Cardano (ADA) Staking

Modified on Tue, 19 Oct 2021 at 12:04 PM

With version v1.6.0 or higher, BC Vault now also supports staking Cardano (ADA) cryptocurrency directly in the BC Vault Desktop application.

What is Cardano staking?

ADA held on the Cardano network represents a stake in the network, with the size of the stake proportional to the amount of ADA held. The ability to delegate or pledge a stake is fundamental to how Cardano works.

There are two ways an ADA holder can earn rewards: by delegating their stake to a stake pool run by someone else, or running their own stake pool. The amount of stake delegated to a given stake pool is the primary way the Ouroboros protocol chooses who should add the next block to the blockchain, and receive a monetary reward for doing so.

The more stake is delegated to a stake pool (up to a certain point), the more likely it is to make the next block – and the rewards are shared between everyone who delegated their stake to that stake pool.

When you are staking, your ADA is not locked up in any way. You are free to use it. Potential staking rewards will be rewarded to you based on the ADA you have in your wallet as the wallet is registered and delegated to a pool.

Any new funds (including staking rewards) of already registered and delegated wallets, will automatically be staked (no need to do anything).

NOTE: BC Vault itself has nothing to do with the staking of your funds. All aspects of staking your ADA (timelines, rewards, ...) are controlled by the Cardano blockchain network itself.

Source: Cardano | Stake pool Delegation

How to stake Cardano

Go to your Cardano (ADA) Wallets in the BC Vault Desktop Application. Under the wallet, which you want to stake (you always stake all funds in the wallet), select "More" and "Staking":

Available functions:

Pol details	This option will show you details about a pool to which the funds in your selected wallet are staked.
Delegate	This option allows you to delegate your ADA from a selected wallet to a staking pool. In case the funds are already staked you can also redelegate to a different pool. If this is the first time you are delegating from the selected wallet, the register function will also be automatically executed for you (Register - Register this wallet for delegating). In order to register the address, you have to deposit a small amount of ADA (currently 2 ADA), which is a one-time deposit, that can be reclaimed by unregistering the wallet.
Unregister	This option will unregister your selected wallet from staking. Your initial deposit for registering (see above) will be returned to your wallet.

To stake your funds to a particular pool, select "Delegate" and you will be presented with a list of available pools:

Generally speaking, you want to select a pool with low costs, margin, and saturation slightly below 100%.

Available fields:

ID/HASH	Unique ID and HASH.
NAME/DESCRIPTION	Name of the staking pool.
FIXED COST	Fixed cost is an amount of ADA taken from the total rewards the pool produces in an epoch.
MARGIN	Margin is a percentage taken from the pool’s total rewards for each epoch after the fixed cost has been deducted.
SATURATION	Saturation is a term used to indicate the fullness of the pool in regard to optimum, decided by the network. Over-saturated pools suffer from diminishing rewards, while under-saturated pools are rewarded less frequently.

Available view filters:

STATUS - Retired	Retired pools do not allow delegation anymore - no more rewards will be paid out by the retired pool. If your stake pool was retired, delegate another active pool.
STATUS - To be retired	The pool will be retired soon. See above (Retired).
STATUS - Active	The pool is active and available for delegation.
SATURATION - Show empty pools	The pool is empty and has 0 staked ADA.
SATURATION - Show saturated pool	The pool is overfilled and has over 100% staked ADA.

After you click on the pool you would like to use, you will be presented with the details of it. Once you check it you can click on the "Delegate" button . Afterwards, you will be presented with the "DELEGATE ADA" dialogue where you have to confirm the operation:

Currently, the deposit for the Register operation is 2 ADA and you will get it back if you unregister for staking. Delegation cost is 0 ADA.
After confirming the action on your BC Vault, staking will be activated for the selected wallet. You can confirm that by the staking icon now visible on the right side of the wallet address (clicking on the icon will present you with details about selected staking pool):
Once your funds have been delegated, you will start earning rewards. Rewards will be earned, whenever the pool receives the rewards. The amount you earn cannot be guaranteed and will ultimately depend on the stake pool, the amount of rewards shared, and its performance.
It is worth noting that you will not start earning rewards until 5 epochs have passed (25 days) from the time of delegation. Also - you only earn rewards when your selected pool receives them.

How to claim/use your staking rewards

Go to your Cardano (ADA) Wallets in the BC Vault Desktop Application. Under the wallet, which you want to claim rewards for, hover with the mouse pointer over your funds and popup will show you your staking rewards (if available):

Your total will already include the amount of your staking rewards.
To spend your rewards simply enable "Use rewards" when sending ADA and the balance of your rewards will be spent (rewards will always be spent in full). Doing so, you will only pay the fee once (for the selected transaction), rather than twice (withdrawing and sending).

For example: If you would hold 10 ADA in a wallet, have 1 ADA available in rewards, and would like to send 3 ADA. With "Use rewards" enabled, 1 ADA would be spent from rewards and 2 ADA from your wallet.

If you want to only claim rewards to your wallet, send any amount of funds to your own ADA wallet address (yes, you can send to yourself on the blockchain), while "Use rewards".

For more information about Cardano staking we recommend the following sites: