This article has been archived. For an up to date overview of the staking process on every network Reserve is deployed to, please see this link https://blog.reserve.org/staking-rsr-on-ethereum-and-base-8218e45f1022
Around 12 days ago, we received the ‘All Clear’ from Reserve Protocol, and the launch of the first RToken — the Electronic Dollar (eUSD), created by MobileCoin.
Now that the protocol has moved from hypothetical to existing in reality, and there is the first yield-accruing RToken that can be staked on, here is a quick step-by-step on staking RSR.
What is RSR staking?
RSR’s purpose in life is to govern and overcollateralize RTokens.
RSR stakers, via governance, decide the assets that sit within an RToken’s basket — currently that could be anything between 1 to 20 assets.
Stakers are also “first loss” capital — as in, their RSR will be seized first to attempt to make RToken holders whole in the case of an asset default.
We suggest these two roles, when combined, will lead to careful stewarding of RTokens as the years roll by.
AKA it’s in everyone’s interest to keep baskets secure!
The first RToken on the platform is eUSD, which offers 100% of its yield to stakers, and over the coming months and years, we expect to see new RTokens, with various baskets, tackling different markets or use-cases, and offering different yield percentages.
You can also create your own stablecoin in a straightforward interface, deciding your own basket and initial parameters, and seeing if
- people want to use your RToken,
- and if stakers want to stake on it.
How to stake:
Because you can stake from anywhere in the world needing only a browser and your wallet, I’m going mobile for this walkthrough, and using eUSD as our guide.
Stake and unstake in a hotel (as I am), or on a walk, on the beach, on a bus! However every step here applies to staking on a desktop/laptop as well.
The first step is to visit Register.app, which is the first dapp for Reserve, created by LC Labs.
Here you can explore RTokens, see their market caps, inspect their baskets, their overcollateralization (e.g. the value of staked RSR compared to the RToken’s total m-cap), and see recent protocol transactions.
Have a play within Register, and familiarize yourself with RTokens — you are offering your RSR as overcollateralization, so we ask every staker to understand what they are doing.
A message from the Reserve team:
You’re playing an active role in the safety and governance of RTokens, and your money is important to you.
Use judgement to decide your confidence in the assets that underpin an RToken, and your risk tolerances in terms of receiving yield, versus the likelihood of underlying asset defaults.
Reserve may advocate for the most robust RTokens, which may in time be the less noisy ones, but the most reliable ones.
However we’re a permissionless platform, and a good feature of that is allowing people to explore different baskets, use-cases, and parameters in parallel.
So we ask that people take an active role in understanding what staking means, and take part in governing RTokens on the platform.
The step-by-step guide:
Step 1: Connect your wallet
To move from an anonymous browser, to being signed-in with your wallet, click the Power button at the top right.
This gives you three options to connect your wallet, with the most likely candidate being WalletConnect, as it offers options to many popular wallets.
While the precise workflow may vary here depending on your wallet, you will be guided by your wallet to connect to Register.app.
For myself, using Metamask on mobile, the prompt looks like this:
One click later, and… Success! You are now back on Register, and your Power button is replaced with a green “Connected” symbol.
Step 2: Inspect RTokens
At this stage, I can now choose to stake my RSR.
With eUSD available for staking, I use the dropdown to explore the coin:
Here I can see:
- The mcap of eUSD
- The amount of RSR staked on it, including estimated yields
- Transactions over time, as well as in the last 24 hours
- The basket of collateral assets, as well as the revenue split between RToken holders and RSR stakers (in the eUSD case, all the yield goes to stakers).
- Price, supply, and historic transactions
Register displays Estimated Yield, which is based on
- the current RToken market cap
- the expected yield based on the underlying assets
- and divided by the amount of staked RSR.
In time, data will also populate into the stRSR Yield field (currently showing 0%), but it requires a few auctions to run first and some historic data!
Step 3: Stake your RSR!
So you have performed some due diligence around RTokens, and decided you are prepared to stake on eUSD.
Head to the Stake button, which is on the left hand side on desktop, or at the bottom on mobile:
The next screen is your staking screen. Type in the amount you wish to stake:
Gas fee 1!
You will at this stage be taken back to your wallet, where you need to pay a small gas fee to allow the dapp to access your RSR — on the two occasions I have done this, it’s been under $5.
Ready to stake?… Gas fee 2!
Regardless of the amount you are staking, there will be an Ethereum gas fee for the transaction, which Register will estimate for you:
Gas fees can change by the hour and by the day, but from regular checks over a few days, my estimates have landed between $11 — $15 (or, because I am spectacularly British, £10–£13.)
When you are comfortable and have confirmed your position, head back to Register:
And on the Staking screen, you can see your current positions:
Step 4: That’s it!
That said… Now that one million RSR has left my wallet, what do I have to show for it?
What I have received in return is one million tokens representing my staked position — one million of a token we know as stRSR (“staked RSR”).
However I would like to monitor my stRSR position within my wallet or holding trackers, and for that I need to add my stRSR to MetaMask.
Each RToken has its own version of stRSR, and for eUSD, this is known as eusdRSR.
For reference the contract address of this token is: 0x18ba6e33ceb80f077DEb9260c9111e62f21aE7B8.
When I add this as a custom token to MetaMask, I now see my staked balance:
Congratulations on staking your first RSR!
Bits and pieces:
In practice, adding staking or unstaking positions can be a 2 minute task, but it’s better to spell it out very specifically at least once.
Unstaking is the same process, just seek out the “Unstake” buttons!
Please note unstaking comes with a 2-week unstaking delay, where you will stop earning yield, but your RSR can still be seized in case of a default. This is to stop people gaming the system (for instance, “unstaking” instantly, which would make RSR non-suitable as overcollateralization).
It’s worth calling out that eUSD is the first RToken on Reserve, and over the coming year there may be many more, each geared towards different purposes.
So a relatively simple choice today between staking or not staking may become more nuanced in the future.
And while this has been a guide to the button presses for staking, there is plenty to learn and understand about how staking and unstaking works, and how it fits into the wider protocol.
So it is well worth your time having a read of the official documentation, as well as the sitdown with Sinatra.
And we are always open for questions over at Discord.
