With the main project line of the star project Cosmos, the horn of PoS mining officially blew in 2019, and the concept of Staking economy began to sweep the entire industry. In the face of Staking's tens of billions of blue oceans, the exchanges, wallets, and mining pools have their own tricks to accelerate the preemption of the track. Recently, the KuCoin Exchange has innovatively launched the Soft Staking currency rebate service. Officials claim that as long as users who hold ATOM, EOS, TRX or IOST tokens in their KuCoin account, they do not need to lock the box and are free to access, and they can receive a portion of Staking revenue every day . Is this service that uses Staking and the transaction as the selling point as good as the introduction? Is it the best choice for investors compared to other Staking services on the market?

Attack on the Staking economy, the rise of the PoS consensus

The Staking economy is a business model in which the holder of the currency is able to obtain transaction fees, block rewards and dividends through pledge, voting, entrustment and lock-up. To put it bluntly, it is an investment activity of the currency holder who “coins in coins”, which is similar to the bank’s savings (to make money with money).

Many people believe that 2019 is the first year of the Staking economy. However, Staking has a lot of meanings of “departure is the peak ”. According to a report released by the General Research Institute in June, the total market value of the Staking tokens that have been locked is about $6.7 billion. By the end of June, data showed that the total market value has reached 7.9 billion US dollars. Although the Staking yields of different projects vary widely (EOS annualized yield is about 1.84%, IOST is about 17%), but the Staking project can bring hundreds of millions of dollars to the holders every year.

Staking is so hot, the reason is that KuCoin CEO Michael Gan believes that there are two reasons for external factors and intrinsic value . He said: "From the perspective of the external environment, the cryptocurrency market has gradually turned bears since the beginning of 2018. Under the bear market environment, the effect of making money in the market has weakened. There is a saying called 'bull market speculation, bear market coin', and the Staking model is A profit model is better in a bear market . In fact, the wave of Staking is also set between the conversion of bears and cows.

On the other hand, Staking's fieryness has also attracted a lot of attention and traffic for the PoS/DPoS project . Compared with PoW, Michael believes: "PoS reduces the barriers for everyone to participate in chain governance, enhances consensus efficiency, and saves energy and environmental protection." More people realize the value of PoS, and naturally there will be more users in the way of Staking. Get involved. For many people, the future of PoS and PoW is not far off.

The rain will come, and the Stake of the attack on the wind will witness the rise of PoS.

Staking, the transaction is correct, KuCoin launched Soft Staking "double-full method"

In the face of Staking's tens of billions of dollars in the blue ocean, exchanges, wallets, and mining pools have entered the market, and the competition between Staking service providers is also very exciting. Cobo, imToken and other veteran wallets have launched Staking services for multiple currencies, and the "new army" that focuses on PoS mining such as HashQuark continues to enter, and the Staking market is full of flowers.

A lot of choices, but many users are not satisfied. Subject to the 21-day pledge unbonding time set by Cosmos, the user who pledges the ATOM token to the Staking service provider will have to wait for 3 weeks to resume control of the ATOM in the account after decommissioning ( Transfer, transaction). At the same time, many Staking service providers also specify the gain period. Users need to pledge at least one cycle (such as Cobo's period is 60 days) to decommission, which causes the user to lose the gain period + unbinding time (82 days for Cobo). The flow time.

At the same time, the 19-year encryption market continued to heat up, and Bitcoin was approaching the $14,000 mark. The market is in full swing, and many users are increasingly demanding liquidity. However, choosing a transaction often means giving away the benefits of Staking; if you choose Staking, you have to give up the opportunity cost in the transaction . Some investors can't help feeling:

"Do you have a double-law in the world, and you can't afford to take a deal with Staking?"

There is always no shortage of innovators in the encryption industry. The encrypted exchange KuCoin seized this pain point and took the lead in proposing the concept of “Soft Staking”. Users can still get Staking income every day without having to lock the position, and enjoy the double benefits brought by the transaction and Staking. For many whites, KuCoin's Soft Staking service is a "boom", but it is equipped with digital currency, free access, and currency. Currently, KuCoin has opened this business for ATOM, TRX, EOS and IOST. Michael said that the follow-up KuCoin will gradually extend this model to more PoS projects.

The pattern sounds very attractive, so what is the actual benefit? We can compare ATOM as an example (see table below). Compared to imToken, HashQuark, Cobo and Stake.fish's Staking service, KuCoin Soft Staking's cash rebate service is generally slightly lower in yield, but can avoid 21 days of lock-in time and get better liquidity . KuCoin offers a higher yield than the same type of product with no lock-up period, Poloniex's daily reward pledge service. In addition, other exchanges, wallets, and mining pools often charge a fee ranging from 4% to 25%, while KuCoin is completely free of fees and charges for users.

Comparison of major Staking service providers ATOM

Staking, the transaction is not wrong, the high-year, zero commission, Soft Staking cash rebate seems to be the "double law" that many users seek.

Exchange and user win-win, behind Soft Staking is KuCoin's wild vision

Under the tide of Staking, the exchange will naturally be actively involved, but most of the exchanges enter through the wallet and mining pool. Firecoin launched the PoS mining service through its Huobi Pool, and users can also enjoy the PoS token pledge service through the coin wallet. KuCoin does not take the usual path, directly linking the exchange with Staking.

According to the announcement by KuCoin, KuCoin will default to all KuCoin users who hold ATOM, EOS, TRX and IOST to agree that KuCoin will use these tokens under their name for the main network pledge. KuCoin will dynamically adjust the pledge ratio on a daily basis based on the total amount of the wallet and withdrawals, and try to maximize the benefits for the user without affecting the user's withdrawal. Since KuCoin Soft Staking does not charge a fee, all proceeds from the pledge will be distributed to the holders in proportion.

That is, KuCoin will retain a portion of the token for daily liquidity needs, while another portion will be pledged to the main network for revenue and distributed to the holder of the currency. This model is not fundamentally different from the traditional encrypted exchange business. For security reasons, encrypted exchanges usually deposit large amounts of money in cold wallets, but here the funds are pledged to the main network. Therefore, the risk of funds is only the risk of these tokens. In fact, since EOS last June's main online line, although Dapp's security alerts have continued, the main network itself has never had major security problems. Since the launch of Cosmos, although the loopholes have been exposed, the safety of the Staking token has not been affected. Overall, the benefits of Soft Staking services are fairly stable with security guaranteed.

On the basis of stable income and daily liquidity guarantee, the user feels like KuCoin has opened a “balance”. In the current EOS, TRX, ATOM and other currency trading volume is still very active, the transaction can also "live interest", flexible and profitable Soft Staking will inevitably attract many users into the embrace of KuCoin.

Users benefit, KuCoin also gains a lot, behind Soft Staking is actually KuCoin's wild vision. The influx of users will lead to an increase in transaction volume, and the increase in pledge tokens will gradually grow into an important verification node for major PoS projects. With Soft Staking's currency rebate service, KuCoin is not only going to be a bigger, more innovative exchange, but also to take a day in the Staking economy!