Polkadot Staking and Nomination Guide
This guide will describe the Polkadot staking steps using Polkadot.js web browser extension and how to nominate Staked Tech validators. So before you start please install the Polkadot.js extension for Chrome/Brave or Firefox.
- After the Polkadot.js installation and wallet creation, you can open the Polkadot.js web interface. Make sure you are connected to the Polkadot mainnet by clicking on the menu in the top left corner and select the Polkadot network.
2. To start the staking process go to the Staking tab and Account action tab.
If you have an existing stake and you want to adjust nominations click on the three dots and select Set nominees.
If this is your first stake click on the Nominator button on the top.
3. In the time of writing the Polkadot DOT tokens are still locked and not transferable. For this reason, we need to use the same account as both Stash and Controller accounts.
Everything regarding staking is done on-chain and registered on the blockchain through the transactions. Each transaction costs a tiny fee that needs to be paid from the controller account. For this reason, you should always keep a reasonable amount of DOTs on your controller account. In our example, we left 0.58 DOTs for the future fee to add more if needed in the future.
In the end, you can choose the destination of your staking rewards. We prefer the selected Stash account option because rewards are added to the existing stash and increase the staking amount over time.
4. The next step is to nominate the validators who will produce blocks and distribute the rewards to their nominators. When choosing which validators to nominate there are several factors to be looked upon.
A detailed guide on How to nominate the best Polkadot validators.
The selection of the validators can be done manually by handpicking the validators with a combination of the best reputation, history, and reward distribution. To do so turn off the auto-selection tool.
If you like Staked Tech services, please include our validators in your nominations. You can add validators by copy/paste the address to the filter field.
✅StakedTech/One
12H9FfSYdQ4GrKc7tdxK8U6DitAZMqfnhB8gtHwd2rpCiZfN
👍StakedTech/Two
16PrmvBQAfCBKcWtHtENNxdRMQDAxqemvVcfFJqmYbM9BY57
When you picked the validators press Nominate to finish the nomination. You have staked your DOTs and your now a Nominator on the network.
Summary:
- you can nominate up to 16 validators
- no matter how many validators you nominate, your account will always show 1 Active and 15 waiting nominations
- to receive staking reward you need to have at least 1 validator from the active set.
- Your stake is always 100% with 1 active validator picked from your nominations. Having 16 active validators or 1 active and 15 waiting makes no difference in your staking reward.
- the validators in the waiting list need nominations to enter the active set. They usually run promotional campaigns like our validators offering a 0% fee for a minimum of one month after being elected. Try to maximize the reward by adding them to your nominations.
- the staking reward is changing. It depends on the % of the network at stake
- choose the right validators for your nominations
- always have some funds in your controller amount to be able to pay for transaction fees
If you are interested in more details on how nPoS (nominated Proof of Stake) works, here are some materials where you can read about it:
Hopefully, this guide was useful to you. If you have any questions or comments you can find us on social channels below. Feedback is always welcome!
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