GLMR Staking Rewards Insurance Cover for Moonbeam Delegators
If you read the Moonbeam TG channel or Discord, you can’t avoid running into this question.
Where are my staking rewards?
Quite often, the answer is “wait a couple of rounds and they will appear”. However, as many GLMR stakers already know, this is hardly always the case.
Moonbeam delegators might not receive rewards for a round for 2 reasons:
- The collator they staked with is offline, i.e. is DOWN
- The collator they staked with was kicked out of the active set, i.e. is OUT
Collators have gone offline for as long as 2 weeks. Some collators that were kicked out of the active set have never returned. So, the worst-case scenario is that you stop getting rewards for good!
This is especially problematic for delegators that want to just stake and forget or for delegators that would rather keep their keys in cold storage and not have to use them in the short term.
Enter the Rewards Cover Contract
StakeBaby has taken a shot at this problem by creating a delegator rewards cover contract. The contract enables collators that use it to offer rewards insurance cover to their delegators, should their node go DOWN or OUT.
Care-free Staking as it Should be
By delegating to a cover-enrolled collator, you can rest assured that you won’t miss any rewards. If your collator misses a round or more, you can simply claim the missed rewards from stakeglmr.com and withdraw them straight to your wallet. Note that if you schedule an undelegation, you will stop receiving cover (just like you would stop receiving normal rewards).
Collator unbonds and disappears? Not Your Problem!
Rewards Cover works even if your collator unregisters and leaves the collator set.
Cool! How do I get Cover?
Rewards cover is Free for all delegators. All deposits and expenses are borne by collators that want to protect their members and are confident in their capacity to perform. All you have to do, as a delegator, to get cover is to delegate with a collator that offers it.
There are three badges, bronze, silver, and gold.
The bronze badge means that the collator covers you in case their server goes DOWN.
The silver badge covers you in case the collator is kicked OUT of the active set. When this happens, you stop seeing the collator at stakeglmr.com, but you are still covered and receiving rewards for the cover period.
The gold badge means you are covered for both of the above.
On top of the badge, you will find a number that indicates what is the maximum delegation amount that will be covered. If you delegate more than this amount, you will only be covered for this amount. You should consider splitting your delegation among multiple collators that provide cover. If it says “No max”, it means your entire delegation will be covered.
Below the badge, you will find the number of days you have cover for. For example, 30D means that you will keep receiving rewards even if your collator is OUT or DOWN for a month.
If your collator goes OUT or DOWN and you are covered, then you can claim your rewards at the URL below. Check that your “Pending rewards” balance is above zero and proceed if it is material. You will need to connect with Metamask to complete the process.
Note that anybody can claim the rewards on your behalf (the rewards will go straight to your wallet), and StakeBaby may do so for your convenience. You can review the total rewards that have been claimed in the “Claimed rewards” column.
https://stakeglmr.com/dashboard/dash-cover
How does it work? Is it safe?
Rewards Cover works through a set of smart contracts deployed on Moonbeam. The contracts guarantee that the Collators honor their insurance claims.
StakeGlmr.com interfaces with these contracts to give you the necessary information and allow you to interact with them. Any other app or website can also connect with the contracts, so you can always claim your rewards cover even if our website is down.
The contracts work through a combination of on-chain and oracle-provided data. Oracles are operated by collators and are in charge of reporting who the delegators are for every collator. However, the oracles don’t decide how much is owed to each delegator*. The oracles must reach a certain quorum for the report to be valid.
(*) An exception to this is when a collator unregisters and leaves the collator set. Since the smart contract has no way of knowing how much the delegator staked with that collator, the oracle must provide that number.
Bottom line
Most collators that provide cover do so to provide mostly peace-of-mind to their delegators and do not plan on being Down or Out. A quick look at some data shows that collators that offer insurance are the least likely to actually miss a round.
This makes sense if you think about it. If you are dedicated to 100% uptime and you are confident in your abilities, providing insurance to your delegators is free to you so why not do it? If, on the other hand, you miss rounds here and there, then insurance will have a significant cost to you.
