Stake Your ADA in Daedalus or Yoroi
Updated: Aug 29, 2021
Overview
So you have ADA in a Daedalus or Yoroi wallet and you want to delegate that ADA to earn rewards. Follow the guide below depending which wallet you have. If at anytime you are unsure of any terminology used check out the glossary at the end of this article.
Where to Delegate
There are hundreds of staking pools that exist on Cardano. Each run operated by different individuals or teams with different missions and goals. So how do you choose which one to stake to? Overall, your ADA is safe no matter where you stake it but there are some things you should look out for when choosing your staking pool:
Make sure you choose a pool you think is reliable, reputable and communicates with their delegators (the people staking in their pool). Staking pools could raise their fees or discontinue their pool all together without you knowing thereby reducing or eliminating your rewards
The pool operators have the technical expertise to run a pool effectively. Without this the pool could have network down-time causing you to lose rewards
The pool should have enough ADA staked in it where it is able to earn rewards. You can look at the lifetime ROA to make sure the pool is actually earning rewards
Check the variable fee of the pool. This fee is meant to help the pool operator support their business. Anything less than 2% is considered low fee. Be careful if a pool has fees above 5%.
Check the saturation of the pool. If a pool is over saturated (more than 100% saturation) then you will earn less rewards.
Consider choosing a small or single pool. This is like choosing a local business rather than a large company. There are some operators that own multiple pools with millions of ADA staked in them. This is harmful to the decentralization of the Cardano network.
There are a couple places you can view all of the pools in Cardano but these are probably the top two:
Castle Cardano is a low fee, single pool (part of the Cardano Single Pool Alliance) that has been here from the beginning. You can support us and our mission of Blockchain & Cardano education by staking to our pool. Our pool stats can be view on the staking page here.
The rest of this article assumes you are staking with Castle Cardano but you can choose any pool you like.
Daedalus - How to Delegate
Once you have your ADA in a Daedalus wallet as shown below, click on the Delegation Center icon on the left side panel
Navigate to the "Stake pools" section
Search for a staking pool to delegate your ADA to such as Castle Cardano (ticker CASTE)
After clicking on the pool icon select "Delegate to this pool"
Click "Continue" to get to this screen. Select your wallet and then select "Continue"
You will be prompted one my time to select a pool. You have already selected one so click "Continue"
There is a small fee to delegate your ADA onto the blockchain so don't be alarmed. Input the password for your wallet and click "Confirm". It will take 20-30 seconds for it to process
Congratulations! Your ADA will now be available to earn rewards! This process "registers" the fact that your wallet is now delegated to the pool you chose on the blockchain. This means your computer does not need to be online and the Daedalus software does not need to be running for you to earn rewards.
Yoroi - How to Delegate
For delegating in Yoroi on mobile follow this guide here.
Once you have your ADA in your Yoroi wallet as shown below, click on the "Delegation List" tab
Search for a staking pool to delegate your ADA to such as Castle Cardano (ticker CASTE) and then click on "Delegate"
Yoroi takes slightly more fees than Daedalus (~2 ADA). Enter the password for your wallet and click "Delegate"
Congratulations! Your ADA will now be available to earn rewards! This process "registers" the fact that your wallet is now delegated to the pool you chose on the blockchain. This means your computer does not need to be online and the Yoroi chrome extension does not need to be running for you to earn rewards.
Glossary
ADA - The abbreviation for the cryptocurrency that lives on the Cardano blockchain. This can be bought or sold on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Daedalus - An officially supported wallet software used to store ADA (like a bank that has accounts). Unlike Yoroi, it is a full-node wallet meaning installing it requires an entire copy of the blockchain (made up of GB's of transactional records).
Yoroi - An officially supported wallet software used to store ADA (like a bank that has accounts). Unlike Daedalus, it is a light-weight wallet that is supported on desktops, mobile, and hardware wallets. It also relies on trusted, external entities instead of keeping a copy of the entire blockchain like Daedalus.
Exchange - A website that allows you to buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. This is similar to something like the New York Stock exchange in traditional finance. There are many exchanges all over the world that offer different services for different fees.
Wallet - You can think of a wallet like a bank account. It holds all of your ADA. Just like how you can have different bank accounts at different banks, you wallets can be created from different software applications such as Daedalus or Yoroi.
Hardware Wallet - Unlike a software wallet, a hardware wallet stores the private keys for your wallet on a physical device similar to USB drive. The private keys are used to restore your wallet so you can send or retrieve your ADA. It is considered the most secure way to store your wallet. Ledger Nano and Trezor are two popular hardware wallets
Stake Pool - A dedicated server that supports the decentralization and security of the blockchain. Owned and operated by individuals of the Cardano community, it earns rewards for its contributions and those rewards are then distributed amongst the pool owners and its delegates.
Delegate - A delegate is someone who has "delegated" their ADA to a staking pool. Delegating your ADA to a staking pool allows you to earn a portion of rewards that staking pools get for contributing to the operation of the Cardano blockchain.
Stake - The amount of ADA that has been delegated to a staking pool. The staking pool "stakes" this ADA on the Cardano blockchain which contributes to the operation of the blockchain and earns rewards for all of its delegates.