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If you're looking to earn passive income, staking crypto could be a good option for you. That said, Staking Rewards is the to-go place to research Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks.
This post is dedicated to showing you how to use the Staking Rewards platform, explaining their Verified Provider Program, and offering tips on how to get the most out of it.
Staking Rewards is a website that shows its users a comprehensive overview as well as detailed metrics and information on the vast staking ecosystem. The website provides a platform for users to research PoS networks, their validators, help to understand the staking process, how to earn staking rewards, calculate annual rewards, and podcast and educational content around staking crypto. It’s a data hub full of useful information about the staking industry that helps investors make better decisions based on facts & figures.
Staking Rewards provides insights to dozens of staking providers, aka validators, across every PoS network. The website is the go-to resource when choosing the right validator. A task that might at first be challenging. Since you don’t want to risk losing your savings account, and if you stake crypto assets in large amounts, you must be 100% sure that the stake pool operators fulfill all your needs. There are three crucial steps you should take before choosing a staking provider, and you start staking:
Compare the providers you’re interested in. Read their description, compliance and safety rules, reviews, and other information about each party you consider. Be sure that they have everything you need to stake your assets and get the crypto-staking rewards you’re looking for. Doing some research on the team behind it is also vital.
Make sure they have a proper website, reach out to them, and ask them questions about their setup, team, etc. We highly advise against staking with anonymous providers. For the sake of decentralization, we also advise against staking assets with a big centralized exchange.
Fees affect your Staking Rewards rewards. Staking validators or staking pools deduct fees from the rewards for their work, which affects overall percentage yields. You can maximize earning rewards by staking to a low commission fee and a promising track record from the staking pool or validator. However, note that validators pay for their operations (setup, HR, hardware, etc) via the commission fees they charge. Commission fees can be considered a validator's security budget. Ask yourself, is a 0% or very low fee really sustainable? What are the providers saving on if they charge an extremely low fee?
Lastly, an essential factor to consider when choosing a staking provider is knowing the potential return on investment (ROI). You want to make sure that staking crypto will be profitable for you. Staking Rewards offers you a reward calculator for each network - this is a great tool to play around with to help you project how you earn rewards. Again, note that maximizing your returns to the extremes might come at the expense of the network’s overall security, and ultimately, this affects its overall worth. Try to strike a balance between the APY you want to achieve and the profitability of the validator you are looking to delegate to, as this ultimately affects the network’s security budget.
The Verified Provider Program is a great initiative by the Staking Rewards team. It presents a set of staking providers verified for their legitimacy and trustworthiness. The seal of verification guarantees users that those providers offer genuine and good-quality staking services. This provides delegators and token holders looking to become one with an extra layer of security and trust in an evolving and still unregulated industry.
As their announcement article explains:
“The Verified Provider Program is an initiative to increase trust and transparency in the staking industry by verifying that Providers meet a set of criteria, including but not limited to, risk management, longevity, and security measures. The program helps investors make quicker and more confident decisions when choosing between thousands of staking Providers.”
The Verified Providers Program is a signaling mechanism and quality seal for stakeholders of the staking industry. That does not mean you shouldn’t do your own due diligence, but you can be reassured by the verified seal - always DYOR (do your own research).
Users usually have two main goals when it comes to staking crypto. The first one is to safely stake their assets and the second one is to maximize their returns and earn passive income. The Verified Providers Program from Staking Rewards ensures that the former requirement is met. It helps the stakers, aka delegators, to find the most reliable providers that are transparent about their practices and can be trusted regarding the future development of their stake pool.
Many providers bet a lot on their reputation, invest in branding, participate in crypto-related events, and actively talk to the community. However, none of that guarantees that their pool is secure and secured against technical malfunctions or other problems. Staking Rewards decided to take the matter into its own hands. The platform is helping PoS token holders to pick the best and safest providers.
They verify each provider that wants to be accepted into the program by considering numerous criteria. It’s done via a safe platform that allows providers to share information about their practices, operations, and regulations. The program focuses, among others, on decentralization, security, reliability, customer service, governance participation, accountability, and more. A provider that gets a positive rating becomes verified, which is a signal for users that staking crypto with them is a good decision.
Staking Facilities became a verified provider on Staking Rewards at the end of June 2022. As our profile on the platform explains, we are a web3 company that operates physical, bare-metal infrastructure located in certified data centers with guaranteed uptimes, which means improved security, operational experience, and improved services.
Why this emphasis on bare-metal, physical hardware, you might wonder, right?
Well, spinning up validators in cloud instances like AWS is quite straightforward; however, it does lead to centralization - all nodes are then ultimately controlled by the cloud provider and not the validator itself. Running our own infrastructure allows us to always access it, custom-build it to the respective chains’ requirements, and grants us independence, ultimately reinforcing the network's decentralization and hence its' security, credible neutrality, and value.
Our approach to the security of staking and efforts to provide the best possible service for users was appreciated by Staking Rewards, which resulted in us becoming one of the first Verified Providers. We highly appreciate their invaluable services to the PoS industry and are honoured to be among this amazing set of verified staking providers.
Staking with verified providers is the best possible choice for most crypto investors who look for security and reliability. However, you should understand the staking process and consider decentralization before staking your crypto assets. To maintain the decentralization of a given blockchain, users should stake crypto with various and smaller providers. Fortunately, various providers care about offering high-quality and secure services to investors. With the Verified Provider Program, it became even easier to identify those. Hopefully, more and more providers will become part of the program, promoting security and decentralization in the industry.
Missing anything? Thoughts, feedback, or questions about the post?
Let us know via Telegram, email (info@stakingfacilities.com), Twitter or LinkedIn - we’d love to chat!
Please note that none of this is to be considered financial nor investment advice. We highly advise you to always do your own research (’DYOR’) before interacting with any of the projects or tools we write about. Crypto is a highly dynamic and fast paced environment with lots of moving parts that can quickly change.