Step-by-Step Guide on How to Stake $ATOM (Cosmos Hub) with S16 Research Ventures

4 min readAug 11, 2022

Cosmos is a rapidly expanding ecosystem of independent interconnected blockchains built using developer-friendly application components and connected with the ground-breaking IBC (Inter-Blockchain Communication) protocol.

The Cosmos Hub is the first of thousands of interconnected blockchains that will eventually comprise the Cosmos Network. The primary token of the Cosmos Hub is the $ATOM

$ATOM has been used to secure the network, as a voting mechanism in governance, and the most exciting use has been for stakedrops. As new projects enter the Cosmos Ecosystem, they usually use stakedrops to market their project, giving a handful of their token to $ATOM stakers to gain exposure while rewarding $ATOM stakers. Both wins!

Furthermore, the core team of Cosmos will be adding more features to Cosmos Hub to increase the $ATOM utility. Interchain Security and Liquid Staking will be the closest ones to launch.

Pre-requisites

In this tutorial, we’ll be using Keplr Wallet. You need to set up an account before we can get over to the next step.

When you have this information on your Keplr Wallet, it means you are ready.

Step 1: Deposit $ATOM into your wallet

To be able to stake, you need to deposit/send $ATOM to your wallet
You can get $ATOM through your trusted CEX or DEX that’s already traded $ATOM
Send your $ATOM to your Cosmos Hub address (the one displayed just below your account name). It should start with “cosmos”. Click on the address to copy.

💡 IMPORTANT: To receive $ATOM on your wallet, you need to make sure that you’ve already selected the right chain and get the right recepient address. The chain for $ATOM is Cosmos Hub.

If the transaction is successful, your balance should be shown like this

Step 2: Choose your validator — S16 Research Ventures

After you’ve got some $ATOM on your wallet, you are ready to start the delegation process
Click Stake on your Keplr extension

You will be redirected to the Keplr dashboard, on the validator page

Scroll down to see the list of validators
Find S16 Research Ventures validator

Step 3: Stake your $ATOM

To start the process — Click Manage

A pop-up window will be displayed — Click Delegate

Enter the amount of $ATOM that you would like to stake, and click Delegate

💡 NOTE: When staking your $ATOM, please pay attention to the unstaking period as well. Unstaking your $ATOM would take 21 days for the process before you can receive the amount in your Keplr wallet.

Another pop-up window will open. To be able to stake. you need to pay a small amount of fee

💡 NOTE: Do not stake all of your $ATOM, since you will need some to pay for fees. Please leave some amount of $ATOM for that purpose.

Recheck all the information — If all of the information is correct, click Approve

You will get an instant notification when the transaction is successful or failed
Yay! You are now a part of the Cosmos Hub as a Delegator. You are now eligible to participate in Cosmos Hub governance and give your vote on proposals.

Step 4: Checking your staked $ATOM and rewards

You can check your staked $ATOM and current rewards through the Keplr dashboard; or

You can view them as well on your Cosmos Hub wallet on the Keplr extension

This article is made only as a guide and cannot be seen as a piece of financial advice. We assumed that when you are following this guide, you have already done your own research on the token and all the risks that might happen.