You got some DOTs or KSM and now you are wondering what to do with them, right?
Let’s start from the most obvious to the most controversial.
The first thing you can do if you are extremely lazy is: nothing.
Doing nothing at all automatically transform you in a long term hodler. That’s ok. Nobody could object to this.
But if you are not so lazy, the next interesting thing you can do is to stake your DOTs. Thus, you will be helping securing the network and also getting some rewards for it.
Check out our staking video guide if you want to jump directly to the arena:
(please, notice that the interface has changed recently. Now the menu is at the top instead of at the left. Menu tittle should remain the same)
Given that you can nominate up to 16 validators…
What is the best selection I can do?
Well, there is not a single answer or a single truth for that question. But we can use one of our greatest power as human beings, “Common Sense”.
Let’s start with the obvious:
- Don’t select validators with 100% commission
The reason is very simple. They do not want you to nominate them, and if you do it by mistake you will get ZERO rewards. They will take all your rewards for themself. Those kinds of validators normally belong to Exchanges or to the Web3 foundation / Parity.
Exchanges don’t want you to nominate them directly. Instead, they prefer your stake in their platform, and this way they can subtract their earnings from your rewards.
It is worth mentioning that if you stake from an exchange you do not own your keys. Your DOTs will be under their control. They will not count on you for any decision. I prefer not to hold too many tokens inside the Exchanges.
Not your keys, not your tokens, says the advice.
- Do not select many validators with the same name. It is ok if you pick up one or two… I would not select more than this.
The reason: If you see a list of 7 or more validators with the same name, then they are the big whales in the game. We, as responsible nominators should always try to keep the networks decentralized. If we only nominate big whales we are putting the network at risk and decreasing its (our) value.
In this list, we find P2P, Zug Capital, Ryabina, Able Wanderer, Cryptium Labs… among others. A second reason for not selecting those kinds of clusters is because in case of problems (bad behavior, offline…etc) the punishment from the network will be harder if various validators fail at the same time.
- Nominate validators with “Identity”
On Polkadot, validators can register their brand and contact data using a registrar method. Thus, you could rest assured that contact data such as email, twitter, website…etc. are fully trusted. There are also other validators that prefer to stay anonymous. Instead of this:
You would see some others like this:
- Nominate validators you trust
This is an interesting point. The only thing I can give you is a list of validators that I would choose. This list is based on the expertise of DragonStake during the past years:
Reputed validators with long history and expertise:
DragonStake, Polkastats, Forbole, KiraCore
Reputed validators from the core team of polkadot:
Federico, Jaco, Wei
Good community member you can find on chats:
Staking4All
Validators helping the development of interesting features:
ZKValidator (developing privacy for the network)
- Do not hesitate to nominate validators in the waiting list
It is ok if you chose 3 or 4 validators that are not validating currently. Those validators will eventually get into the active set and give you bigger rewards. You get more rewards from the validators at the bottom of the table (sorted by total stake) than from the top ones. This is because all validators get approximately the same rewards per era, but then they split that reward amongst their nominators.
The less nominator stake in that validator the most profit for you. It is proportional. To sum up, you will get more rewards if you nominate validators with a lower stake.
I really encourage you to nominate 16 different and independent validators. Only one of those in that list will be active in each era. It is the network itself that will decide for you the best one each moment.
If you are too lazy to make your own list and that can end up not doing Staking in the end, don’t worry, I have something for you too. Please consider this list as my personal choice. Just under my own criteria and not at all official:
It is also interesting to mention that Kusama is reaching 75% of the total KSM staked. This is the ideal target of this network and, once reached, nominators' rewards will be the biggest.
“Ready to start nominating? Check out this video on How to Stake on Polkadot.”
Words of DragonStake
That’s all folks!
