Staking
Introduction
Before you can stake an asset, you must have policies in place on your account that allow for staking.
This article focuses on staking cryptocurrencies via the Cold Vault.
There is a general flow for staking, with each coin bringing peculiarities that must be considered. This article covers both aspects.
Contents
The article is divided into three sections:
- Staking Policy
- General Staking Flow
- Specific Coin Details
Specific Coins Covered
If you are already comfortable using the Cold Vault to stake your cryptocurrency, you can jump right into the details of the currency you are working with. The coins covered in the specific coin details section include:
- Cardano
- Casper
- Cosmos
- Ethereum
- Mina
- Near
- Polkadot
- Solana
- Tezos
- Tron
Staking Policy
The ability to stake a currency is controlled by policy. Staking policy can be set on a currency-by-currency basis or be configured as a blanket policy that applies to all stakable currencies. Policy creation follows the same process as Transaction Policy Creation and Management, just make sure to select the Staking option in the first step.
The General Staking Flow
Custody Infrastructure supports delegated, not native, staking (see Native vs Delegated Staking to learn about the difference). Staking transfers assets from your account to an external address and thus is subject to the same limits and policies as any other transfer operation.
Staking brings different risks than other transfers; these should be considered when crafting the policy that governs who can allocate your organization's assets.
Special Considerations
Different protocols approach staking uniquely. The two differences that have the biggest impact on the usability and security of your delegated assets are liquidity and slashing.
Liquidity
The liquidity of your assets refers to how easy it is to spend them.
With the least liquid currencies, your staked assets are transferred to another address. There is a waiting period between choosing to undelegate your assets and having them transferred back to your address. This period is referred to as a "freeze"; assets do not earn rewards while frozen.
With the most liquid currencies, your staked assets never leave your address and can be spent without unstaking.
Some currencies fall in between, where there may be an asset freeze for certain operations (like moving your assets between two delegators), but other operations can be carried out instantly (like undelegating).
Currency | Liquidity |
|---|---|
Cardano (ADA) | Up to 5-day freeze to undelegate, up to 14-day freeze to redelegate |
Casper (CSPR) | 14-hour freeze |
Cosmos (ATOM) | 21-day freeze |
Ethereum (ETH) | Variable, depends on unstaking demand |
Mina (MINA) | 2-4 weeks wait upon delegation, redelegation, and undelegation |
Near (NEAR) | 4-epoch (~52-65 hour) freeze |
Polkadot (DOT) | 28-day freeze |
Solana (SOL) | up to 3 day freeze |
Tezos (XTZ) | Highly liquid, can be spent while staked |
TRON (TRX) | 3-day freeze |
Slashing
Some protocols implement slashing to keep validators (and those delegating to them) honest. A slashing protocol will typically automatically remove coins from a validator's stake upon detecting specific misbehaviors. These coins may be burnt, melted, or simply reallocated to a general treasury pool.
The specifics are different from one chain to another. Below is a table outlining, in brief, whether the currencies we support include the risk of slashing.
Currency | Slashing protocol? |
|---|---|
Cardano (ADA) | No |
Casper (CSPR) | No (but planned) |
Cosmos (ATOM) | Yes - Can burn stake and/or suspend voting rights |
Ethereum (ETH) | Yes - Can be penalized for missing a vote or slashed for fraudulent behavior |
Mina (MINA) | No |
Near (NEAR) | Yes |
Polkadot (DOT) | Yes - Chilled* for minor offenses and slashed for major ones |
Solana (SOL) | No |
Tezos (XTZ) | Yes |
TRON (TRX) | No |
*When your staked assets are chilled, they don't earn rewards for a while.
Where to Delegate a Stake
The first step to staking any currency is to decide where you want to delegate. This may be called a "validator," "node operator," or "staking pool." The words used may differ, but the meaning is the same. This is the party maintaining the node, and you and your fellow delegating stakeholders share in the rewards the node operator earns. It is your delegation destination.
Each currency has its own logic for determining what to look for in a delegation destination to maximize rewards and minimize risk. Do your research and have the destination information ready before you sit down at the Cold Vault to configure your stakes. Remember, the Cold Vault cannot read anything off the Internet. All your information will need to be input by hand.
A friendly tip:
Display all the information you'll need to type out in an easy-to-read font. Many characters look very similar in some fonts, such as capital i, lowercase l, and the number one. Assets sent to a mis-keyed address cannot be recovered. Make sure you can tell exactly what each character in the address is!
Delegator Info by Currency
The table below includes a link for each of our stakable currencies to the external website where they maintain validator information.
Currency | Validator Information |
|---|---|
Cardano (ADA) | |
Casper (CSPR) | |
Cosmos (ATOM) | |
Ethereum (ETH) | |
Mina (MINA) | |
Near (NEAR) | |
Polkadot (DOT) | |
Solana (SOL) | |
Tezos (XTZ) | |
TRON (TRX) |
How to Delegate a Stake
Delegation is performed from the Cold Vault by a user covered by the appropriate policy rules.
General Prerequisites for Staking
Before delegating a stake, have the following prepared:
- The required information of your chosen delegation destination.
- Enough assets available to cover the stake and required fees. Some currencies have minimum requirements for the amount you stake.
- Limits that allow moving the amount you want to stake.
Staking Assets from the Cold Vault (Overview)
Staking is performed via the Staking menu. Access the staking menu via the Staking button on the OPERATIONAL sidebar of the Cold Vault.
The Staking menu has panes for every currency active on your system that we support staking activity. You can only open a specific currency's staking menu if you have a balance in that currency on your Cold Vault.
Coin Specifics
The Avalanche network uses multiple chains. Staking is done on the P-chain. However, you must add Avalanche C-chain, an EVM, to your system before activating the P-chain native coin (see Coins Managment).
Avalanche assets begin on the C-chain and must be first exported from that chain before being imported to the P-chain for staking. Upon exiting a stake, the assets must be exported from the P-chain and then imported back to the C-chain.
To explore the Avalanche P-chain, use the link https://avascan.info/blockchain/p/home.
Key Concepts
- Gas: Gas fees for the P-Chain are pain using nAVAX.
- Reward Structure: Validator rewards consider both the stakes' amount and duration. The reward formula encourages decentralized staking rather than large collective staking pools.
- Minimum stake amount and duration: At least 25 AVAX is needed to delegate a stake. You must keep your assets staked for at least 2 weeks before you can receive rewards. You cannot keep your AVAX staked for longer than a year.
Exporting Assets
To prepare assets for staking, export them from the C-chain.
To receive assets after exiting a stake, export them from the P-chain.
In the Cold Vault staking area, click the AVAXP Staking button.
The Avalanche staking menu opens. By default, it is set to Delegate.
Change the operation to Export via the Operation dropdown:
Fill out the Export Transaction information:
- Input the Amount in AVAX.
- Input the Base Fee. When exporting from the C-chain, the fee is paid in Gwei. When exporting from the P-chain, the fee is paid in nAVAX.
- Optionally, add a description. This will only appear in the Custody Infrastructure system records and will not be visible on-chain.
- Use the To Chain dropdown to indicate what chain you are moving the assets to.
Click Send to export the assets off of the source chain.
Importing Assets
To prepare assets for staking, import them to the P-chain.
To receive assets after exiting a stake, import them to the C-chain.
In the Cold Vault staking area, click the AVAXP Staking button.
The Avalanche staking menu opens. By default, it is set to Delegate.
Change the operation to Import via the Operation dropdown:
Fill out the Import Transaction information:
- Input the Base Fee. When importing to the P-chain, the fee is paid in nAVAX. When importing to the C-chain, the fee is paid in Gwei.
- Optionally, add a description. This will only appear in the Custody Infrastructure system records and will not be visible on-chain.
- Use the To Chain dropdown to indicate the chain to which you are moving the assets.
Click Send to import the assets to the destination chain.
Delegating a Stake
When you delegate a stake, you assign the assets to a collective staking pool for a configurable period.
Prerequisites
Before you can delegate assets, you must export them from the C-chain and import them to the P-chain.
Procedure
In the Cold Vault staking area, click the AVAXP Staking button.
The Avalanche staking menu opens.
Fill out the Delegate Transaction information:
- Input the Contact name and destination address (To) of the staking pool. Optionally, use the < button to populate both the contact name and node address from your address book.
- Input the Amount of AVAX to stake.
- Configure your desired stake Duration in number of days. This can be from two weeks (14) to one year (365).
- Input the Gas Price in nAVAX.
- Optionally, add a description. This will only appear in the Custody Infrastructure system records and will not be visible on-chain.
Click Send to delegate the assets to the staking pool. Once the set staking period has passed, the stake will automatically exit.
Exiting a Stake
You cannot exit an AVAX staking pool prematurely. Once your staking duration has ended, you can either re-delegate them to a staking pool or move them from the P-chain to the C-chain.
To move your assets to the C-chain, follow the procedure for exporting from the P-chain and importing to the C-chain.
The Cardano staking menu allows you to delegate your Cardano to a staking pool. The fewer users who have staked to that pool, the larger the reward per user. Cardano requires you to register before you start staking. Custody Infrastructure handles registration for you as part of your first delegation operation.
Optionally, you can manually register for the cost of two ADA.
Go to https://adapools.org/ and choose an unsaturated ADA pool (not close to 100%). Choosing a less-saturated pool increases your return on the stake.
Write down the address of the desired pool to copy it to the Cold Vault.
Remember, the only way to input data into the Cold Vault is by hand.
Make sure you have enough ADA in the Cold Vault to cover the stake.
Go to the Staking page.
Click ADA Staking.
You have a list of functionalities on the ADA stacking page
- Sync - Making UTXO sync between the Blockchain balance and the Cold Vault Cardano Balance. When pressing the Sync button, the Deposit Code window will pop up. This code will appear in the proxy app only if a new transaction is done to one of the deposit addreses.
When Staking with Cardano there is a Cold Vault deposit address, as opposed to other currencies which don't have one. Every pool has a limit for how much you can stake, and the Cardano protocol dictates that ALL ADA at the deposit address go to the pool.
Of course, putting more ADA in the staking pool than is allowed does you no good.
So, create your deposit address, transfer the amount of ADA you want to stake into that address, and then assign that deposit address to stake to your chosen pool.
You can create up to 50 deposit addresses (and stake to up to 50 staking pools), but ONLY ONE DEPOSIT ADDRESS CAN BE STAKED TO ANY GIVEN POOL.
Click Select Pool, give it a name, and type the address of the pool.
Make sure you copy the pool address in Bech32 format.
Click Add Pool and approve the action using the verification code.
After adding the pool, select the pool you just added.
Click on Delegate Stake. The system asks for the verification code, which you can get either from the Mobile or the proxy app.
Get the verification code from either the mobile app or the proxy PC.
After delegating the stake, go to the second tab - Deposit Addresses to verify the delegation has been performed.
Verify the staking transaction on the transaction page.
To delegate more funds to a different deposit address, go to the Delegate Stake page, choose the deposit address from the right-hand side, fill out all the fields as depicted in the below screenshot, and press the Delegate Stake button. Go through verification and check the delegation through the Claim Rewards button.
To transfer funds between different address pools, you can use the Transfer tab.
When transferring more funds to the Cold Vault address, it will not automatically add the new funds to one of the deposit addresses for stake delegation.
To be eligible for rewards, Cardano requires you to actively consider voting. The Custody Infrastructure system enables this by formally allowing you to indicate that you don't want to vote. This functionm is called "Delegate Vote", and is found in the Deposit Addresses tab.
Click Add address and select the addresses that have staked ADA.
Click Sync for each address and go through the verification process
When it's time to get the reward (depending on the blockchain terms and conditions for staking) use the Claim Rewards Button on the Deposit addresses page.
On the Claim rewards page. Tick the check mark of the respective deposit. This action will trigger a pop-up on the proxy machine indicating the value of the rewards.
Pressing the Sync button will give you the deposit code in case the sync is required on the Cold Vault. The deposit code pops up on the Proxy machine.
After receiving the value of the rewards, you can insert the value on an empty field.
Now you can press the Claim Rewards button. This action will move the rewards from the deposit address to the Cold Vault address.
In Cardano staking, you can only stake the total available funds on a specific address on the cold vault.
If you transfer funds to a specific Cold address currently used for stake delegation, the funds will automatically go into that specific pool delegation.
Each Cold Vault Address can be used for depositing to only one pool address at a time.
The Casper staking menu allows you to delegate Casper to a validator, move your delegated Casper from one validator to another (Redelegate stake), and transfer your delegated Casper back into your own wallet.
Casper requires you to delegate a minimum of 500 CSPR. Before attempting to delegate any, ensure you have enough CSPR to cover both the stake and transaction fees.
Available Actions
There are two main actions you can take when it comes to staking your Casper via Custody Infrastructure:
- Delegate: You can delegate your Casper, in whole or in part, to a validator on the network. The more delegated to a particular validator, the more rewards can be earned. This function can also be used to transfer delegated Casper from one validator to another. Delegated coins are transferred to the validator immediately.
- Undelegate: Undelegating pulls your delegated Casper back from the validator to your own wallet. Undelegating (and redelegating, which technically involves undelegating from your source validator) can take up to 14 hours before the assets arrive at the destination.
Staking Casper costs gas as well as a delegation fee.
Delegating and Redelegating
When you open any operation from the Casper staking pane, a notification appears on the Proxy machine and mobile app outlining the current position of your Casper stakes and rewards, along with fee recommendations.
Select Delegate from the Casper pane. Check the Redelegate box to transfer funds from one validator to the other. (The 500 CSPR limit applies to both delegation and redelegation)
Use the Contact button to select a validator to transfer your CSPR to.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
OR
Input the validator's address. If you provide a manual address, you will be prompted to create a contact for the validator upon sending the transaction.
Input the amount of CSPR to delegate.
Input the Gas price.
Check the proxy notifications to see the suggested fee for Casper.
Input this as the Payment amount (fee).
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Undelegating
Select Undelegate from the Casper pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your CSPR from.
Input the Validator address from which you want to transfer your CSPR.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of CSPR to undelegate.
Input the Gas price.
Check the proxy notifications to see the suggested fee for Casper.
Input this as the Payment amount (fee).
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your undelegation.
P.S. There is
Cosmos is the first hub chain of a large interconnected network of blockchains and protocols. The ATOM is the coin.
Reward Structure
You delegate your ATOM to a validator. The validator receives rewards from three different sources:
- Newly minted ATOM (block rewards)
- Transaction fees
- Securing related chains
Each validator sets its own rate for retained vs. distributed rewards. You can find validator information at https://www.mintscan.io/cosmos/validators.
Available Actions
- Delegate: You can delegate your ATOM, in whole or in part, to a network validator.
- Redelegate: You can move your delegated ATOM, in whole or in part, from one network validator to another.
- Withdraw rewards: You can transfer your rewarded ATOM from the validator to your wallet.
- Undelegate: You can transfer your delegated ATOM from the validator to your wallet.
Delegating and Redelegating
Delegating
Select Delegate from the Cosmos pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your ATOM to.
Input the Validator address and Validator Operator Address to which you want to transfer your ATOM.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of ATOM to delegate.
Input the fee in uATOM
Input the Gas price.
Input a memo to appear as part of this transaction on-chain.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Redelegating
Select Delegate from the Cosmos pane. Check the Redelegate box to transfer funds from one validator to the other.
Input the Source validator name that you want to transfer your ATOM from.
Input the Source Validator address and Validator Operator Address that you want to transfer your ATOM from
Input the Destination validator name that you want to transfer your ATOM to.
Input the Destination Validator address and Validator Operator Address to which you want to transfer your ATOM.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of ATOM to transfer.
Input the fee in uATOM
Input the Gas price.
Input a memo to appear as part of this transaction on-chain.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your redelegation.
Withdrawing Rewards and Unstaking
Withdrawing Rewards
You can withdraw your earned rewards, transferring them from the validator to your wallet while leaving your initial stake with the validator to continue amassing rewards. Performing this operation withdraws ALL rewards from the validator.
There is no way to check your on-chain rewards from within the Custody Infrastructure system.
Select Withdraw from the Cosmos pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your ATOM rewards from.
Input the Validator address and Validator Operator Address from which you want to transfer your ATOM rewards.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the fee in uATOM
Input the Gas price.
Input a memo to appear as part of this transaction on-chain.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your withdrawal.
Undelegate Stake
You can transfer some or all of your delegated ATOM from a validator back into your account.
Select Withdraw from the Cosmos pane. Check the Undelegate Stake box.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your ATOM from.
Input the Validator address and Validator Operator Address from which you want to transfer your ATOM.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of ATOM you want to transfer from the validator back to yourself.
Input the fee in uATOM
Input the Gas price.
Input a memo to appear as part of this transaction on-chain.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your withdrawal.
Ethereum is staked in increments of 32 ETH; the Custody Infrastructure platform only allows you to delegate one 32 ETH stake per operation. Your staked ETH will accumulate rewards allocated by your chosen validator.
Key Concepts
- Behavior: A perfect validator votes "as expected", but not all validators are perfect. Validators get punished for bad behavior, and those punishments also can be applied to those who delegated to a bad validator. See https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/rewards-and-penalties/ for details.
- Penalties: If a validator misses a target or source vote, they lose the amount of ETH they would normally be rewarded for that vote.
Reward Structure
Ethereum rewards are shared by the validator. These rewards cannot be withdrawn from the validator without withdrawing the stake as well.
Available Actions
The Cold Vault has one button available and the API has one endpoint.
- Delegate (Cold Vault function): The delegate popup provides the information you need to perform a staking operation.
- stakeETH (API endpoint): Run this API call to delegate 32 ETH to a chosen validator.
Staking
Staking ETH freezes 32 ETH with a selected validator. Staking ETH requires access to both the Cold Vault and the API.
Have all your validator information ready before you begin the staking operation.
Select Delegate in the Cold Vault.
Make a note of the Withdrawal Credentials and ETH 1 Address. Send this to your validator to get the validator_public_key_hex and bls_signature_hash.
Switch to a machine with API access and run /stakeETH.
- Use the hex of your chosen validator's public key as the validator_public_key_hex.
- Use the bls_signature_hexyou recieved from the validator.
Running the API call finalizes the delegation transaction.
Withdrawing
To withdraw your staked ETH and rewards, contact your validator. They must submit a transaction to the blockchain transfering both your stake and your accumulated rewards back to you. There is no way to withdraw your rewards separately from your stake.
Near is a blockchain protocol built for speed. It uses proprietary sharding techniques to give a one-second confirmation time. This speed and capacity for transactions is intended to facilitate the creation of distributed applications.
NEAR protocol allows you to spread your stake across many pools; unstaking can be done one pool at a time, allowing you to withdraw discrete portions of your stake rather than the entire thing at once. Custody Infrastructure does not support this at this time.
When you unstaking NEAR, you can only withdraw your entire stake at once.
Key Concepts
Gas: Near uses gas to cover infrastructure costs. The cost of a given transaction in gas units will never change. However, the price of that gas will fluctuate due to changes in infrastructure expenses.
Reward Structure
Near has a total of one billion tokens that will be made available. New near is issued to the validators at a rate of about 5% of the remaining tokens per year. Rewards are granted at the conclusion of each Epoch (each Epoch should last 12000 blocks, or 12 hours). Each validator shares the rewards earned with those who staked that particular validator. Commission and fees are set by each validator independently. Check https://nearblocks.io/ for information about specific validators.
Available Actions
- Delegate: You can delegate your Near, in whole or in part, to a network validator.
- Withdraw: Withdrawing pulls your delegated Near back from the validator to your own wallet.
Delegating
Select Delegate from the Near pane.
Input the Pool Address that you want to transfer your NEAR to.
Input the amount of NEAR to delegate.
The Load Pool button allows you to select a pool from your address book. Selecting a pool automatically populates the address information.
Click Send to finalize your delegation. The proxy computer displays a confirmation code.
Input the confirmation code from the proxy on the Cold Vault. The proxy computer displays a string. On the proxy, it's called the "online data," and the Cold Vault calls it "the operation branch".
Input the online data into the Cold Vault's "Operation branch" popup and click Set branch.
Your Near is now staked. The staking transaction is visible in your history, and you can view your staked assets using a blockchain explorer.
Withdrawing
The withdrawal menu is used to both to undelegate a stake and withdraw rewards.
In NEAR, you must undelegate your stake before you can withdraw your rewards.
Undelegate Stake
Select Withdraw from the NEAR pane.
Tick the Undelegate stake box.
Input the Pool Address that you want to transfer your NEAR from.
The Load Pool button allows you to select a pool from your address book. Selecting a pool automatically populates the address information.
Click Send to finalize your stake withdrawal.
Withdraw Rewards
Select Withdraw from the NEAR pane.
Input the Pool Address that you want to transfer your NEAR from.
The Load Pool button allows you to select a pool from your address book. Selecting a pool automatically populates the address information.
Click Send to finalize your rewards withdrawal.
Polkadot has positioned itself as a "layer zero" protocol aiming to facilitate inter-chain communication. Chain policy is governed by nominators and validators, and Custody Infrastructure supports staking via direct nomination of validators.
Key Concepts
- Nominator: A nominator chooses a validator to back. The current minimum cost of validating can be found at https://wiki.polkadot.network/docs/learn-staking#:~:text=STAKE%20THROUGH%20NOMINATION%20POOLS and is displayed on the proxy machine when you open the Polkadot delegation menu on the Cold Vault.
- Validator: Validators act to authenticate and secure the chain. Validators are rewarded with DOT for their work every era.
- Slashing: If a validator misbehaves by equivocating or disputing block contents, a percentage of their staked assets is forfeited. Validator slashes also impact nominators' staked DOT.
Reward Structure
Every 24-hour era, DOT is rewarded to the validators, who then distribute it to the nominators. The amount of DOT rewarded to the validator is the same regardless of the number of nominators; you, as a nominator, get a larger portion of the block rewards when you nominate less popular (but reputable) validators. Validator information can be found at https://staking.polkadot.cloud/#/validators.
The best practice is to check for rewards at least every 28 days.
Available Actions
- Delegate: Delegate is freezing your DOT and nominating a validator.
- You can redelegate to move your stake to another validator.
- You can delegate repeatedly to increase your stake with your current validator.
- Undelegate: Undelegation is unfreezing your DOT and ceasing to nominate a validator. There is a 28-day waiting period between undelegating and having your DOT available. You can only withdraw your rewards after the waiting period has passed.
Delegating
When you select Delegate, a notification appears on the proxy machine stating the current minimum amount Polkadot requires for a delegation operation.
This amount changes, so be sure to check before each staking operation.
Initial Delegation:
The first time you delegate, you must provide the system with information about your chosen validator.
Select Delegate from the Polkadot pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your DOT to.
Input the Validator address to which you want to transfer your DOT.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of DOT to delegate.
OPTIONAL: Set a tip for the validator in uDOT. (if you set it, it will prioritize the trx)
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Subsequent Delegation:
After configuring your delegation, you can choose to delegate more DOT to the same validator.
Select Delegate from the Polkadot pane.
Input the amount of DOT to delegate.
Set a tip for the validator in uDOT.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Redelegation:
After configuring your delegation, you can choose to redelegate your staked assets from your current validator to a new one.
Select Delegate from the Polkadot pane.
Tick the Redelegate box.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your DOT to.
Input the Validator address to which you want to transfer your DOT.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Set a tip for the validator in uDOT.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Undelegating
Before you can transfer your reward to your account, you need to undelegate your initial stake.
Undelegate:
Input the amount of DOT to undelegate.
Set a tip for the validator in uDOT.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Your newly undelegated DOT will be available in 28 days.
Withdrawing Rewards:
You can only withdraw rewards after the 28-day post-undelegation waiting period has passed.
Input the Number of Slashing Spans (get this number from the proxy notifications).
Set a tip for the validator in uDOT.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Solana is a crypto coin that relies on proof-of-history (PoH) to parallelize the workload and provide very low confirmation time on new blocks.
Key Concepts
Proof of History: A technique where timestamps are incorporated into the blocks produced by the blockchain's validator. This allows blocks to be produced in parallel, as blocks received out of order to be reordered according to their time stamps.
Available Actions
There are two actions you can take when it comes to staking your Solana via Custody Infrastructure :
- Delegate: You can delegate your Solana, in whole or in part, to a network validator.
- Withdraw: Withdrawing pulls your delegated Solana back from the validator to your own wallet.
Delegating
Select Delegate from the Solana pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your SOL to.
Input the Validator address to which you want to transfer your SOL.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of SOL to delegate.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your delegation.
Withdrawing
Select Withdraw from the Solana pane.
Input the Validator name that you want to transfer your SOL from.
Input the Validator address from which you want to transfer your SOL.
The Contact button allows you to select a contact from your address book. Selecting a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Input the amount of SOL to withdraw.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your withdrawal.
TRON is intended to support smart contracts and Web3 applications. These contracts and applications run on TRON Virtual Machines (TVMs), which are compatible with EVMs.
TVMs differ from EVMS in two significant ways: vocabulary and capabilities. TRON's developer documentation outlines these differences here.
Rewards are given using a delegated proof of stake (DPOS) model.
Key Concepts
- Super Representative: Super representatives validate the TRON network. Any user can pay 9999 TRX to be a super representative candidate. The top 27 candidates become super representatives, and the next 100 are super representative partners.
- Tron Power: TRON Power (TP) is your right to vote for super representative candidates. You get one TP for every TRX you stake. You use the TP to vote. You cast one vote for every TP; you can cast all votes for one witness.
- Energy: TRON Energy correlates to Ethereum Gas. The more commands in an operation, the more Energy it generally requires. Some commands require more Energy than others.
- Bandwidth: TRON Bandwidth is rather straightforward, directly depending on the transaction size in bytes. Every user is assigned 600 Bandwidth a day.
Rewards Structure
Staking TRON earns you TRON Power (TP), which you need to use to vote. A new vote occurs every six hours. If your Super Representative wins the vote, you split block rewards (which are additional TRON) with all who voted for them. Energy and Bandwidth are also earned when you stake TRX.
When you stake TRON, you must choose a resource to stake for. Energy and Bandwidth resources have a fixed amount on the TRON network every day. That amount is split proportionally among all who have staked toward that resource.
Available Actions
The Custody Infrastructure TRON staking menu offers the following functions.
- Staking: When staking TRON, you must choose how much TRX to stake and what resource (Energy or Bandwidth) you wish to earn.
- Delegation: You can delegate your resource allocation, in whole or in part, to another address on the network. They can thus pool resources to perform heavier transactions. Voting rights cannot be delegated.
- Withdrawal: Withdrawal takes your unstaked TRON and returns it to your wallet. You must wait 14 days after unstaking before your funds can be transferred to your wallet.
- Unstaking: Unstaking pulls your staked funds out. You immediately lose your TP and whatever resource your TRX was staked for. You can withdraw your unstaked funds to your wallet after 14 days.
- Undelegation: Undelegating pulls your delegated resource (Energy or Bandwidth) back for your own use.
- Vote Reward Withdrawal: When the candidate you vote for is elected as a super representative or super representative partner, you get a share of the block rewards. Vote reward withdrawal transfers any accumulated TRX awarded into your wallet.
- Vote: Voting is the process of putting your TP towards a candidate. If your candidate is among the top 128, you get a share of the block rewards! Once you vote for a candidate, the system automatically continues to put your TP toward that candidate for every vote until you change it.
Staking and Delegating
Staking TRON earns you TP, as well as either Energy or Bandwidth.
Stake:
Select Staking from the Operation dropdown.
Input the amount of whole TRX you want to stake.
Select either Bandwidth or Energy from the Resource dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your staking.A popup appears on the Cold Vault requesting your Operation Branch.
Check the proxy notifications for the branch ID.
Input the branch into the Cold Vault.
Once you earn a resource, you can use it to pay for your own transactions or delegate it to another address. Delegating in this way enables users to band together to get larger transactions on-chain.
Delegate:
Select Delegation from the Operation dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Enter the contact name.
Enter your contact's address.
You can select a contact from your address book using the Contact button. Choosing a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Enter the Amount of the chosen resource you want to delegate.
Use the Resource dropdown to select a resource type, either Energy or Bandwidth.
OPTIONAL: Leave a note to yourself about this operation.
Click Send to finalize the resource delegation.
Undelegating removes your chosen resource from the contact you've previously delegated it to and places it back under your control.
Undelegate:
Select Undelegation from the Operation dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Enter the Contact's name.
Enter your contact's address.
You can use the Contact button to select a contact from your address book. Choosing a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Enter the Amount of the chosen resource you want to delegate.
Use the Resource dropdown to select a resource type, either Energy or Bandwidth.
OPTIONAL: Leave a note to yourself about this operation.
Click Send to finalize the resource delegation.
Voting and Rewards
The TRON protocol allows you to split your TRON Power (TP) between multiple candidates.
The Custody Infrastructure platform DOES NOT support voting for more than one candidate.
For example:
You have 15 TP. You vote for candidate "A" using 10 TP. Then, you perform a second voting operation, using 5 TP to vote for "B."
On the Custody Infrastructure system, the second vote (for "B") overrides the first entirely. Where before, you voted for "A" with 10TP every cycle, now you vote for "B" with 5TP.
Voting takes place every six hours. At the conclusion of the vote, two types of rewards are distributed:
- Block Reward: With each block’s production, the TRON network will reward 16 TRX to the super representative who produces the block. After deducting their commission ratio, the super representative distributes the remaining part of this reward to the voters according to the voters' voting ratio.
- Vote Reward: With each block’s production, the TRON network will reward 160 TRX to super representatives and super representative partners who will share 160 TRX in proportion to their votes. The voting rewards obtained by super representatives and super representative partners will also be distributed to voters according to their voting ratio after deducting their own commissions.
You can view a list of super representatives, partners, and candidates here.
Vote:
Select Vote from the Operation dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Enter the Contact's name.
Enter your contact's address.
You can use the Contact button to select a contact from your address book. Choosing a contact automatically populates the contact name and address information.
Enter the Count of TP you wish to assign the candidate.
OPTIONAL: Leave a note to yourself about this operation.
Click Send to finalize the vote.
Just repeat the voting operation to change who you are voting for or adjust your TP count.
You can earn rewards based on the voting outcome. The rewards show up on the blockchain, but of course, the Cold Vault cannot view them.
Checking Voting Rewards:
To see if your super representative won, check the block explorer here. To see how many rewards are currently available for withdrawal:
On the Cold Vault, navigate to TRON staking.
On the The Proxy Computer , navigate to the proxy notifications area.
A notification appears outlining available resources and rewards:
Withdraw Rewards:
Select Vote Rewards Withdrawal from the Operation dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Leave a note to yourself about this operation.
Click Send to finalize the reward withdrawal. The rewards are transferred to your wallet.
Unstaking and Withdrawing
Pulling your TRON from a staked position back into your wallet is a two-phase process. First, you perform an unstaking operation, which pulls your funds out of the stake. TRON has a mandatory minimum waiting period; your unstaked funds will be unusable for 14 days immediately following the operation. Once the waiting period has passed, you must perform a withdrawal operation to transfer the unstaked funds into your wallet.
Unstaked funds can only be withdrawn into the Cold Vault.
Unstake:
Select Unstaking from the Operation dropdown.
Input the amount of whole TRX you want to unstake.
Select either Bandwidth or Energy from the Resource dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your unstaking.
Fourteen days after unstaking your TRX, you can withdraw the funds into your wallet.
Withdraw:
Select Withdrawal from the Operation dropdown.
OPTIONAL: Write a note to yourself to track the transaction.
Click Send to finalize your withdrawal.