Staking is one of the most effective ways to earn money using crypto. If you are looking for an alternative to trading or investing, you should check out staking for a more rewarding investment experience. Once you’ve decided to stake, the next thing to do is choose a validator for staking.
Choosing the right validator is the key to earning a high profit. With the right validator, you will have no worries about scams or issues with your assets, as the well-built validator assures that your money is protected.
Explaining proof of stake
Proof of stake is the process of creating new blocks through staking. Unlike Proof of Work, where you need expensive computers to mine new blocks, Proof of Stake is a more economical, eco-friendly option. So, whether you are a beginner in staking or looking for a cheaper alternative to mining, staking can be argued to be much better.
What you need to start staking is very simple. A validator where you can stake your cryptos, the amount of your initial investment, and the network or token you want to stake. For example, if you’re going to stake Polkadot, you can go to platforms like RockX and stake the numbers of DOT you can afford, lock them up, and wait for your rewards, which are as much as 13.28% per annum as of this writing.
How to choose a validator?
Step 1: Search for options in the market
First and foremost, you need not one but several options when staking. This is so that you can compare the staking rewards or other factors affecting your staking experience. Having several options will help you land the best one in the market. So, the first step is to look for two or more staking validators. Once you’ve found them, start comparing their features, staking rewards, and period of staking.
The more unique the features are, the more you can benefit. The higher the rewards, the better. Also, some staking validators offer an extended period for staking. If you are not comfortable locking your tokens for more than 90 days, you should choose a validator that provides a shorter period.
Step 2: Choose a validator according to your goals
After comparing your options, you should have criteria for choosing a staking validator. To do that, you need to consider your goals. Is it to earn more rewards? To allow your money to grow? To participate in governance? To experience staking? Ask yourself — why do you want to stake?
If your primary purpose is to earn higher, select a validator that offers a higher percentage of rewards. If you want short-term staking, opt for the validator with a 15-30 day staking period. Take note that some might offer you 60-90 days.
Also, if you are planning to stake more than one token, you have to look for a validator that offers more than one network. For example, if one of your goals is to stake both Polkadot and Kusama, you have to look for a validator that qualifies to stake for both. Again, your goals will help you determine the criteria you should look for in a validator.
Step 3: Do your due diligence
This might be the most challenging part as not everything you see online might be valid. You have to do your own research about the staking validator you are eyeing for. Check if they have a website. Check the team members if they are reliable individuals or professionals. You can check them out on LinkedIn or other professional websites. More often than not, the people behind staking platforms are visible on social media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Medium.
A part of your due diligence is asking someone else if he has tried using the services of a staking validator. Joining their community on either Telegram or Discord helps a lot to gain more information about the company.
Step 4: Try staking with a lower amount
Once you’re done doing your research and are confident that the staking validator you chose is reliable and trusted, you can then try staking with a lower amount. This could be a trial and error period. Sometimes, you have to experience first-hand how a staking validator works. It’s recommended that you don’t put all your money in staking yet. You still have to learn some strategies and whether it’s worth it to stake in your chosen staking platform.
Final thoughts
With a stacked team of tech experts, RockX has been working on blockchain projects since 2019, providing a safe and secure technology infrastructure to support the most innovative protocols in the market.
When it comes to our validators, RockX’s engineers are constantly monitoring the performance of our validators with performance dashboards and automated alerting systems that help us to predict and identify any problems at the earliest time.
With over $200M assets staked, providing $20M in annual yield, RockX helps to make the staking process simpler for investors.
