Video: https://youtu.be/m5lcm6yttEk
Decred Staking Tutorial
In this tutorial I'll show you how easy and quick it is to Stake Decred in Decred’s graphical wallet Decredition.
Decred’s governance is based on the principle of ticket-holder voting. To participate in governance, users must time-lock ( or Stake) Decred to purchase tickets.
Tickets can then be used to vote on validating blocks, consensus rule changes, or proposals in Decred’s web-based proposal system, Politeia. Users who participate in this system receive a portion of the block reward as incentive. 30% of the total block reward is allocated to Stakers.
Before we start, let me remind you that while there are mobile wallets, staking is not supported on them, this is due to security concerns. So you cannot stake on Android or IOS.
Also, as of this video, staking is currently not supported on Hardware wallets like Trezor and Ledger, though this might change in the future if the proper developments are made.
The current platforms that are supported are Windows, Mac, and Linux.
So let's get started.
To Download Decred's wallet Decredition. simply go to decred.org where it should detect your Operating System or you can just go to decred.org/downloads and select the proper file for your Operating system.
Once you've got your seed and passphrase safely written down and secured, and your wallet has been fully synced, click on the Tickets tab. At the top you'll find the current ticket price. This is the amount of decred you need to purchase a ticket and begin staking. The ticket price changes every 12 hours, and is based on an algorithm that tries to keep a target pool of 40,960 tickets, so the more people staking, the higher this ticket price will be.. You can use explorer.dcrdata.org/ to see what the price will be in the next window, you can also view the charts to see the history of ticket prices.
Now that you know how much DCR you'll need to Stake, the next step is to get some. You can do this through a number of exchanges that accept fiat money or bitcoin. Check decred.org/exchanges for a complete list and find a suitable exchange.
You'll be able to generate a decred receive address in your wallet by clicking on the Transactions tab, then clicking on receive where an address will be generated for you. Use the generated address to receive your DCR.
Once your wallet has received the decred you've purchased, click on the tickets tab.
You'll need to sign up to a Voting Service Provider, also referred to as a VSP or stakepool.
Voting Service Providers allow you to participate in Decred’s proof-of-stake (PoS) system without the need to keep a constantly unlocked wallet or worry about losses due to downtime, or flaky internet. This means your tickets will safely vote even if your own wallet is offline. The VSP will also relay your voting preferences to the network.Currently, 34% of all tickets are in VSPs.
Important: Using a VSP does not give the VSP access to your funds. All you are doing is granting voting rights to the VSP.
You can see a list of VSP’s by going to https://decred.org/vsp/
From this list you can pick your VSP. Take into account the different fees and the proportion of the network the VSP has. In order to support network decentralization, it is recommended that you join a smaller VSP with fewer live tickets. Fees are 5% or less, and the fee comes from your ticket reward. You do not have to use the same VSP for all of your tickets.
So I’m going to pick the 99split.com VSP. A low proportion of the network is using it, and it has a fee of less than 1%.
Then I'm going to Register, enter the captcha, then enter in an email and a password.The VSP will send me a verification to my email that I just have to confirm, then I can log in. Once logged in, the VSP displays the API key you need to enter into Decredition in order to add the VSP. If it’s not displayed here, you can normally find it in the settings tab.
Back in the wallet, make sure you have your VSP chosen, enter the API, enter your wallet passphrase, and click add vsp. It will alert you that your VSP has been updated.
Once You’ve got your VSP set in Decredition, click on the tickets tab. Here you can set the number of tickets you would like to purchase. The wallet will alert you if you do not have enough Decred.
Set your number of tickets, Click Purchase, and then enter in your wallet’s passphrase. A notification will pop up informing you of your ticket purchase followed by a joyful animation of Stakey, Decred’s ticket mascot.
Your VSP account should now display a Redeem script in the “connect to wallet tab”, that you can use to retrieve your funds, should your VSP ever go down. Keep this safe,
So, that's it! That’s how easy it is to become a stakeholder and participate in Decred’s unique hybrid Pow/Pos consensus system. Voting is easily done through the Governance tab, which is just above the tickets tab.
Now let's take a look at the different phases your newly purchased ticket will now go through.
- First, your ticket enters the mempool. This is where your ticket waits to be mined by PoW miners.
- Once your ticket is mined into a block, it becomes immature. This state lasts for 256 blocks ( or about 20 hours). During this time the ticket cannot vote.
- After your ticket matures, it enters the Ticket Pool and becomes “Live” (or unspent), which means it is eligible for voting, and can be chosen at any time.
- Once your ticket has been chosen, your funds will need another 20 hours to become spendable again. You will receive the original cost of the ticket, plus the block reward, minus the VSP fee. As of this video, the block reward is 0.91 DCR per voted ticket.
- On average, live tickets vote within 28 days, but it can take as long as 142 days to vote. If a ticket does not vote within this window, it expires, and the ticket fee is lost ( but don’t worry, the cost price of the ticket is refunded). There is a chance of less than 0.5% that this will happen to you.
- It’s important to understand that once you have purchased a ticket, there is NO WAY for your funds to unlock until the Ticket votes, misses, or expires. As I just said, this could possibly take up to 142 days. What this means is Stakeholders in Decred have skin in the game. They are incentivized not to make bad decisions, as they can’t just pull their funds out whenever they so desire.
Remember, in Decred, Stakeholders make the rules, not a Central Planning Committee like in most Cryptocurrencies. Thanks for watching, if you’d like to join the community don’t hesitate to visit decred.org/community, and feel free to ask any questions you may have.