After the release of my Introduction to Stader Stake+ article, I will now be going through the benefits and incentives to delegating your $LUNA to each of the 6 validators that Stader Stake+ will initially support. The beauty of using Stader Stake+ is that you benefit from both Stader as well as the selected validator. Stader offers auto-compound staking rewards, collecting airdrops in a single click, and deploying different $LUNA stacking strategies. These core benefits along with each of the different incentives of the validator provide the delegator with the ability to maximize rewards while doing your part to further decentralize the Terra network and strengthen the blockchain.
Now that you understand what staking $LUNA on Stader provides, let’s take a look at the validators’ incentives so you get a better idea of what’s being offered.
Coinhall:
Let’s start off with Coinhall. If you go to the Coinhall website and select the Subscribe tab at the top of the page, you will be displayed with the Stake-to-Subscribe details which inform you the benefits of staking with them:
As you can see in the image above, there are three tiers offered by Coinhall: Intern, Engineer, Astronaut. Each of these tiers offer more benefits and key features with the more $LUNA you stake. As covered in my previous Medium article, Coinhall is an easy to use Terra price tracker providing live charts of Terra based altcoins, a DEX aggregator, and detailed analytics in real-time across every AMM DEX operating in the Terra network.
Selecting Coinhall as your preferred validator on Stader Stake+ could be beneficial if you’re interested in real-time price analytics/alerts of Terra-based ecosystem coins, Hallswap discounts, and soon a portfolio tracker, whale trade alerts, as well as governance through community voting.
Website: https://coinhall.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/coinhall_org
Smart Stake:
Next up is the Smart Stake validator. Ranked #14 for voting power on https://terra.stake.id/#/, Smart Stake is one of the better known validators helping secure the Terra blockchain. They are known for providing their staking-as-a-service platform in a transparent and professional manner. Alongside this, they offer real-time performance assessment & analytic tools which many in the Terra ecosystem may already be using.
Enter Terra Analytics by Smart Stake (https://terra.smartstake.io/):
The home page of the Terra Smart Stake website (linked above) begins by displaying the Supply History of circulating Luna and the Luna circulating supply changes on a daily basis. This details how much the supply of Luna fluctuates whether it’s minting or burning (dependent on the $UST/$LUNA process à mint $UST -> burn $LUNA). With supply continuing to reduce, we can see the deflationary mechanism of $LUNA work which is shown in the many detailed graphs that Smart Stake provides with their analytics.
Another benefit to using Smart Stake is the eligibility for airdrops (who doesn’t love getting airdropped Terra-based altcoins for staking their $LUNA?). If you click the Airdrops tab at the top of the page, you’ll be displayed with the following:
The airdrops & snapshots page displays which airdrop snapshots are upcoming and which airdrops are already available to claim as a $LUNA staker on the Smart Stake validator. This page also displays the current $LUNA staking APR and overall APR (including all weekly airdrops).
One more interesting feature that Smart Stake provides are the network analytics of the Terra blockchain. If you select the Network tab at the top, you will be shown the following:
As seen above, the staking APR is shown, the total amount of $LUNA staked on the platform, and network health analytics/history of the APR changes.
If you want to support Smart Stake and enjoy using their many helpful tools, this validator may be the choice for you once Stader Stake+ goes live!
Website: https://www.smartstake.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SmartStake
Terra Bites Pod:
Now to look into Terra Bites. Owning 1.2% of the voting power, Terra Bites is known for providing valuable knowledge and detailed breakdowns of Terra based projects, updates, and more. All their Terra based news is shared on their YouTube channel. What’s nice about the Terra Bites validator is the currently low commission fees sitting at around 3% at the time of this writing compared to the usual 5% that other validators charge. Not only does this provide more incentive to the delegator to stake their $LUNA with Terra Bites, but the validators also end up benefitting because this inherently brings in more stakers, which further increases voting power amongst the other validators in the network. The team over at Terra Bites offer intellectual support and are very helpful when it comes to ensuring the community understands what’s current and happening within the ecosystem through the production of high quality content on their YouTube channel. They walk through different strategies on accumulating more $LUNA, providing tutorials for beginners to ensure the onboarding process to the Terra ecosystem is smooth, and much more.
If you want to support Terra Bites and their channel, their validator is an option to explore upon genesis of the Stake+ feature.
Website: https://anchor.fm/terrabites
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TerraBitesPod
Orbital Command:
The next validator and its benefits I’ll discuss is Orbital Command. The Orbital Command validator owns 0.4% of the voting power on the network. The validator is known for publishing daily updates about the Terra ecosystem on their dedicated Telegram channel (which can be found on their website) and conducts Terra ecosystem tutorials for users that are new to the Terra blockchain. The Orbital Command validator is heavily committed to promoting and expanding community growth through educating its users. Not only does this benefit the individual users that are new to the network with valuable information if they’re getting started with $LUNA, but also benefits the overall Terra network as they continue to educate more users and bring onboard an increased number of delegators to the platform.
If you want to support the mission of Orbital Command, consider selecting them as a validator for staking your $LUNA.
Website: https://www.orbitalcommand.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/orbital_command
Galactic Punks Validator:
The Galactic Punks Validator offers many benefits to $LUNA stakers on their platform. The validator sprung up from the Galactic DAO community (holders of the Galactic Punk NFT). As mentioned in my previous article, the main goal of the validator is to secure the Terra network, provide value for $LUNA delegators as well as Galactic DAO members, develop another source of revenue for the growing Galactic DAO treasury, reward $LUNA delegators with weekly Galactic Punk NFT airdrop raffles, and issue governance proposals to the Galactic DAO community before voting under the Galactic Punks Validator.
Following the proposal 008 update, changes were made which affected the way revenues from the validator were distributed.
As the validator commission sits at 5%, I will break down how the previous allocation was distributing rewards, and how the current allocation distributes rewards:
Previous allocation (from the 5% commission): 65% goes to the DAO treasury, 25% goes to buying the floor Galactic Punks and distributing to stakers through raffles, and 10% distributed to the team.
Current allocation (from the 5% commission): 90% goes to buying the floor Galactic Punks and distributing to stakers through raffles, and 10% distributed to the team.
As you can see, a higher allocation of the validator commission rewards is set aside to buy the floor price GP’s and give back to the community as an incentive and bonus for staking your $LUNA. The main requirement is that you must be staking at least 10 $LUNA to be eligible for 1 ticket towards the raffle. With NFT’s taking off and the Galactic Punks establishing themselves as a top blue chip community and project, this incentive may peak many stakers’ interest. Who knows, if you’re lucky enough and your ticket gets drawn, you’ll be rewarded with a FREE Galactic Punk NFT! Furthermore, being part of the Galactic DAO allows you to access alpha chats, be eligible for airdrops, and whitelisted for new and upcoming projects.
If you’re interested in possibly winning a Galactic Punk through a raffle, you may want to consider staking your $LUNA with the Galactic Punk Validator!
Website: https://galacticpunks.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/galactic_punks
PFC Validator:
The last validator I’ll be discussing is the PFC Validator. This is a top-tier validator run by developers with over 20+ years of experience in the industry. They are community oriented and transparency is their focus in making the Terra network better while providing delegators rewards for using their platform. They strongly believe in automation and the use of tooling through the Rust language. The PFC Validator takes pride in developing open source tools such as Constellation (the Terra Bot framework), and even helping build TerraPeeps NFT through open sourcing the CW721 contract.
If you want to support the PFC Validator for all the development contributions they’ve provided for the Terra ecosystem, feel free to consider delegating your $LUNA to this validator.
Website: https://pfc-validator.github.io/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PFC_Validator
To summarize, each of the 6 validators that Stader Stake+ plans to offer upon genesis of this feature has something interesting and unique to offer. From premium real-time Terra analytics and discounted swap fees to the possibility of winning a free Galactic Punk NFT in a raffle, Stader Stake+ will ensure that stakers can maximize their returns by reaping benefits from both sides of the table.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer.
Stay tuned and follow Stader Labs for further development:
Website: https://staderlabs.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/staderlabs
Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/switzcrypto
