3. Stake (“Delegate”) Your AION

The Open Application Network has released a simple staking interface for users to stake by delegating their AION to one or more staking pools:

Thorough documentation about staking is available here: docs-Aion.TheOAN.com/docs/staking

This guide will just cover the basics:

A. Sign In

B. Choose a Pool

C. Delegate

A. Sign in

To begin, you need to connect your wallet to the staking interface.

If you are using a Ledger hardware wallet, you can sign in through the staking interface website from any computer or through the Linux & PC staking interface desktop application (downloads available on the “Sign In” screen). Both the Nano S and Nano X are compatible. Plug your Ledger into your computer, enter your PIN, and select the Aion app on the device. “Contract data” must be enabled in the Ledger settings. Then complete your sign-in on the staking interface.

Chrome browser is required for the staking interface website. If you have trouble using the staking interface website, you may have better results with the staking interface desktop application for PC and Linux, instead. Also, you have to be pretty quick with confirming a transaction on your Ledger using the staking interface — you will get a white screen error if you confirm too slowly.

If you are using Makkii, you can sign in to the app, select “Discover” in the bottom menu, then select “Aion Staking” to access the staking interface.

If you are using your keystore file, private key, or your mnemonic seed phrase, you must use the staking interface desktop application for additional security. You can download the staking interface desktop application for your operating system on the staking interface website sign-in screen.

B. Choose a Pool

After you have signed in to access your wallet, click on the “Staking” tab on the left menu of the interface. You will be shown a list of staking pools and information about each pool, including their name, status, fees, and performance.

Take some time to research a pool before you delegate to it. You can only stake to Active pools. In the interest of decentralization, you may wish to choose a pool with a lower Stake Weight %, which is the ratio of the amount staked to the pool to the total amount staked network-wide. Better Performance means the pool is producing around or above the expected number of blocks based on its Stake Weight %, but this metric is not a perfect measure of pool uptime and can swing quite a bit, especially for smaller pools. Higher Fees means the pool takes a larger percentage of your rewards. Self Bond indicates how much AION the pool is staking to itself, which determines its maximum Capacity (how much can be delegated to it). Review the pool’s website to get a sense of who is behind the pool, its operations, and its contributions to the AION community. You may choose to delegate to one or multiple pools to diversify your stake allocation.

Staking Facilities, Aion Smart Stake, and BloxBean made a pool dashboards for viewing pool and rewards statistics without having to sign in to the staking interface.

C. Delegate

Once you have chosen the pool(s) you wish to delegate to, click the “Delegate” button for that pool on the far right.

On the next screen, enter the amount you wish to delegate, review the pool information, click the “Delegate” button in the lower right, and confirm the transaction.

Leave a little AION in your wallet balance (0.5 is more than enough) to cover future Withdraw and Undelegate transaction fees.