How To — Shipchain Staking Guide
If and when you are ready for some passive income up to 20% APY, this is a how to tutorial to stake your SHIP- utility tokens .
An introduction
- Shipchain has set up a DPOS sidechain on top of ethereum based on the LOOM SDK
- DPOS = Delegated proof of stake.
- There is no minimum or maximum of tokens you are allowed to stake. It starts with just 1 SHIP and as there is no risk on a 51% attack the max is limitless (mind the max supply ofc)
- 2 options to stake:
- Hard option: Take one of the limited seats and become a validator by setting up and run your own Validator node. Taking in the full rewards of your bonded SHIP. This will require you to rent dedicated server hardware, have linux admin knowledge and some dedication to make sure that the node keeps running for 24/7 as slashing is enabled. Slashing means bonded tokens are subjected to penalties for extensive downtime or double signing of your node (the setup instructions wont be part of this guide but can be found HERE and we are happy to help anyone in HERE)
- Easy option: Delegate your SHIP to a validator node of your choosing. Prerequisites a working computer with a chrome browser with the Metamask addon installed. There is also an option to use a hardware wallet like ledger or Trezor. Please make sure that these are up to date and your contract data is set to allowed. Delegating is part of this tutorial. So please feel free to continue your read.
The Basics:
The Network
The network is formed by a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 51 Validator nodes. To be part of this select group is simple: The 51 Nodes with the highest delegated bond get to validate the blocks on the block chain. Earning a fee for that effort and their responsibility of securing the network.
The Validator nodes
This is the main overview to select your Validator (or multiple) to stake with.
The overview contains the following columns:
- Name → The name of the validator node in this example ShipChainEurope
- POP → A green flag means this validator has bragging rights because the owner successfully attended a years worth of test-net. Preparing and helping shipchain to get ready for mainnet. Effectively having a years worth of shipchain node running experience under their belt.
- Active → indicating if the node is signing blocks and actively validating.
- Total Staked → indicating the total of tokens bonded/staked with the node
- Fee → the percentage of the delegation rewards the validator is asking for running the node for you. Enabling you to stake.
Your Account
This overview displays the following
Account → your Ethereum address and your Shipchain addres which you will create in a minute.
Balance → Mainnet indicates your amount of Ship tokens in your Ethereum wallet. Shipchain indicates the balance of Ship tokens on the smart contract used to enabled staking. These are not generating any rewards just yet.
Election Cycle → This is the Cycle where the bonds of the Nodes get evalueated and the time it takes to earn rewards. This is 30 minutes so effectively you would be able to claim your rewards every 30 minutes and restake them for extra rewards!
Rewards → This indicates the number of tokens your bond has generated without claiming them to your Balance. These tokens are automatically subjected to a Tier_0 revenue without a time-lock.
Delegations → Your delegated funds with insight of the timelock
Enough already with all of the details….
I want to stake ASAP!
This is how:
If your using a hardware wallet, please make sure to update to the latest version for both firmware and the app.
Step 1: Surf to the following website: https://network.shipchain.io/login
This will redirect you to the login page where you can select your preferred way to logon to the network. It should look like this:
If you see the following you need to make sure to install the Metamask add-on. Please make sure to use the button to surf to the right site and keep your funds safe.
This button will lead you to the https://metamask.io/ website.
Step 2 Creating your Account:
The first time you logon to the network with a new wallet you will get a prompt to create a new account. Choose the option “Create a new account” and click the continue button.
Shippy will help you with the creation.
Please sign the signature request: possible with an additional request on the hardware wallet.
This will land you on your Account page mentioned earlier. In this example still with 20,000 Ship on the Ethereum wallet
Step 3: Deposit your SHIP tokens into the smart contract.
Mind the transfer is non-custodial, this means you will stay in control of your tokens. Nobody would be able to touch them without the private key. (except for the slashes which would apply if your validator does not behave)
As this is a transaction on the Ethereum network this requires you to have enough Ethereum in the source wallet. Please make sure this is ok before you continue. Depending on the gas rates this could need more or less.
In the left hand menu please select Deposit/Withdraw first and then select Deposit on the “SHIP” line.
The will result in the following popup: Please select the number of tokens to transfer and push Confirm.
This will create another signing request on metamask and something like 4 on the hardware wallet if applicable.
After that step has completed the following screen pops up:
PLease click ok and sign the metamask popup and optionally the actions on the hardware wallet.
On top this will be displayed:
You Can see the transactions in the metamask
This is also the place to speed up your transaction if its needed. Mind you need to sign that action once again.
When the transaction is actually on the Ethereum network. If you would like to watch it closer you can always open up etherscan.io and look for pending transactions here. If the transaction is successful here the Tokens are on the network.
It might take a few minutes to see them in your on chain wallet.
Step 4: Delegate your tokens!!
From the menu on the left hand side select the Validators item and select the Validator to stake your tokens. I mentioned the slashing earlier, also your tokens could be slashed. So choose a trustworthy validator! Or spread your stake over multiple validators.
This will display the Validators Information and down below the “Stake Tokens” button. please click that button.
This will display the following popup. Add the number of tokens you would like to delegate, select the desired Tier for the staking reward and push the button to delegate.
This again requires you to sign via metamask and optionally via your hardware wallet.
After the election cycle is finished your bond will be displayed at the bottom of the screen together with the time the lock expires.
You can always move the stake to another validator by choosing the Redelegate button. Another important fact is that after the year you do not need to lock your tokens again. It still will keep rewarding as the original lock.
Now put your feet on the table and lean back. Congratulations you now have successfully delegated your tokens and are contributing to the security of the Shipchain Blockchain. And your earning a passive income! Please make sure to check in from time to time as you never know if your validator would stop validating and you need to redelegate your stake.
Step 5: Claiming rewards
Claiming rewards can be performed by selecting the My account item from the left hand side menu and selecting the Claim reward button. This will trigger a transfer from rewarded tokens to the on chain Wallet. You have the choice to either lock the rewards to a higher tier or withdraw them to the main ethereum network. By re-staking the rewards every week you can earn 22.09% APY minus the validator fee.
That is it really. Nothing left to say then thank you for reading this article.
I hope you learned something and see hope to speak to you in the Telegram Group or on our Discord.
More information on shipchain and how we are managing our validators can be found here:
