So, what happens now? Did Thurar’s delegation miss out on baking because he changed bakers after roughly one cycle? Who will pay Thurar the rewards for Cycle 25 (18 + 7)?

The answer to that is: it depends on what snapshots were taken when assigning the baking and endorsing slots for Cycle 25. As mentioned in previous articles, snapshots are taken every 256 blocks, which translates to 16 snapshots per cycle.

As bakers can track exactly which snapshot was selected from the pool of snapshots taken every cycle, Liptium Crabs’ will know if Thurar’s delegation contributed to baking for Cycle 25 or not. If yes, Liptium Crabs should transfer Thurar his corresponding rewards, although Thurar changed the baker to Liptium Lobsters.

Conclusion

In this article we have explored the scenario where a delegator, called Thurar, makes a new delegation to a first baker, called Liptium Crabs, and then changes the delegation to a different baker called Liptium Lobsters.

Bakers can track exactly which snapshots were chosen for the assignment of baking and endorsing slots of every cycle using the RPC. In this scenario, Liptium Crabs should pay the Thurar the corresponding rewards, if the chosen snapshots included Thurar’s delegation.

Broadly speaking, bakers normally track delegations automatically, calculate and pay rewards accordingly. In this case, whenever delegators make changes be it in amount or baker, it should not impact the delegator. Nonetheless, the baker community is very diverse. I recommend asking your baker what the policy should you change your delegation.