By delegating your $AZERO with Diamond Atlas Capital and nominating the DAC validator, you hereby confirm that you have read the Terms and Conditions and that you understand and agree to all stipulations therein. You also acknowledge that you assume all risks associated with staking and indemnify DAC from any damages.
What gives DAC’s validating service industry-leading reliability:
Help secure the Aleph Zero network and take advantage of higher yields than traditional finance with only 5% commission and 100% uptime.
We hold monthly airdrops, as well as bonus giveaways for Discord and pool stakers.
Since December 2022, we've distributed over 9,443 AZERO to our nominators and we're actively seeking new ways to give back to the community.
Since early 2021, we have been dedicated to creating value to the ecosystem through educational content and community engagement.
EXAMPLE DATA SERVER (ONE OF SEVERAL)
Multiple nodes and backup nodes located in High Availability Data Centers
Model
AMD Ryzen™ 7 3700X
Storage
a. 64 GB DDR4
b. 2 x 2TB (SSD (NVMe) PCle)
Monitoring
24/7 professional node monitoring
To promote the strongest possible fail-safety measures, we operate our nodes in multiple locations on future-proof hardware, allowing us to immediately start the backup in the event of a network or power failure. Additional nodes in other locations are being considered, further enhancing stability and decentralization.
HOW MUCH COULD YOU EARN?
Use the Aleph Zero calculator to see your potential rewards based on the amount of AZERO you delegate via DAC’s validator, the current reward rate, token price, and other projections. These estimates are just that—estimates. They are not guarantees and your actual rewards may vary based on external factors such as platform development and market conditions.
CALCULATE REWARDS
Whether you want to change your validator nomination, join a pool, or start a new stake, here’s how to start earning more AZERO with DAC.
If you’re already staking AZERO (min. 2k) and want to change your validator, follow these steps. There’s no unbonding period when switching validators (direct nomination).
1. Set Nominee
If you want to change your validator on a current stake, navigate to the Staking tab under the Network dropdown and go to Accounts to view your active Stashes. Click the three dots on the right side of the Stash for which you want to change validators and click “Set nominees.”
2. Select Diamond Atlas Capital
From there, you can click the validator you want to remove in the “nominated accounts” column on the right to deselect it. Find and select “DIAMOND ATLAS CAPITAL” in the “candidate accounts” column on the left or by using the search.
3. Complete Your Nomination
Click DIAMOND ATLAS CAPITAL to add, and then hit the “Nominate” button on the bottom right corner of the window. Once you re-enter your password, your Stash will show the update on the Accounts page. Please note that Aleph Zero Mainnet has a slight delay before rewards will be generated after you nominate your Stash.
Looking for lower stakes? If you want to stake below the 2000 AZERO minimum required to delegate directly to a validator like DAC, here’s how to join a pool with other nominators and get rewards proportional to your stake. If you’re currently staked with the Aleph Zero Foundation node or with another validator, you’ll need to first unbond (14-day unbond period). After the unbond period, you can join the DAC pool or any pool.
1. Go to the Pools List
Sign into your account, then navigate to the “Network” dropdown, click the “Staking” option. From there, you can click the “Pools” tab on the submenu to bring up the list of nominating pools.
2. Find & Join the Diamond Atlas Pool #18
Scroll down the list until you find DAC (listed as Diamond Atlas | diamondatlas.io). You can use the up/down arrow on the far right of the column to view more information, or simply click the “Join” button. You can also use the up/down arrow next to “Members” to view the current nominating members (the number of nominators in the pool is shown in the parentheses).
3. Set Your Stake
Enter the amount of AZERO you’d like to stake in the pop-up that appears and click the “Join” button in the bottom right. Note: we recommend nominating a validator directly if you plan to stake more than 2000 AZERO.
4. Authorize Your Stake
On the next screen, you’ll need to enter your login credentials one more time to authorize the transaction and hit the “Sign and Submit” button in the bottom right corner.
You’ll also see the small processing fee amount as well as an option to tip the validator, which is completely optional but could expedite processing. To check on your stake, select the “Own Pools” tab on the Pools page.
1. Create Your AZERO Wallet
To set up your wallet, access the Aleph Zero Mainnet website (note: the network can also be reached via Polkadot). From the dashboard, head to the “Accounts” drop-down, follow the “Accounts” link, and click the “Add account” button. You’ll arrive at the first of three steps: creating your unique seed phrase.
NOTE: NEVER SHARE THIS PHRASE WITH ANYONE AS THE PHRASE GIVES THE USER ACCESS TO CONTROL THE WALLET. Make sure to record your seed phrase in at least one secure location. We recommend more than one secure location in the event that you lose access to your first secure location. Once you’ve recorded your phrase, click next.
The second step is naming your account and establishing a unique password. We do not recommend reusing old passwords. Once you have set your unique password, click next.
The final step summarizes your account information. Clicking next will prompt you to save the backup .json file for wallet recovery purposes.
NOTE: PROTECT THE JSON FILE AS IF IT WERE YOUR SEED PHRASE. IT WILL ALLOW YOU TO REGAIN ACCESS TO YOUR WALLET IF YOU LOSE YOUR SEED PHRASE.
To stake as securely as possible, it's best to have a second account holding a small amount of $AZERO to serve as the Controller account (more on this later). We strongly recommend going back to the beginning of Step 1 and creating a second wallet. For staking purposes, one wallet will act as your Controller wallet and the other wallet will be your Stash wallet.$AZERO can also be staked with external wallet options like SubWallet and Nova Wallet.
2. Buy AZERO Tokens
You can buy or swap for $AZERO tokens on centralized exchanges like KuCoin or MEXC. Once you’ve purchased or swapped for your tokens, you can transfer them to your $AZERO wallet. We recommend transferring a small amount (1 or 2 $AZERO) to your Controller wallet and the remainder to your Stash wallet.
BUY AZERO ON KuCOINBUY AZERO ON MEXC3. Stake Your AZERO on Mainnet
Once you’ve purchased tokens and transferred them to your wallet (with most tokens in your Stash account and a few in your Controller account), you’re ready to start staking. Find the “Network” dropdown and click the “Staking” option. On this page, you’ll see the available validators and their statistics.
Next, follow the “Accounts” dropdown in the Staking submenu and then click the “Stash” button on the far right.
Using the dropdowns, select your Stash and Controller accounts. Enter the amount of tokens you’d like to stake for each account, select the payment destination account, and click the “Bond” button. This will prompt you to enter your password to complete your stake.
4. Nominate a Validator
Finally, you’ll need to select a validator like Diamond Atlas Capital. After staking, you’ll return to the Accounts page, where you’ll see a list of your staked Stashes. To nominate your staked Stash for rewards, click the “Nominate” button on the desired Stash. Keep in mind that you cannot receive rewards if you stake with a validator who is oversubscribed, so be sure to check validators first on the Overview page. Only the largest 1,024 wallets per validator will receive rewards.
Select DIAMOND ATLAS CAPITAL from the list of validators and click the “Nominate” button. You’ll be prompted to enter your password again to complete your selection.
Questions?
$AZERO is the token used for validating transactions on the Aleph Zero blockchain. Aleph Zero is a dynamic, developer-focused, Proof of Stake (PoS) scalable network that brings private smart contracts to a public blockchain. You can learn more about Aleph Zero on DAC’s Portfolio Atlas profile.
Staking allows crypto coin- or token-holders to earn passive income and support a network by delegating their crypto assets to validators who approve new blocks on a particular blockchain. Validators receive a commission for processing and approving new blocks on a blockchain and in return pay rewards to stakers over the course of the staking period. Learn more about staking.
Bonding funds is the first step in validating or nominating crypto. It locks up a portion of funds that is used to secure the network. These funds are placed at risk: your funds can be slashed and you can lose a portion of your funds if the validator node misbehaves. Validators and nominators share both rewards and the slashing effects. Choosing a trustworthy validator to nominate is crucial to the health and security of the blockchain, your funds, and your passive income. To bond, you’ll need two Aleph Zero Mainnet wallets: a stash wallet and a controller wallet.
Nomination is a process of selecting a validator that you deem trustworthy. Once a validator is selected, the bonded value is assigned to that validator. You can stop nominating at any point in time using your Controller wallet. You can also bond more funds using the Stash wallet. It is important to nominate your funds to a validator that is not oversubscribed, as only the largest 1,024 wallets for each validator will accrue rewards.
A Stash wallet is the primary account that holds funds and has a portion bonded for participation. A Controller wallet is used to control the operation of the validator or nominator, switching between validating, nominating, and idle. It only needs enough funds to send transactions when actions are taken. To bond, you’ll need to select the stash account, bond from it, and designate a controller. Additionally, you can select the amount of funds to bond and set your payout preferences.
Technically, yes. The Aleph Zero network permits the use of one wallet to act as both the Stash and Controller wallets. However, neither Aleph Zero nor DAC recommend doing so. Utilizing two separate wallets provides an extra layer of security for you at no cost and little effort.
Validator nodes help maintain blockchains by verifying transactions. The primary requirement for validators is the ability to run a node with 99% uptime and is well-connected to the network. Reliability and consistent uptime are critical to a validator’s success.
Nominators contribute to the network by providing funds (here, $AZERO tokens). These staked funds are used by validators to run nodes that help secure the network. Nominators and validators both earn $AZERO rewards at the end of each era with the payout split proportionally between each party.
Financially, delegators charge a small percentage commission on staking rewards (note: this rate does not apply to the principal stake—only the rewards received from staking). Aside from that, delegators like DAC get to work toward maintaining the network ecosystem and enhancing security for projects in which they believe.
Stakers will receive rewards daily after the end of an era. Payouts can be requested any time after an era, up to the last 84 eras. Eras are 24 hours long and made up of 96 15-minute sessions. Note that once you unlock your staked $AZERO, there will be a 14-day unbonding period before you can access it. Also, nominators and validators have to wait for the start of an era to begin participating. For more on the Aleph Zero reward distribution mechanism
Anyone in the pool can click on the “Claim rewards” button to distribute rewards among everyone in the pool. Staking rewards will be added to your wallet in the destination account you select to receive payments. You can track your accumulated rewards in the staking module.
DAC receives a 5% commission from the rewarded funds in order to help cover operational costs. The remaining 95% of the rewards are distributed proportionately based on the amount of $AZERO staked by the nominators to the validator.
Remember, you can’t receive rewards from nominating oversubscribed validators. Once you log into Aleph Zero Mainnet, Go to the “Network” dropdown and click the “Staking” option. Here, you’ll see a list of validators and stats. Look for the red “Oversubscribed” icon with a white scale—if you see that, they’re oversubscribed and you should look for another validator.
A delegator is a public entity who delegates tokens to a node to help validator nodes secure a network. For example, if you delegate with DAC, we will use your tokens to help validate and secure the Aleph Zero network. In return for delegating your tokens with DAC, you will receive a percentage of the rewards DAC’s validator earns for processing blocks on the blockchain. You are always free to unstake your tokens from DAC’s validator. Please note that unstaking requires a 14-day waiting period implemented by the Aleph Zero network. This waiting period applies to all validators and DAC has no ability to waive or modify this 14-day waiting period.
No. Though they will be tied up during the staking period, your tokens remain yours and they will be released back to you at the end of the staking period along with your staking rewards. Think of it like investing into a high-interest bond set aside to accrue value for a certain period of time.
Validator commission rates vary by validator, but DAC implements the required minimum commission of 5%, which is inline with many community validators. We feel this is a fair balance for ensuring that we can cover the operational expenses required to operate a node, devops, and operation costs while still keeping it low enough to reward our community and nominators. This is not a fee that you pay, but merely DAC’s share of the staking rewards which are shared with its nominators.
Just like any other investment opportunity, there are no guarantees with staking—however, the tactic is practiced widely and successfully in the crypto community and offers the opportunity for significantly greater returns than traditional investing. Cryptocurrencies are subject to market fluctuation, developmental roadblocks, and major global events. Fortunately, secure decentralized networks like Aleph Zero’s are designed to disincentivize bad actors and incentivize a healthy ecosystem.
Only nominate a validator you trust—if they behave badly and get slashed (i.e., punished by Aleph Zero mainnet), so do you. The consequences can include losing part of your stake. When in doubt, look for the red skull-and-crossbones icon next to a validator name. If they’ve been slashed before, there’s a chance they could become repeat offenders.
