How to stake NGM with DKLAB
01 Mar 2022Forewords
This article is intended for those who are lightly familiar with cryptocurrencies and Proof-of-Stake blockchains in general, who understand what “staking” means in cryptocurrencies, but haven’t staked any crypto before, or are largely still unfamiliar with the staking procedure in general.
Disclaimers
- this article is intended as a “how-to guide”, and not as an investment advice.
- whether you decide to purchase & stake your NGM tokens or not, or choose to stake with our validator or not, must solely be based on your own research. We hold no responsibilities over your investment decisions.
- what we commit to is the quality-of-service of our validator nodes. If you’re not sure what validator nodes are, the rest of the article is definitely for you.
Intro to DKLAB blockchain PoS validators
At DKLAB, we take pride in managing server resources ranging from simple single-tenant one-page websites to multi-tenant distributed applications. As the advance of blockchain is gaining in world-wide acknowledgement & popularity, it’s natural that we take a slice of the cake and plunge ourselves into the new territory.
At its core, operating blockchain applications is no difference from traditional
multi-tenant applications. We have a core application written in any sane software
programming language, which runs on a computer, that needs to be monitored &
maintained on a frequent basis. Every such application is referred to
as a node. A node is collectively understood as both the computer and the
software application running on that computer itself (except when specifically stated otherwise).
In blockchain terminologies, our nodes can be a proof-of-work (PoW) node, or proof-of-stake (PoS) node. The definition of validating / validator mostly applies to PoS nodes.
What about NGM?
DKLAB maintains validator nodes for selected blockchains that we’re interested in. At writing time, we provide validator service for the e-Money blockchain, which is associated with the NGM token, and is a part of the Cosmos blockchain ecosystem.
How to stake NGM with DKLAB
If you own NGM, you should know that one of the best ways to ensure your NGM doesn’t lose value is to delegate (stake) it on a validator node. This is further explained in the e-Money token rewards mechanism.
Staking can be done on a technical (command-line) basis (as with most cryptocurrencies), but for the majority of us end-users, a graphical user interface usually is more convenient. The same principle applies to e-Money. The NGM staking interface can be access directly via this URL: https://app.e-money.com/earn. This interface is provided and maintained by the core team behind e-Money, so it should be considered the official interface.
Please note that you need to be logged in to have full access to the staking interface (shown above). If you’re not yet logged in, please do so before proceeding. At writing time, you can log in by visiting this URL: https://app.e-money.com/welcome. That login page will instruct you to install the Keplr browser extension, so please go ahead and do that as well (if you haven’t).
Once you have full access to the NGM staking interface, you can use the search bar to
filter for any validator you like. To narrow down on our validator (DKLABCO),
type in something like dklab and you should see our validator in the filtered list:
IMPORTANT: before proceeding, please take the time to read the risks and rewards sections, especially if you haven’t ever done so before.
Also, you should be aware that staked NGM tokens are locked up for 21 days. This means when you unstake, you’ll need to wait for 21 days for your fund to be back to your wallet.
When you’re ready, click on the row for DKLABCO and you’re brought to the next step, where you
can inspect the details of our validator node (reward yield, uptime, commission rate, etc.):
Next, click on “Stake” and you’re brought to the next step, where you can enter the amount of NGM you wish to stake:
Your staking rewards will be proportional to this amount. As hinted by the interface, you should not stake the maximum of your available NGM, but rather leave at least a small amount to cover future transaction fees (0.05 NGM per staking transaction at writing time).
The rest of the procedure is self-explanatory. Keep clicking “Next”, and the interface will ask you to sign the transaction (using your Keplr browser extension). You can always cancel the process without any consequent before you sign the transaction. Once you have signed (with your Keplr password), the transaction is officially carried out.
Congratulations, you have successfully staked your NGM with our DKLABCO validator!
How to claim your staking rewards
Right after you’ve staked your NGM, the staking rewards start accumulating. The reward yield number often reflects the APY value, which means the rewards you earn over the period of 01 year (365 days). So, depending on how much you’ve staked, you may need to wait for several hours, or days, or months before your rewards start reaching a considerably claimable amount.
Whenever your rewards have accumulated enough, you can “claim” the rewarded NGM by going to the same staking interface and click on “Claim Rewards”:
Tip: as with staking, you’ll have to pay a small fee to claim the rewards. At writing time, this fee is relatively low (e.g. 0.014 NGM), but you should make sure whatever this fee is, it should justify the amount of NGM you are claiming. For example, if the fee is 0.05 NGM and you only have 0.05 NGM as claimable rewards, then it makes much more sense to wait until your accumulated rewards become higher.
Similar to the staking transaction, you’ll eventually be asked to sign the claiming transaction. The signing procedure is exactly the same (via your Keplr browser extension), and no transaction is ever carried out until you’ve willfully signed.
Why DKLAB
By now you’ve learned how to stake with us. As you may have noticed, there are many validators to choose from, so what makes us believe we can bring you values? It is no other than our years of experience in managing web-scale computing resources & our commitment in doing so.
Additionally, we offer you:
- a dedicated validator homepage where you could contact us for ad-hoc questions and suggestions
- commitment to clear communication: we announce any service-related changes (e.g. commission rate) via public channels such as our official Twitter account
- our vigilant & integral approach to the entire business of maintaining PoS blockchain validator nodes: we trust the good in blockchain technologies, and we are serious about maintaining the systems
Closing words
We hope this article made it clear how to stake & claim NGM. In case you haven’t noticed, the process applies the same for any validator node, not just our node. As stated in the disclaimers, the decision to stake with our validator or any other validator must be solely based on your own research. If you decide to stake with us, we welcome you wholeheartedly, and we give you our words that we’ll maintain a high quality-of-service for our validator nodes, which translates into overall high uptime, and therefore, your uninterrupted reward accumulation.
Should you have any further question or comment, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at our decidcated validator site: https://validator.dklab.co
Enjoy staking, and equally satisfactory: enjoy helping maintain the Internet of Blockchains!