Will this ever be handled on chain?
We sure hope so. As soon as there is smart contract functionality we’ll be the first inline to implement.How do I send a delegation transaction?
It’s really simple on all devices. See our guides here.Why does my delegation not get included immediately?
The delegation needs to show up in the staking ledger. This gets a little involved but know that the staking ledger of the current epoch is the snarked ledger for the last block of epoch - 2. Want some more… When you send a transaction and it is included in a block by a block producer it is added to the staged ledger. Think of this like a pending accounts database as the block has not been confirmed but also there are not proofs for the included transactions.Can I undelegate at any time?
Yes. There are no penalties or fees for undelegating or delegating to a new address. To delegate to yourself just send a delegation transaction but using your public key and happy staking! There will be a delay in your funds being considered for the staking ledger but you will receive any rewards for the remainder of the epoch(s) your stake is still valid.Are my funds safe?
We do not have access to your staked funds. You may undelegate any time. Other than a delay in removing from the staking ledger there are no fees/penalties and you are always in control of your funds.This is worth repeating… we never has access to your staked funds. Ideally you will send a delegation transaction from a cold wallet, a device that never reveals its public key to the internet. We have no access to these funds and if you want, you can change your delegation at any time. As pool payouts are not on-chain you do need to ensure we are paying you your fair share of rewards but we have all the data you need to keep us honest ;)
How are payments calculated?
This will likely evolve over time. For the initial mainnet launch it’ll be handed per epoch and then we will later reassess when we have a better idea of transaction fees and any other unexpected issues that may arise in the initial launch. We will strive to send payouts after each block has been confirmed or at a daily cadence and this will be implemented as soon as is feasible. Payouts will be automated based on client sdk and signing and broadcasting offline messages.I have an unvested account, do I get larger rewards?
Yes! We will consider the supercharged coinbase rewards in payout %. Transaction fees will be equally shared (as it doesn’t affect your probability of winning a slot) but coinbase rewards will be proportionally higher. Any other treatment of supercharged rewards would be grossly unfair. We determing when you funds are unvested based on this calculation:What if your pool grows too big?
We are commited to decentralization. We won’t allow the pool to grow past x%. We receive a foundation delegation so that would be the first to be removed. There is no technical way to prevent people delegating but we will do everything possible to disincentivize it (whilst never affecting users who were part of the pool before it grew). We take this issue very seriously.What are the fees?
Our fees our 5% of the block rewards. This fee is very competitive and covers running the cost of the (expensive) infrastructure required and maintenance of the nodes. We’d like for you to do it yourself but we know not everyone can or wants to. We plough your fees back into development of the staking pool and explorer to provide (free) tooling for the Mina ecosystem. A win-win :)Do I pay transaction fees?
We’re not sure on this right now. We need to see how the fee market evolves come mainnet. In an ideal world, no they would be covered.Do you guarantee each slot won?
We can’t guarantee we will win every slot we have won to propose a block. In such a young protocol stuff happens(tm). Rest assured that if anything happens we’ll be best positioned to handle it. We also run completely redundant backups so if we miss a block it’s probably going to be unavoidable.When are payments sent?
As soon as possible. At mainnet launch we will likely be more conservative as we expect some early hiccups of the network (if you were active the testnets you’ll know what I mean). This will evolve into a more formal policy over time and automated so it is easy to hold us to account.One of the blocks was orphaned and we got no reward?
That’s just bad luck.Do you have a delegation from the Mina Foundation?
Yes, we (Gareth) were one of the top stakers on the Testworld testnet.What is your setup?
We use offline wallets to manage block rewards and sign transactions offline.We’re not disclosing everything but we have multiple running nodes on dedicated infrastructure in different regions/providers. We use the coinbase receiver function to send all payments to an offline wallet where we create, sign and then transfer to a connected machine to broadcast. No funds (zero) are ever in the hot wallet. Ever.