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XLM Staking Performance Charts

Track Stellar staking over time by analyzing key performance metrics.

Performance over Time
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Analyze XLM Staking Data

Compare the market position of XLM against other staking assets.

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Learn about Stellar Staking

How to stake XLM

There is no way to stake XLM, the only way to earn a return on your XLM is to lend them out to custodial providers. For the best security and control over your funds, we recommend using a Ledger Hardware Wallet.


Do I need to maintain my staking in any way? 

No, if you do choose to use a custodial provider, you will not need to do anything once you have gone through their platform.


How do I choose Stellar validators? 

You do not need to choose validators as there is no staking mechanism for XLM.


What are the risks to staking XLM?

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.

Custodial lending risks: Custodial lending means you are lending your crypto through a centralized entity (i.e., Binance, Kraken, Coinbase). The exchange is the custodian of your assets, and users entrust the management of private keys to the exchange. In addition, users relinquish control of assets to the custodian and become subject to its terms and conditions. 

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 XLM token.

This list is not exhaustive and other risks may apply.


What is XLM?

What is XLM?

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

Token Utilities

  • Gas token: XLM is used for network fees, each transaction processed by the network requires a small fee to be paid.

What consensus algorithm does Stellar network use?

The Stellar network reaches consensus using the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), which is a construction of the Federated Byzantine Agreement (FBA). FBA differs from other well-known consensus mechanisms like Proof of Work (which relies on a node’s computational power) and Proof of Stake (which relies on a node’s staking power) by instead relying on the agreement of trusted nodes.

In SCP, each participating Stellar Core node (also called a validator or validator node) decides what set of other nodes they want to trust. The flexibility of user-defined trust allows for open network membership (meaning anyone can become a Core node) and decentralized control (meaning no central authority dictates whose vote is required for consensus).

There are no monetary rewards for being a validator on the Stellar network. Instead, users are encouraged to become a validator because they are then contributing to the security and resiliency of the network, which benefits the products and services built on Stellar.

There are three desired properties of consensus mechanisms: fault tolerance, safety, and liveness.

  1. Fault tolerance – the system can continue operating despite node failures or malfunctions
  2. Safety – no two nodes ever agree on different values, guarantees nodes will produce the same block
  3. Liveness – a node can output a value without the participation of any misbehaving nodes

Consensus mechanisms can typically only prioritize two out of three of these properties. SCP prioritizes fault tolerance and safety over liveness. Because of prioritizing safety, blocks can sometimes get stuck while waiting for nodes to agree.


What are the tokenomics of XLM?

100B XLM were created when the Stellar network went live, and for the first 5 or so years of Stellar’s existence, the supply of lumens also increased by 1% annually, by design. That inflation mechanism was ended by community vote in October 2019. And in November 2019, the overall lumen supply was reduced. Now there are about 50 billion lumens, total, in existence, and no more lumens will be created.

Initial token distribution:

The Initial token distribution of XLM is as follows:

  • 50% was allocated to the Direct Sing-up Program
  • 20% was allocated to the Bitcoin Program.
  • 25% was allocated to the Partnership Program
  • 2% was allocated to Stripe for its seed investment
  • 3% was allocated to the Stellar Development Foundation

The Direct Sign-up, Bitcoin and Partnership Program featured an initial distribution plan over a period of 10 years. The tokens were never distributed as expected; the SDF conducted several changes to its distribution plan and treasury management over the years. 

Funding Rounds:

  • $3M was raised in a Seed round in May 2014
Stellar
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Stellar is a layer-1 peer-to-peer blockchain network that provides a framework for developers to create applications, issue assets, and connect to existing financial rails. Stellar is an open network for storing and moving money and is designed to enable creators, innovators, and developers to build projects on the network that can interoperate with...Read more
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