Whilst we want to ensure staking is as safe and transparent as possible, there are still things to consider regarding whether a specific staking option is right for you.

Slashing risk: PDEX nominated to a pool can be partially slashed if the validator misbehaves. The exact percentage of tokens that will be slashed can vary depending on the specific circumstances of the offence.

Unbonding risk: The unbonding period for PDEX is 28 days. Crypto markets are highly volatile, and investors need to be aware that they cannot sell their tokens immediately once they have staked them. They first need to wait 28 days for the tokens to unbond before they become liquid. Please take note of this lockup before you decide to stake. Consider keeping funds liquid if you do not intend to hold PDEX long-term. 

Chilling: If a validator was unresponsive for an entire session, the validator bond would be chilled in a process known as involuntary chilling. When a validator has been involuntarily chilled, it may restrict the validator from being selected in the next election depending on the session in which it was chilled. While a validator is chilled, they will not earn rewards for their participation in the network.

Protocol security risks: There is an inherent risk that the protocol could contain unknown bugs. This not only applies to staking but your PDEX investment in general.

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of all the risks related to staking.

To earn a yield on your PDEX, you can either lend them out to custodial providers or via a Defi lending protocol, run your own validator or nominate your tokens to a pool of your choice.

We recommend using a Ledger Hardware Wallet to keep full control over your funds. To nominate your tokens, you should ensure you have your PDEX on Talisman wallet and follow the steps below:

Step 1: Go to the Polkadex Staking Dashboard and ensure you have your PDEX on your Talisman wallet.

Step 2: On the right hand side, select ‘+ Nominator’. You will now be prompted with a ‘stash’ and ‘controller’ account block, it is not an issue to use the same account for both, but it is recommended to use different accounts for each. 

Step 3: Input the amount of PDEX you want to stake in the ‘value bonded’ block.

Step 4: Select what you want to do with the PDEX rewards you earn under ‘payment destination’.

Step 5: Select a validator that you want to nominate to then click ‘bond and nominate’. Check our FAQ on how to choose a pool if you are unsure who to nominate to. 

Step 6: Sign and submit the transaction

View the official Step-by-Step Staking tutorial here.

PDEX is the native token of the Polkadex network that is used to carry out the key functions of the platform as detailed below:

Token Utilities

Staking: Users can temporarily lock PDEX up to support collators and earn a yield.

Gas token: PDEX is used for transaction and trading fees.  Each transaction processed by the network requires a small fee to be paid.

Governance: PDEX is used to vote on governance proposals on the network. Only staked tokens are eligible to be used for governance voting. The amount of voting power is measured in terms of stake.

Polkadex is a parachain on Polkadot and thus makes use of the relay chains (Polkadot) consensus mechanism. Polkadot uses a consensus mechanism called “NPoS” (Nominated Proof of Stake) to select the validators who are allowed to participate in its consensus protocol. In NPoS, “nominators” can choose to nominate their stake to specific validators. The validators are chosen based on their reputation and the amount of stake they hold, and they are rewarded for their contributions to the network with block rewards. NPoS allows for virtually all DOT holders to continuously participate, thus maintaining high levels of security by putting more value at stake and allowing more people to earn a yield based on their holdings.

The total supply of Polkadex native token, PDEX, is capped at 20M. However, PDEX supply can fluctuate at times. The supply can move between 18M and 22M tokens at certain periods, but it will always come back to fixed 20M tokens in total in the long run. The Polkadex mechanism will burn the transaction fees if the current total supply goes over 20M tokens. Burning mechanisms regulate supply via the network without the need for users to intervene.

Initial Distribution Breakdown 

The Initial token distribution of PDEX is as follows:

• 9% is allocated to Founders and the team
• 7% is allocated to Seed round investors
• 8% is allocated to Strategic round investors
• 10.19% is allocated to Private round investors
• 41% is allocated to the treasury
• 10% is allocated to the parachain auction
• 6% is allocated to advisors
• 6.81% is allocated to marketing, ecosystem and partnerships
• 2% is allocated to the community round