It has been a long time since the Tezos ICO ended. None the less, in this tutorial, we’re explaining to you how to recover your Tezos from the ICO, install a Galleon Wallet, and start earning interests on your stake thanks to baking.
At Stakin, it is our goal to help the community as much as possible and share all the steps with you so you don’t get a headache. 🤓
If you have participated in the ICO and have some Tezzies waiting to be claimed and baked, here are the several items you will need to recover them:
- The seed phrase from the ICO contribution that can be found on the PDF
- The password you used for the ICO
- The email address you used when you signed up for the ICO
- Your public key — It should begin with “tz1.”
NOTE: This is not your private key, which you should keep confidential.
- The activation code you received after completing the KYC/AML verification process.
For the side story, this KYC/AML verification process has been very controversial around the Tezos community. Some such as TzLibre even tried to fork the coin as they were against providing personal information.
Given today’s regulatory atmosphere, the Tezos team wanted to remain as compliant as possible with the different organizational bodies — among which the SEC.
Anyway, let’s get back to our subject. If you want access to your Tezos from the ICO, you have to complete the KYC process. Once you do, Tokensoft will email an activation code for each public key you provide.
Before proceeding to the KYC/AML step, you can also check your contribution to see how many Tezzies you received during the ICO using your public key on check.tezos.com.
Register for the KYC/AML process
To proceed with the KYC/AML process, you need to register on the website called: verification.tezos.com
Once you have completed the KYC/AML process, you should receive an activation code. You will also be able to check this information on the website directly.
Activaꜩ
Once you have received your activation code (it can take a few days for the KYC process to complete), you need to activate your Tezos address. Unfortunately, you need to have your activation code before being able to merge your ICO holding with the Mainnet.
The easiest way to activate your ICO wallet is to go on Activaꜩ. Then, you only need to provide your public (NOT the private!!) key and the activation code.
If you did everything correctly, your ICO Tezzies would be added to the Tezos public blockchain. You can visit TzStats and enter your public key to check if everything worked properly.
Usually, at this point, the only thing that you need to do is to create a wallet and start to bake your XTZ.
You can check this article if you have a Ledger Nano S and need to know how to install a Tezos wallet on it.
There are some other wallets such as Galleon, Kaiko, or even Magnum wallet, but on this guide, we decided to use the Tezbox wallet as an example.
By the way, you do not need to move your Tezzies right now into a wallet. Once they are baked in the public blockchain, they are safe. But if you want to delegate some of your Tezzies, you need a wallet.
Galleon Wallet
Open Chrome or Firefox and visit the Cryptonomic website. Select the download button on the Landing Page to download the Galleon Wallet.
Once you’ve downloaded the wallet, you will have the ability to restore a wallet or to create a new one.
Of course, what you want is to restore the wallet from your ICO, so choose “restore.”
You have several ways available to restore your wallet from a Seed Phrase, from a Private Key, or an ICO wallet. Choose the last one.
Enter the required information: the seed phrase, password, and email address from the ICO. For this step, the activation code is optional.
Finally, Tezbox will prompt you for a password to encrypt the wallet, so make sure it is a complex password. And tada! 👏
Once you open the wallet, the balance displayed should be the same as what was shown on TzStats. If so, you are almost done! Congratulations!
Delegate your Tezos using Stakin
The last step is to find a delegator/baker that will pay you rewards on your holdings. You can check this guide to find info on how to delegate or just follow the rest of the tutorial :)
To delegate your Tezos, you need to create a KT address that will allow you to delegate your XTZ. It’s not possible to delegate directly using a tz1 address.
To do that, just click on Add Account, you need some Tezos to validate the address and to pay the small creation fee linked to it.
Once your KT address is created, you need to send some funds to it!
This part is essential. Delegators do not need to hold custody of their clients. The funds should be sent to your own KT address and not directly to your baker.
It should take a few cycles before you can see your balance and start to earn interest on your holding thanks to delegation services.
When your funds arrived on your KT address, the only things you need now is to choose the right baker for you.
Go on, Delegate!
If you’re only delegating to one baker, you can do so directly from your manager’s address or a Tezos account. Instead of deploying an akt1 contract, you can click on the “delegate tab” on the right (see image below).
Enter the address of the baker and select your fee and then enter your wallet password. If you’d like to send your Tezos stake to Stakin, you can use the following address:
tz1Vyuu4EJ5Nym4JcrfRLnp3hpaq1DSEp1Ke
After filling out your password, select “change delegate”.
When delegating, the funds are always yours, and you can move them at any time you want or delegate with another baker as soon as you decide.
If the operation has been a success, you can verify it using TzStats. Under delegate, if the process is successful, you should see “True” next to “Delegatable” and the Baker address next to “Delegate.”
To check if your earnings are coming on your account, we advise you to use Baking Bad service if you want to receive a message every time a payment is made on your address by the baker.
This is it; now, you just have to relax and start to earn interest on your Tezos.
*Please allow seven cycles before receiving the rewards from your delegation. (You can check this article if you want to know more about this)
NOTE: These instructions only apply to people who bought Tezos tokens (XTZ) during the ICO. The Tezos network is now in Mainnet, and the ICO tokens can be moved out of storage into your wallet now.
DISCLAIMER: This is not financial advice. Staking and cryptocurrencies investment involves a high degree of risk, and there is always the possibility of loss, including the loss of all staked digital assets. Additionally, delegators are at risk of slashing in case of security or liveness faults on some PoS protocols. We advise you to conduct your own due diligence before choosing a validator.
