After delegating your MINA tokens, there are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be aware that there is a delay of approximately 15-30 days before a delegation becomes active on the protocol after being initiated.
• If you wish to switch your delegation to another validator, this can be done at any time without waiting for the unbonding period, However, it may take up to 1-2 epochs (about 15-30 days) before the updates to your delegation are reflected on the network. This may be something to consider if your current validator is found to be misbehaving or dropped out of the active set.

• Rewards are auto-compounded, but with a delay. The rewards from one epoch are reflected in the staking ledger of the following epoch, so any rewards you receive on epoch 10 will be active on epoch 12.
• As a participant in the Mina ecosystem, you have the option to delegate your voting power to a validator, which will vote on your behalf based on the amount of stake delegated. You can also change your delegation to a different validator if you disagree with their voting stance. Additionally, you can use your own tokens to vote directly. Keep in mind that participating in governance does not affect the amount of rewards you will receive.

It is essential for users to stake their PoS tokens with dependable and highly performant validators, which is why we have rolled out our Staking Rewards Verified Staking Provider (VSP) Program in June 2022. Through this program, we thoroughly scrutinize potential validators, evaluating factors such as security measures, their on-chain reliability, their provider setup, and value-added services for the whole ecosystem.

Our VSP documentation contains further details about the program, Staking Providers that are part of the VSP will have a blue checkmark displayed next to their names here.

When choosing a validator to delegate to, there are numerous factors to take into account:

Commission Rates: When staking your tokens with a validator, the commission rate represents the percentage of your rewards that the validator will retain for themselves. A high commission rate can result in lower returns for you, while a low commission rate may lead to financial difficulties for the validator in the future. Validators on the Mina blockchain, known as “block producers”, charge a minimum of 5% fee as required by the protocol. It’s important to note that validators may change their commission rates at any time.

Number of Users: A large number of delegators may signal a positive reputation for a validator.

Validators Self-Staked balance: Validators with significant amounts of self-staked tokens may have a greater motivation to maintain their operations, as they have more at risk than those with lower self-staked balances. However, it’s important to keep in mind that this metric has some limitations, as validators can choose to delegate their own tokens to another validator, which is done to enhance the security of their funds.

Current Status: You can see whether the validator is currently active or not by visiting the Leaderboard, clicking into a validator’s info page, pressing “Account” and then “Staking”. An active validator has an “Active” sign under the “Delegation Status”.

Network Share: When selecting a validator to delegate to, it’s generally advisable to avoid choosing one with the highest or lowest network share {the name may vary}. Delegating to the most popular validators can increase the risk of centralization within the network as they will have more influence in governance and a greater share of blocks. On the other hand, choosing a validator with a low network share may be less profitable and increases the risk of them ceasing their operations. Finding the balance and choosing a validator with a moderate network share could be the best approach to keep the balance in decentralization and profitability.

Performance: To ensure the best results, it’s important to select a validator with high uptime performance. Our suggestion is to only choose validators with an uptime performance of 99% or higher.

Value Add to the Ecosystem: Another way to assess the long-term vision of validators is to check if they offer additional services to their delegators, such as tax reporting tools, explorers, etc. This can be a useful filter when comparing different providers.

Native staking rewards on MINA are composed of:

Block Rewards (Coinbase Rewards): The coinbase reward for producing a block, which currently occurs approximately every 4-5 minutes, is fixed at 720 tokens. This reward is reduced by any fees paid to purchase required transaction snark work from snark workers. Snark workers are responsible for producing SNARK proofs of transactions on the network and help maintain the succinctness of the Mina blockchain.

In the future, the coinbase reward will be dynamic and will be influenced by the staking ratio and designed inflation, which aims to incentivize staking. This means that as the staking ratio increases, the coinbase reward will decrease. However, if all other factors remain the same, if less tokens are staked, coinbase rewards will be higher.

To further incentivize participants to stake their MINA tokens, Mina offers a “supercharged” rewards program for accounts that qualify, both for block producers and delegators. This program doubles the rewards for accounts that have non-time locked tokens. This means if the account stakes unlocked MINA tokens, it will get doubled coinbase rewards.

Rewards are calculated at the end of each epoch, which occurs every ~14.875 days.

Transaction Fees: The Mina network charges fees for transactions, which are paid by the users who initiate them. These fees are collected by the staking pool and are distributed among the delegators. Rewards for staking are paid out twice a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. For smaller balance holders, the protocol accumulates rewards until they reach a minimum payment threshold of 0.1 MINA. This threshold may change depending on network conditions.

It’s important to keep in mind that the total annual rewards are divided among all active stakers. As the number of staked tokens increases, the reward rate decreases.

Furthermore, there are governance proposals that could adjust some of the on-chain parameters, which could also change the APR if they are approved.

You’re welcome to use our Staking Calculator to get a better understanding of how these factors can impact your rewards.

We strive to make staking as safe and transparent as possible, however, it’s important to consider factors that may influence whether a particular staking option is appropriate for you.

• Slashing risk: There is no protocol-enforced slashing for cases of missed blocks.
• Unbonding risk: The unbonding period is approximately 15-30 days, and it begins from the time you initiate the unstaking process. During this time, your tokens are locked and cannot be sold. The reason for this delay is that updates to your account’s staking status are made during the 1-2 epochs (approximately 15-30 days) following your request to unstake. As the crypto markets are known to be highly volatile, it is recommended that investors take into consideration the lockup period when deciding to stake their MINA tokens. If you do not intend to hold onto MINA for the long-term, it may be wise to keep your funds liquid and avoid staking them.
• Dropping out of the active set: Your validator may drop out of the “active set” – this means that even though they won’t be slashed, they will no longer earn rewards and thus you will lose out on the potential rewards from delegation. To minimize these risks, it’s recommended to periodically check your validator’s status to ensure they are still active, not jailed, and has not raised their commission fees.
• Protocol security risks: There is an inherent risk that the protocol could contain unknown bugs, this risk applies not only to staking but also the investment in MINA.

This list is not exhaustive and other risks may apply.

MINA is the native token of the Mina network and it is used to perform various important functions within the network:

Token Utilities

• • Staking: Users can temporarily lock up MINA to contribute to the security of the network. In return for the service, both the validators and stakers are compensated with staking rewards.
  • Gas token: Every transaction on the network incurs a small fee that is paid to the validator in the form of MINA.
• Governance: MINA is used to vote on governance proposals on the network. All MINA holders are able to vote on a particular proposal, unlike many other networks where delegation of votes to validators is required. As a result, as a MINA holder, you are able to participate directly in governance, rather than having to pass your votes to the validator.

The Mina Protocol uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism called Ouroboros Samasika. Based on Cardano’s PoS Ouroboros, Ouroboros Samasika is a secure PoS protocol with strong decentralization properties. An unbounded number of participants have the chance to produce a block, with the probability proportional to the funds staked.

Validator nodes on Mina are responsible for validating transactions and committing new blocks to the blockchain. These nodes are selected based on the amount of MINA staked and delegated to the node, known as the node’s “stake weight.” The higher the stake weight, the higher the likelihood of the node being selected as a block producer. In exchange for their work, these nodes earn rewards and transaction fees.

SNARK workers, or “Snarkers,” are network participants that produce zk-SNARKs to verify transactions. Instead of doing this work themselves, the block producer can purchase completed work from any available Snarkers in the snark pool and pay them out of the coinbase reward and transaction fees earned for their work on the chain.

MINA is a token with an unlimited supply. The annual inflation rate for MINA is set at 12% for the first two years, and will decrease by 1% every six months thereafter until it reaches a stable rate of 7% per year by around April 2024. New tokens will be continuously released at a gradually decreasing inflation rate that gets adjusted downwards by 1% every six months, until tokens are continuously released at a fixed 7% inflation rate indefinitely.

Initial Distribution Breakdown 

Any tokens that have been minted are free to be used and staked. 

• Community: 42.34%
• MINA Foundation Endowment: 6.00%
• 0(1) Labs Endowment: 7.52%
• Backers: 20.52%
• Core Contributors: 23.62%