Very often, the technical part of the staking process in many projects is not well described, therefore we decided to make a short guide on how to start staking and voting on the ICON blockchain. In this material, we’ll describe in a detailed way all necessary steps that are required to stake your cryptocurrency or vote when there’s such a need.
This Staking Tutorial is a collaboration between Staking Rewards and Everstake.
Step 1: Download, Install and Set Up The Wallet
First of all, you have to install the ICON wallet, which is available on the iOS and Android, and also it comes as a Google Chrome extension, and it can be downloaded on the chrome web store. Once installed, you have a few options to choose from:
- If you are a new user, you have to create a new wallet account by going through a series of simple steps like choosing your wallet name, password, downloading your Keystore file and saving your private key.
- In case you already have an account, then you can load your wallet using your Keystore file or private key.
- The other option is to use the ICX wallet through your Ledger Wallet.
Then you will have to go through the wallet creation process.
Simply choose the desired wallet name, set up a password, save the backup file and the private key in a safe place and proceed further.
Step 2. Staking Process
Click on the “Voting” button on the top toolbar, then click on “My Status,” choose your Wallet Name and click Adjust.
Choose the amount of the ICX you’d like to stake and click “Complete.”
Done. Now you have to vote if you want to receive rewards
Step 3. Voting Process
It’s important to mention that the staked ICX can be used to vote for P-Reps. Back to the “Voting” tab on the top toolbar, then click on “My Status,” choose your Wallet Name and click Vote.
Having the “Voting” tab opened, go to the “P-Rep” List, and then choose one of the P-Reps from the list and click “+” to vote.
You can find a P-Rep using a search bar. For choosing a specific one just find it in the search by pushing the “+” button.
Set the desired Voting Power using the slider and click “Vote”
And that’s all! You have completed staking and voting.
Step 4. ICX Claiming
As you already know, users who staked ICX tokens are getting rewards in I-Score which should be converted into ICX tokens once a sufficient amount is reached.
In order to do that, please click on the ‘Voting’ section of the ICONex wallet.
Then click on the ‘My Status’ section. Once you will be in the ‘My Status’ section, please click on the ‘Claim’ button. A few pop-up windows will show up where you have to confirm your operation. That’s it, now you have converted your I-Score, claiming the ICX tokens.
Step 5. Unvoting and Unstaking Process
Sometimes you may want to decrease the amount of staked ICX tokens and to do that you have to open the first ‘Voting’ section of the wallet. Please remember that unstaking process is divided into two steps where during the first one you have to unvote your P-Rep, and only then you will be able to unstake your ICX tokens.
Go to the ‘My Status’ section of the wallet.
Then click on the ‘Vote’ button to choose a P-Rep you want to unvote.
Once you click on the ‘Vote’ button, you will be transferred to the voting page. Please click on the ‘Vote’ button which is located right in front of your P-Rep. Decrease the voting power by clicking on the ‘+/-’ buttons, or use simply drag the slider.
Confirm your operation by clicking on the ‘Vote’ button and then turn to ‘My Status’ page again. where you have to click on the ‘Adjust’ button. In order to unstake some portion of your ICX balance, decrease the number of staked ICX tokens by dragging the slider.
Now you have unstaked your ICX, but note that it takes 11 days to release your tokens so that you could use them again.
This is it!
This Staking Tutorial is a collaboration between Staking Rewards and Everstake.
Everstake is one of the main P-Reps in the ICON Network.
If you want to learn more about ICON, feel free to check the Staking Rewards Profile and Calculator.