What is ADA staking and how do you stake ADA?

When you open this blog, and you don’t know much about crypto yet, it is wise to read our other blogs first. In this blog we are going to tell you how you can buy Cardano and stop it so that you start earning passive income from Cardano.

Proof of stake

As discussed in previous blogs, Cardano is a Proof of stake blockchain. This means that transactions are validated by the stake pools. Stakepools get rewards for doing so. Each ADA owner, therefore, has the option to delegate his or her ADA to a stake pool and thereby benefit from the stake pool’s profits. We will explain how and which stake pool you choose later in this article. Do you want to know more about Proof of Stake? Then read the blog ‘What is Blockchain?’ and What is Cardano?

Buy cardano

A first step is to buy Cardano. You can buy Cardano through almost any exchange. However, there is only one exchange that we can recommend for Dutch crypto investors and that is Bitvavo.

Bitvavo is a Dutch crypto exchange. This exchange offers a lot of different crypto coins that you can buy at very low costs. In addition, it is good to know that if you want to discontinue ADA, you must find an exchange where you must be able to withdraw your ADA from the exchange. This is possible at Bitvavo.

Buy cardano with iDeal

In addition, you can easily pay at Bitvavo via iDeal via any Dutch bank. Foreign crypto platforms often do not have this, so you need a credit card. Most Dutch people prefer to pay with iDeal than with a credit card because of the extra costs associated with paying with a credit card.

You can easily create an account via Bitvavo and go through the verification process. After doing this, you can start buying ADA. You do this by first depositing euros into your account. After this is successful, you can look up the Cardano and buy it with the euros you just deposited.

Other exchanges where you can buy and send Cardano

• Coinbase
• Binance

Creating a Cardano Wallet

The ADA you just purchased is now yours. It is now time to create your own Cardano wallet. Today there are many different Cardano wallets. Below you will find a handy list:

• Yoroi wallet
• Daedalus wallet
• Nami wallet
• ccVault
• Card wallet
• Exodus
• And much more.

A full list can be found at this page.

To keep things simple, from now on we will assume the discontinuation of Cardano with the Yoroi wallet. We currently find Yoroi to be the most reliable and better wallet for Cardano discontinuation. Yoroi was developed by a partner of IOHK namely EMURGO and is available as a chrome extension and app for your smartphone. You can download Yoroi wallet via the link below:

Download Yoroi wallet

Once you’ve installed Yoroi, it’s time to create a wallet. You can easily do this by clicking on ‘Add wallet’. Now it becomes equally important.

Store and save your ‘Seed Phrase’ safely! IMPORTANT

When you go through the steps and have given a name and set a password to your wallet, you will see a list of 15 words. We call this list of words your seed phrase. With this list of words you can use your Wallet at all times

on another device or system. You only get to see this list once! In addition, the advice is not to save this list of words on your phone or device itself, but in a physical location. So write this on a separate note and keep it in a safe place.

TIP: It is advisable to also make a copy, for example, and store it in a different place outside the home. For example with someone you trust. You have to assume the most extreme case of, for example, fire that makes it impossible to retrieve your seed phrase.

You may be thinking now, isn’t it safer to leave your Cardano on an exchange? No, is the short answer to this. An exchange is an online place. As well as these exchanges can be secured, you can never be sure that an exchange will not be hacked and that someone can steal your Cardano.

Securing your Crypto with a hardware device (safest option)

Even better is to choose to purchase a hardware wallet. These are devices that store your private key (a key you need to make transactions). When you have a wallet on your phone and someone steals your phone in combination with your spending password (password you have set for making transactions). Can this person send your ADA to their own address. You will then lose your ADA. If you want to prevent this, you can think about purchasing a hardware wallet. This is a small device the size of a USB stick that you plug into your laptop or connect to your phone when you want to make a transaction. This way you protect your ADA. Even when someone steals your phone or laptop.

TIP: Carrying out transactions with a hardware wallet always takes more time. That is why we always choose to keep 2 separate wallets. One (smaller) wallet without hardware device and one larger wallet with hardware device. You can add as many wallets as you want in Yoroi. This way you don’t have to use your hardware wallet every time you want to make a transaction. A bit similar to keeping a checking account and a savings account.

Different types of hardware wallets

There are different hardware wallets from different brands. The most famous brands are ‘Ledger‘ and ‘Trezor’. Below you will find links to these wallets. If you buy a wallet via the links on our website, you don’t pay anything extra, but you do sponsor our website.

Sending your ADA to your new wallet

Now that you have bought ADA via Bitvavo and created a new wallet, it is time to start sending your ADA to your wallet. To do this, log in to your Bitvavo account (in your browser, mobile app does not support this) and go to your ADA in your list of assets. On this screen, click on ‘Withdraw’. Here you can send your ADA to a different address. We want to send our ADA to our new wallet for this.

Go to your new Yoroi wallet and click on ‘recieve’ at the bottom. Here you will find one (or more) receiving addresses to receive ADA in your Yoroi wallet. Copy one of these addresses and paste it into the address field in Bitvavo. If you want to make sure it went well, you can always check the first 3 and last 3 digits of the address.

If you are sure that this went well, click on continue in Bitvavo. You will now be asked to verify your new address. You do this by confirming this via an e-mail that you receive. Follow the instructions for this. After you’ve gone through all the instructions, send the ADA. Do you doubt and don’t you dare to send everything at once? Then you can also choose to send a smaller amount first, for example. You only pay 0.2 ADA in transaction costs.

Now we just have to wait for the ADA to arrive. This generally takes a maximum of 10 minutes or so. Your transaction is currently being verified

honored through the blockchain. You can follow your transaction live via a link with the transaction on Bitvavo.

Yes ADA is in! Nice. You have now removed your Cardano from the exchange and put it in your wallet. A common statement in Cryptoland is ‘not your keys, not your coins’. You have now stored your Cardano in a more secure way.

Delegating your ADA to a stake pool

Now it’s time for the final part, delegating your ADA to a stake pool. By delegating your ADA to a stake pool, you can earn additional passive income for free and without the risk of losing the ADA.

When you open Yoroi, you will see a large button in the main screen of the app with  ‘delegation center’ on it. Click on this. You will now arrive at the search screen for finding a Cardano stake pool. If you would like to do some more research into the different pools, you can also take a look at the website adapools.org.. p>

Some things to consider when choosing a pool are:

• Saturation of the pool (with a saturation of more than 100%, the rewards you get will decrease. From 67 million ADA in a pool this is the case
• Party. These are the additional costs that a pool charges for maintaining the pool. Do not opt ​​for a pool with a higher fee of 5% or more.
• Pledge. This is the amount of ADA that the pool holder has deposited himself. The higher the pledge, the greater the confidence in the pool holder that he or she will continue to maintain the pool properly.
• What is the mission of the pool? What are the revenue pool used for?
• Less relevant: ROA (return on ADA). This can differ enormously. There is a factor of luck built into the Ouroboros protocol. This will be rectified in the longer term.

Tip: Stake in smaller pools and in pools that do not have multiple pools. In this way you help decentralize the network!

Did you find this information helpful? Then think about striking with our very own Cardano pool. The proceeds from the pool will be used to further distribute Cardano content for Dutch readers.

Have you made a choice? Look for the pool in Yoroi and click on Delegate. You will now be asked to deposit a small amount of 2 ADA into the pool. You will get this amount back the moment you withdraw it.

And now you’re done! Legs down and wait. We’ll explain in more detail how long it will take to receive your first rewards.

Receiving rewards

Your work is now done and your ADA is now delegated to a pool of your choice. You will now automatically earn rewards without doing anything further. We will explain to you how long this will take and how this process will continue.

Epoch 0: Today: You’ve delegated your ADA and are done for now. At the top of your wallet you can see which Epoch (period of 5 days) you are in and when it ends. In this piece we will assume that this will take another 5 days.

Epoch 1: After 5 days: A new Epoch begins. A snapshot of the delegated wallets is currently being taken. Your current amount of delegated ADA will be recorded (snapshot)

Epoch 2: After 10 days: During this Epoch you will earn rewards for the first time.

Epoch 3: After 15 days: Rewards are calculated

Epoch 4: After 20 days: Rewards from Epoch 1 will be paid.

Epoch 5: After 25 days: Rewards from Epoch 2 will be paid

Epoch 6: After 30 days: Rewards from Epoch 3 will be paid

And so on..

So you will receive your first rewards after 15-20 days after you first delegate ADA to a stake pool. From that moment on you will receive ADA rewards every 5 days.

ISPOs

In addition to getting ADA rewards, it is also possible to join a stake pool that is affiliated with an ISPO. ISPO stands for Initial Stakepool Offering. This means that mainly new coins prepare a fixed number of coins to be distributed among participants in an ADA stake pool that is associated with it. In addition to your ADA rewards, you will also receive rewards in new coins. You will have to find out for yourself which ISPOs are currently active.

Finally

We hope you have benefited from this information on this website. We do everything we can to expand the information on our website as much as possible in order to teach more people about the possibilities of Cardano. You can support us by delegating your ADA to our own Dutch stake pool (soon). Or by tipping us!