’s a great way to earn more Cardano for money that is just sitting in your wallet.
Ready to delegate? Click here for our step by step guide
Delegating with Cardano is safe!
Your money stays in your wallet and is never locked-up for any time period and you can spend it while you have it delegated. You can switch delegation at any time or stop delegating altogether.
If your selected pool, that you have delegated to validates a transaction you get paid Cardano automatically by the network.
Pools never have or control your money. You are in full control. It’s safe and secure and a great way to make extra Cardano just for owning Cardano.
Ready to delegate? Click here for our step by step guide
The first time you delegate, if your pool earns rewards, the rewards are paid with a 15-20 day delay which is 3 to 4 Epochs. This is illustrated below.
After your initial reward period, rewards will be paid at the end of every Epoch which is 5 days.
Any amount of ADA you add to your wallet will automatically be delegated to your selected pool after a 2 epoch delay (10 days).
Any rewards you earn will also be automatically delegated to your pool making them compounded.
You can delegate to another pool at any time without missing any rewards since it takes 2 epochs (10 days) until your new stake delegation counts for the new pool. Until then you get the rewards for being part of the previous pool.
Remember your money stays in your wallet and is never locked-up for any time period and you can spend it while you have it delegated. You can switch delegation at any time or stop delegating altogether.
*Remember rewards are only paid out if your selected pool validates a transaction in a given epoch, which is every 5 days.
Pool fee are paid out of the rewards pot and not your wallet, and only if the pool produces a block and earns rewards during a Epoch which is every 5 days.
If rewards are earned, all pool must charge the minimum fixed pool fee of 170 ADA from the rewards pot.
Then pools take a margin / variable fee from the rewards to cover their cost. This rate has little effect on overall rewards to delegators. See example below.
A stake pool is the key component of the Cardano Proof-Of-Stake blockchain protocol. Stake pools maintain a copy of the blockchain and are responsible for processing transactions and producing new blocks. In order to maintain security and network liveliness of the Cardano Proof-Of-Stake protocol, requires a sufficient number of pools to be online. In return for running the pool and validating transactions, the stake pools and their delegators are rewarded in the form of more Cardano.
Cardano (ADA) owners that participate by delegating to a staking pool help secure and decentralize the network!
One of the factors in a pool being selected to validate a transaction, is how much is staked to a pool or also known as delegated to a pool. Pools that have 1 million staked will regularly validate transactions. Pools under a million may not. However, supporting small pools under a million helps them validate more transaction and helps the network stay secure and decentralized.
