Effect Staking Protocol
Table of contents
What is staking?
Staking is the act of locking up your tokens in a smart contract for a minimum amount of time, which means you will not be able to transfer them for at least that period. In the EffectDAO you will have to stake EFX and NFX tokens to unlock certain rewards and privileges. Staking is necessary as it singals that you are commited to the project for at least the staking period (skin in the game) and others can trust that you act in the best interest of the project.
Tokens
Both network tokens can be staked but have a different role and unstake delay time:
| Token | Purpose | Unstake delay | Contract | Stake age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EFX | Utility | 5 days | efxstakepool | 1000 days |
| NFX | Governance | 15 days | efxstakepool | 0 days |
In addition, staked EFX tokens have a unique property called stake AGE that makes their stake grow more valuable over time.
Before the release of the new Staking Protocol (on 09-11-2020) it was just possible to stake EFX. NFX tokens could only be claimed proportionaly to an EFX stake and its age. This is how NFX tokens came into existence for a period of about 2 years. After this date no new NFX tokens can ever be created.
How to stake
The simplest and recommended way to stake is by using the Effect Dashboard. You will need access to the EOS account that holds your tokens and ensure it has some CPU, NET, and RAM available. Here you can stake your tokens with a single slider while the dashboard will take care of all the technicalities that are involved.
Stake AGE
When you stake EFX tokens the system keeps track of how long they have been staked. This age is used as a special multiplier on the power of your stake. Your stake will get exponentially more powerful the longer it remains staked.
If you decide to expand your stake with more EFX tokens this will have an effect on your stake age. The best way to look at this is that your newly added tokens have an age of 0 days, when they are added to the older tokens the total amount of the stake will increase while the overall age will decrease. Dont worry though: even when an up-stake makes your stake younger it will always increase your EFX Power.
EFX Power
The power of staked EFX tokens is determined by their stage age. This number is called your EFX Power and is used to determine your rank in the EffectDAO. Every 200 days of stake age will double the EFX Power of your stake. The maximum effective stake age is capped at 1000 days, so after that additional age will no longer benefit your stake.
The following table gives some numerical examples of EFX Power:
| Staked EFX | Stake AGE | EFX Power |
|---|---|---|
| 30,000 | 0 | 30,000 |
| 30,000 | 200 | 60,000 |
| 30,000 | 400 | 90,000 |
| 30,000 | 600 | 120,000 |
| 30,000 | 800 | 150,000 |
| 30,000 | 1000 | 180,000 |
| 30,000 | 1200 | 180,000 |
Unstaking
As long as your tokens are staked they are locked in a smart contract and can not be transferred anymore. In order to gain access to them it’s necessary to unstake them. This can be done at any time, for a portion or for all of your staked tokens. When the unstake is initiated that quantity is reduced from your stake and the unstake delay time is started. After this delay the tokens will be refunded to your wallet.
When you unstake EFX tokens you also forfeit their stake age. Of course the remaining staked tokens will keep their age, but if you were to re-stake the unstaked portion they would dilute your stake age.
Make sure to use the Effect Dashboard to unstake your tokens in a proper and safe manner. The unstaking process is very straight forward.
Refunding
Usually your unstaked tokens are automatically transferred back to your wallet after the unstake delay time. This is done with a deferred transaction on the EOS blockchain. It’s possible that this automated transaction fails from time to time, in which case you will have to execute the refund by hand. If this happened there will be a clear notification on the dashboard with a button to initiate the refund.