Back when we first wrote our guide about the Staking and Holding requirements we indicated that we would be updating the staking requirements once Proton’s KYC feature was launched.
After all, ensuring one person equals one vote, and one claim is important to help ensure that Freeos is fair and democratic.
And since KYC (Know Your Customer) is absolutely required when we enter the Governance Phase, we would like to encourage all participants to have at least one verified account that can be used to engage with the Freeos Economic System forevermore.
So let’s dive in to what the updated staking requirements are going to be beginning week 13, how to verify your account using protonkyc.com, and how anyone who has currently staked — but is willing to verify their account using KYC — can have their stake returned before the end of the AirClaim without jeopardizing their ability to claim.
Update the Stake
In the original guide about the Staking and Holding requirements we listed two charts about the staking requirements.
The first chart showed the staking requirements used for the AirClaim launch.
The second chart showed the staking requirements that would be updated after the launch of Proton’s on-chain KYC service. This is the updated chart for the introduction of Proton KYC.
Now, as a reminder, staking is simply the amount of xUSDC (a US dollar backed stablecoin) that is required to put up for collateral to allow participants to make their weekly claims.
Without staking, most unverified users wouldn’t be able to claim. But since staking is merely collateral, a participant may “unstake” to retrieve this amount back again — although they wouldn’t be able to claim until they re-staked again.
The primary purpose of staking was as a pre-KYC way to mitigate against duplicate accounts by putting up a financial disincentive to do so — just in case the T&Cs everyone agrees to upon registration was not enough of a deterrent to unfairly use duplicate accounts.
Now that Proton’s KYC service is available to 100+ countries around the world, we can update the staking requirement to allow more participants to join the AirClaim without having to stake.
More to the Stake
It can be seen in the chart above that we do still introduce a fairly steep staking requirement once there we exceed 11,999 participants in the AirClaim.
This is because the secondary reason for the stake is to have a soft-cap on the amount of participants in the AirClaim in general. The idea is to limit how many AirClaim participants to also limit the amount of FREEOS tokens in circulation during the early stage of the Freeos Economy.
Especially while there’s only one vote to influence Freeos monetary policy available during the AirClaim.
How to Verify your Account using Proton KYC
1. Go to https://protonkyc.com
2. Connect Wallet
3. If you are doing this entirely on mobile, then select Mobile and tap “Open Wallet”. If you are using desktop to access the website, you will need to scan the QR presented with your mobile WebAuth wallet scanner. In both cases, follow the authorization steps presented by your WebAuth mobile wallet.
4. Back on the Proton KYC web page, enter your home address.
5. On mobile, skip to step #6, otherwise, on desktop, you will need to scan the 2nd QR code presented with your mobile device’s regular camera to open the linked URL and begin the ID and selfie verification flow.
6. On mobile, just tap the purple bar on the Proton KYC web page that reads “Verify Identity with Incode”
7. Follow the directions on your mobile device and take front and back images of your valid government ID.
8. Take a selfie using your mobile’s camera when prompted.
If approved, your basic verification is complete and you can now register with the Freeos dApp at app.freeos.io without requiring any stake — as long as there are under 12,000 participants yet in the AirClaim!
Additionally, you can use other Proton services like Proton Swap, and Proton Loan without restrictions — and even Proton’s new Fiat to Crypto service that makes it easier to buy crypto and sell it for cash — but only for KYC’d individuals from selected countries.
New, Verified Participants need FREEOS
For new participants, the updating staking requirements make it easy for KYC’d individuals to join the AirClaim as no staking requirement is necessary for the first 12,000 participants in the system.
NOTE: New participants would likely need to purchase some FREEOS tokens to reach the Holding Requirements to make up for missing the early FREEOS claimed.
Currently the way to purchase FREEOS is through Alcor Exchange, but more opportunities to purchase FREEOS tokens will increase over time. The Freeos dApp will be updated to link to these exchanges when they are available.
If purchasing through Alcor, the best tokens to purchase FREEOS are currently XPR and USDC.
We wrote an article on how to purchase USDC and get it onto Proton as xUSDC. But if you are from Canada, all U.S.states (except NY), and nations of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey then you can also purchase xUSDC directly through Proton’s new Fiat on-ramp system at Proton Swap.
Verify your Account and Retrieve your Stake
Existing participants who may have staked, but wish to verify their account through Proton’s KYC service can get another benefit — they can retrieve their stake and re-register — now for free!
Once you have your account verified through KYC, as per the instructions above, you are able to un-stake and then re-register.
WARNING: It is inadvisable to proceed unless you have successfully verified your account via Proton KYC. Otherwise you would likely have to re-stake for a much higher amount than you originally staked! Also make sure there aren’t over 12,000 participants at https://freeos.io before proceeding! It is better to have kept a lower stake than to have to stake more upon re-registering!
1. Go to app.freeos.io and login with your verified, KYC’d account. NOTE: Make sure you have claimed this week before proceeding!
2. Open the menu bar and go to “Stake”
3. Select the “Unstake” button at the bottom and sign this transaction with your WebAuth wallet.
4. You will be notified that you have successfully unstaked and this page will update to show how much you’ve unstaked and how long before you get your stake returned.
5. Re-register your account by going to the Re-register page shown on the menu bar.
6. Read and accept the terms of service and then select the “Register” button and sign the transaction with your WebAuth wallet.
Once the next iteration starts, your stake will be returned and you will still be able to claim as a verified, KYC’d user that does not require a stake — as long as it is under 12,000 participants!
REMINDER! Keep an eye out for how many participants there are at https://freeos.io
