Staking on Polymesh

Staking on Polymesh secures the network by aligning incentives with the proper operation of the blockchain. Stakers nominate their stake to Node Operators and both are either rewarded or fined based on the Operator’s performance writing blocks to Polymesh.

About eras and election 

An era consists of 24 hours. Rewards and fines are calculated and enacted in every era.

Each day voting takes place for 1 hour. If you nominated before that time, your stake will be included in the era. If you nominated after the voting period, then your stake will be included as of the next day.

Staking actions on the dashboard are disabled during the election period.

You will see a banner on the staking dashboard during this time:

Earning block rewards

Block rewards and fines are the carrot and stick vital to Polymesh’s Nominated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, and therefore, proper chain operation. For each block created, the Node Operator who created it is rewarded in POLYX along with their Stakers. Failure to meet the performance standards of the chain, however, could lead to Operators being fined in POLYX.

Rewards and fines are calculated and enacted per era (every 24 hours). If you are staking and actively nominating an operator, staking rewards will be credited to your account automatically. Rewards are distributed daily just after the election.

Please be aware that you will not receive rewards if you have unstaked or if you have never nominated an operator. Only the top 2,048 stakers per operator node will receive rewards.

In order to receive staking rewards you need to:

• Stake POLYX and select one or more node operators - Your stake (and selection of node operators) will take effect in the next era (there is one era every 24 hours)
• The node operator(s) you selected need to be active in the current era (i.e. actively producing blocks).

If your configuration meets these requirements, you will receive staking rewards every day. 

How to start staking

For a video guide please visit How to Stake POLYX on Polymesh.
For a guide on how to stake with the Polymesh app, please visit this guide.

1. Open the Polymesh staking dashboard  - Below is a screenshot of the staking dashboard.

2. Click the "Stake" button.

3. In a new window, you will see some general information on staking. Click on the "Get started" button.

4. Select the key you want to use for staking and click on the "Next" button.

5. On the next window you can add the POLYX amount you want to stake, and select the operators you like to nominate. Click on the "Submit" button.

• Click on the "Set max" button if you want to stake the maximum amount of your POLYX. This will count your total balance minus 10 POLYX. You may need the 10 POLYX to edit your stake or unstake. If you stake your ENTIRE balance, i.e. leaving 0 POLYX in your wallet, you will not be able to perform transactions like editing your stake, or unstaking.
• Keep in mind that the expected return, the distribution time, and the unbonding period are different between Testnet and Mainnet. The below screenshot is from Polymesh Testnet for informational purposes.
• Choose operators from the list as you like. During staking, you may see that all of your POLYX is staked with one of them only. This is normal and is done by an algorithm.

6. You will see a popup window to confirm your POLYX stake. Click on the "Confirm" button.

7. After confirming, you will need to sign some transactions in your wallet. Successful transactions are reflected in the dashboard at the top right of your screen: 

8. After setting up staking you will see the staking dashboard as per the screenshot shown below.

• Your remaining available balance of POLYX is shown with the amount of staked POLYX
• Since the new staking era hasn't begun yet, you will see:
  •      Your stake is inactive
  •      None of the staked operators are active
  •      Rewards = 0

This is a normal behavior, since your stake will be active from the next era.

The Polymesh staking dashboard

The staking dashboard is available here.

1. Balances: shows all available and staked POLYX. If you have unstaked POLYX it will be shown here along with the POLYX amount ready to be unlocked when the unlocking period ends.

2. Auto-restake payouts: when turned on, your staking rewards will be automatically re-staked. When turned off, the rewards become available as soon as you receive them without any unlocking period.

3. Unstake button: click here if you want to stop staking.

4. Edit stake button: click here if you want to edit your current stake or the operators you are nominating.

5. Add stake button: click here if you want to add additional stake from your available balance.

7. Rewards graph: shows the history of your rewards.

8. Staked operators: shows the operators you are staking with for the current era.

Staking History

The staking history related to your chosen key is visible at the bottom of the staking dashboard.

It shows the staking history for the past 30 days.

Historical transactions can be exported by clicking on the "Export" button.

If you would like to download your full staking history, please follow this guide.

Add / Edit stake

You can edit your stake on the staking dashboard anytime.

Unstake a portion of your POLYX

It is possible to unstake a portion of your stake. To do so, you will click on the "Edit stake" button on the staking dashboard, then change it to the lower amount you still wish to stake.
Please note that when staking, your configuration will take effect during the next era (once every 24 hours).

Example: If you have 1000 POLYX staked and you edit your stake to 600 POLYX, then you will have 600 POLYX staked and 400 POLYX pending unstaked.

Stop staking

You can stop staking at any time to unlock your POLYX. Keep in mind that when you stop staking it is effective in the next era. 

In order to stop staking, just simply click on the "Unstake" button on the staking dashboard, then click on the "Confirm" button in the Polymesh Wallet when it pops up.

If you have any questions or run into any issues, please open a support ticket on the Polymesh Community Portal.