What is staking and why should I do it?

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Upstream Oct 02, 2021 Education

What is staking and why should I do it?

Staking uses your ADA to support the Cardano network and you earn ADA as a reward for doing so. Your ADA stays in your own private wallet at all times, and is only ever accessible by you. Staking boosts the network, rewards the staking pool operator and you get rewarded. Nice! 

Staking involves these simple steps:

  1. Buy some ADA on an exchange like Binance or Coinbase.
  2. Transfer your ADA to your private wallet such as Yoroi or Deadalus.
  3. Delegate your ADA to a staking pool of your choice, directly from your wallet.
  4. Watch the rewards roll into your account automatically every 5 days (after the initial 10 day waiting period). Lovely!

staking yields passive Return on your ADA investment

If you’re holding ADA the chances are you believe in its long term value. So accruing 5% APY (Annual Percentage Yield) on your investment should feel like a no brainer! When you delegate you’ll net an average reward of 5% APY. These rewards are paid in ADA every 5 days for the length of time that your ADA is staked. Your rewards are automatically paid into your wallet and you don’t need to do a thing! You can also un-stake at any time.

staking Helps to develop decentralised financial freedom

The financial reward alone is a great reason to stake your ADA. But you’re also helping to develop and grow the backbone of decentralised finance. Think of staking like a high interest bank account, but instead of the bank getting all the the profit, it is distributed fairly among all the shareholders, including you. When you stake, you and all the other Cardano staking community (delegators) get a share of the profits which you deserve for investing in the decentralised Cardano network.

Decentralisation gives you back control of your finances by taking the bank out of the equation and re-routing profits back to the community members.

Support the Cardano network

Staking ADA supports the Cardano network. This is arguably the most important reason to stake ADA in an independent pool. The more ADA that is staked on the Cardano network, the faster, more efficient and more reliable the network becomes. So staking is ultimately a very good idea, especially if you’re already invested in ADA!

Stake your cardano ada with upstream!

Stake your ADA with Upstream and we’ll love you forever. We’re a new, small, independent pool with big ambitions.

Our aim is to empower as many people as possible with the basic financial education they need to achieve financial freedom, whatever that means for them.

Search for UPSTR on your ADA wallet’s staking page or get in touch with us on twitter @Upstream_ada