The golden Cardano staking FAQ

AdaPointPool

6 min readOct 1, 2020

General FAQ

Can I loose my ADA delegating to a staking pool?
No. Staking is 100% safe. You are using your right to delegate to a pool which is a separate action from transferring ADA.
How do I delegate to multiple stake pools?
This is currently not possible. You can only delegate to one pool per wallet. Therefore you can create multiple wallets and delegate each one. Note: This feature is on the roadmap. So if you are not in a hurry it is best to wait. Some wallets like adalite.io implement easy multi wallet handling so you can check that out.
I have delegated my ADA, wallet. When will I get my first rewards?
You can check out when you will get your first rewards at http://adapointpool.com/tools. A more specific article about this tool is here.
It takes a minimum of 15 days (3 Cardano epochs) + the time till the end of the epoch (epoch duration is 5 days). So in short it should take between 15 and 20 days.
I am already delegating my ADA. Meanwhile I have bought some more ADA. How do I delegate it?
Send your newly bought ADA to the already delegated wallet. It will automatically be delegated to the same pool to which you are already delegating. Note: It takes the same amount of time as when first delegating a wallet (for the newly sent ADA).
Do I need to keep my Yoroi, Daedalus, Adalite wallet open if I am staking?
No. You can close the wallet/shut down your computer and you are still staking and getting rewards.
What happens if my computer breaks or I delete the Yoroi extension or my Daedalus wallet?
Your funds are safe if you have backed up your words (phrase) with which you created the wallet. Reinstall Yoroi wallet/Daedalus wallet and initialize it with the backup words. Staking awards are not affected by this events. If you staked before you will get the rewards.
Is my ADA safe on a hardware wallet?
Check your hardware wallet manufacturer best practices. In general you have to have safe backup for the passphrase/words with which your hardware wallet was initialized. If you have that you are safe as no action is confirmed without your action on the physical hardware wallet.
Can I use different wallets with a hardware wallet?
You can open your hardware wallet in any client, Daedalus, Adalite or Yoroi. It should always display the current state of your funds and delegation.
Do I loose my rewards if I switch a stake pool?
No. You will get the rewards for the current epoch as the snapshot is taken at the beginning of each epoch.
What is a saturated pool? Do I get a staking rewards if I delegate to a saturated pool?
A saturated pool is currently a pool above ~64 million ADA. The rewards for a pool are capped so if users delegate to a saturated pool the pool will not get the rewards past that point. The pool splits the reward pot to more users, but with a capped rewards, the individual users will get less rewards. Therefore always try to delegate to unsaturated pool.
What is an Epoch from staking point of view?
It is a reward period for Cardano. It lasts 5 days. Also your initial delegation and redelegation is recorded at the beginning of the epoch.
What is a Slot?
Epoch consists of N slots. Pools get assigned Epoch slots to produce blocks of transactions. The more blocks a pool produces the more rewards for the pools’ users. The more users the more blocks a pool is assigned to produce.
What is ROS, ROI, ROA?
ROS means Return On Stake and has basically a similar meaning as ROI, which means Return On Investment or ROA which means Return On Ada. It is a measure of a % return in a year.
Example: Pool has 5% ROS for Epoch 220. So if you stake 100 ADA this means that 5% is extrapolated through a whole year (pool would had the same return for all epochs in a year) and you would get 5 ADA in a year.
Should I create my own pool?
It is much harder than just delegating to a pool… but if you have the system administrator skills and especially if you can market the pool to attract the delegators it is a good choice to make some extra ADA.
Should I claim the rewards so that my stacking stash will compound (so my rewards will earn the rewards)?
No need to do this with Cardano as rewards compounding is taken into account automatically. You should claim your staking rewards only if you really need them.
What is a fixed fee for a pool?
Pool operator gets fixed fee for running the pool. Minimum that can be set is 340 ADA. After this variable fee is applied and the rest is distributed to the pool’s users.
What is a variable fee for a pool?
Pool operator gets the variable fee for running the pool. Before variable fee is applied fixed fee is substracted from the rewards. What is left is distributed to the pool’s users.
Is there a website where I can find a list of all Cardano pools?
Check https://adapools.org and https://pooltool.io.
I have sent an ADA transaction. Where can I see it?
You can check the any Cardano explorer like https://cardanoscan.io/. Paste the transaction hash into the search field.
Are Cardano rewards slowly going down over longer time period?
Yes. This is by protocol design. As Cardano supply is (mostly) fixed the rewards per epoch have to go down.
This is the usual practice in the cryptoasset space. BTC has a halving event, what means rewards get cut in half every 4 years. The difference is Cardano went with continuously lowering the rewards and not discreetly at a given period. See full article here.

Cardano wallets

What is Daedalus?
Daedalus is the official Cardano full node wallet. You have to install it on your computer and sync the whole network which will take a couple of hours. https://daedaluswallet.io/. It is developed by IOHK. See our Daedalus tutorial.
What is Yoroi wallet?
Yoroi is a browser extension light wallet and a phone light wallet. https://yoroi-wallet.com/#/. It is developed by Emurgo. For phone wallet search Google playstore or Apple appstore. It also supports hardware wallets. See our Yoroi staking tutorial.
What is Adalite wallet?
Adalite a light wallet for browser https://yoroi-wallet.com/#/. It also supports hardware wallets. It is developed by Vacuumlabs. Vacuumlabs is also an official developer of Cardano hardware wallet app. See our Adalite staking tutorial.

Daedalus wallet specific FAQ

What do I do if I encounter a bug or an issue and you can’t find the solution online?
Click “Help -> Support Request”. This is the preferred way. The support team is really helpful and responsive.
If you do not have the wallet available or request relates to some other Cardano project, you can create an official support ticket here.