Understanding the basics of staking - how and why, and even when

Thanks … very helpful.

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Hi Ahmad,
Thanks for your feedback. To answer your question - yes, you can stake with your own computer (running a node).
The nodes do not have to be online all the time - however, you of course lower your chances of getting a staking reward by being offline.
For pools, which is what RobJF meant I believe, then yes those servers are very much expected to be online 24/7/365.

The main reason for the pools (per a Charles interview) is that by having ‘professional nodes’, it ensures higher throughput and quality for the blockchain.
Individual users can still stake, but as Charles noted, they can drop in, drop out and there is no expectation they will be online all the time.

The Ouroboros network will simply announce a slot leader and wait X seconds and if no reply, it moves to the next slot leader…so the network can run fine with a certain % of nodes not showing up for work, but ultimately the whole reason for the pool structure is to ensure a level of professional nodes that will form the core backbone of the protocol and maximize it’s speed/throughput.

Hope that helps!

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@MegaWind do we have any technical documentation to setup a stake?

So , MegaWind do you have to be monitoring your system or have someone monitor it at all times.

FWIW, I was actually confusing the two situations, though now you point it out, it obviously makes sense that it apply to pools but not individuals. Thanks for the correction, your contribution is spot-on as usual! :slight_smile:

Look in the Developers section.

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Hi Asobuhado,
Nothing is official/finalized yet, but here are two links that can provide a lot of foundational info:


Hope that helps

Hi Ahmad,
We have setup an AI monitoring system, and have a global time zone split so that someone is always available.
The AI monitors a bevy of stats on each node (i.e. CPU %, Memory %, Total load %, Disk drive capacity free,etc). as a way to constantly watch the health of each server.
It then also checks that the server as a whole is live and also directly monitors the actual Cardano SL node process itself.
Thus, we have both preventative (i.e. make sure plenty of free memory, disk space, etc) and active (literally watching the Cardano node itself) going on 24/7/365.

Hope that helps,
Less

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Thanks,that helps.
Maybe your pool will be a good one to join.
I hope you don’t mind me continuing to ask questions but here is another one. How will rewarded ADA be divided among stake pool members?

Thanks
please continue to help less

Hi MegaWind,
Is there a separate apps need to run if I need to setup a nodes?
Or Daedalus wallet will do?
Thanks

You will be able to stake as an individual using later versions of the wallet, but for the vast majority of holders it will make more sense to join a staking pool. To host a pool requires special software that will be online 24/7.

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Is there special software available for download?

Yes but it’s still under development and runs only on Linux. This is IMO only for people with substantial related knowledge and experience, but if you want to know more there are various threads about staking pools in the Developers category.

Hmmm… Maybe, it’s more like an application on top of OS, running like a service.
If there’s an instruction on how to do this, some users that has an old server can add that service. Should be doable. Thanks for your time @RobJF

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Still a good description, but IMO this part should be edited because the staked part is not locked for spending.
As far as we know today on begin of each epoch the user can sign <= his current spendable amount of ADA for staking. Durring the epch he can spend or move his values like he want. Only at the next epoch (every 5 days) the staked amounts are verified again, and capped at the max available value an account has.

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Can you share a link pls saying the same?

The most detailed (public available) document seems to be https://github.com/input-output-hk/cardano-sl/blob/fe6653822a6bc0aa007d6255a8511a562aad222e/docs/delegation_design_spec.md

There is a way more readable summary on Lars Brünjes presentation at Summary: PoS Delegation & Incentives (Lars Brunjes)

and also a just this week published statement at Cardano Netherlands Meetup
It was this questions rised at Rotterdam who let me look up for past statements like this one here.

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Has anything come from your research since this comment? I too am very interested in setting up a server to host a node. I stumbled upon this thread during my research. any info would be appreciated. We only have 8 more weeks until staking is live! #ada

Any source about the 8 weeks? Staking ADA is expected to be available at the end of Q1 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03ElxlDD3Lo Plenty of time.

There will be good documentation and according to the last reddit AMA probably even a docker image. A lot of interesting answers: https://www.reddit.com/r/cardano/comments/9ud3o5/reward_sharing_schemes_ama/

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Thank you very much for your enthusiastic explaination. However, there are many coins now running POS and it seems that their mechanism is similar to that of ADA. Do you think I am right ?

DeepOnion has staking, too. I am running the wallet all the time and I staked so far hundreds of coins.

By the way, Callisto Network has Cold Staking, which means the staker lock the coins in an escrow and passively recieve an interest shared from miners.