FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Cardano is a 3rd generation decentralized public blockchain.  ADA is the digital currency supported by Cardano. Visit Cardano.org to learn more about the company. For a deep dive into the protocol visit Cardano 101- All you need to know about Cardano.

Delegation is the process by which ada holders delegate the stake associated with their ada to a stake pool. It allows ada holders that do not have the skills or desire to run a node to participate in the network and be rewarded in proportion to the amount of stake delegated

No, your ada should NEVER leave your wallet or be sent to another wallet to stake.  Please be cautious of staking sites asking you to send your funds or key phrases.

Staking/Delegating costs a one-time fee of around 2 ADA for your initial delegation. Aside from that, it is completely free. Once your ADA is delegated, you can still pay with it and your staking-amount will automatically be adjusted in the next epoch if you move ADA out of or into the staked wallet.

Currently wallets do not have an option to split the ada within one wallet between multiple pools, with the exception of the ADALite wallet.  This means that all ada within a wallet will be delegated to the pool of your choice.  Although, if you choose to move some of your ada into multiple wallets you can then delegate each wallet to a different pool.

No, your ada never leaves your wallet to stake.  Staking is a feature that allows you to delegate your funds for a return on stake in the selected pool. When you decide to stake your ADA amount you  are creating a delegation certificate to the network. Your funds never move from your account and your Ada stays save on your wallet.  
At anytime you can decide to remove that delegation certificate and leave the pool.  

Yes. If you would like to delegate your ADA to another stake pool, simply select your new stake pool from your choice of wallet and select the stake option. Your new staking decision will then take effect in the epoch after next, with rewards from that new stake pool being visible at the beginning of the epoch after that.

No. It is a non-custodial staking service. Pool operators do not have access to delegators’ ADA.

Yes. If you would like to spend or transfer ADA from a delegated account simply spend or transfer as much ADA as you like. The transfer will be instant and the remaining funds will continue to be staked, earning rewards until you choose otherwise.

An epoch in the Cardano network is considered a measurement in length of time.  Each epoch contains 21,600 slots ( smaller measurement of time) average slot is 20 seconds and contains 1 block to be produced.  So therefore each epoch is 5 days long.  The Cardano network is currently working on Hydra which will allow epochs to be ran in parallel.

The Cardano protocol requires stake pool operators to charge a fee per epoch at a minimum 340 ADA

After your first delegation, the rewards will be paid at the start of the fifth epoch. This means depending on where in the current epoch you started delegating, between three weeks to 25 days. Once this time is reached, you will get paid every epoch/five days in ADA rewards. The theoretical average expected rewards are 3-6% APY no matter the size of the stake pool you choose to delegate in.

information about our pool is openly available on the blockchain can be accessed via the great tool adapools.org and also on pool.pm and pooltool.io – pick your favorite

The current saturation point is ~67Million ADA for each stake pool. Stake rewards will gradually decline if the stake goes over the saturation point. You should consider switching pools if this happens.

For the most part yes, but It is not recommended. Exchanges are prone to cyber-attacks, and you could potentially lose your hard-earned ADAs; besides, not all Exchanges support staking (no rewards). Staking directly with stake pools offers the best return with no restrictions.

Some smaller pools can be extremely lucky and receive more blocks than expected, this results in higher than average ROIs. However, when stake grows, pool returns will settle between 3-6%. Chasing higher ROI is not recommended as luck is unpredictable and rewards will even out in the long run. The staking protocol is designed to average rewards between all the pools no matter the size. This means larger pools will reward stake more consistently but with smaller rewards while small pools will mint blocks less often but with higher rewards when they do.