What Is Delegating?
Today marks the beginning of the Shelley Era for Cardano! As Shelley is launched, Cardano is poised to become one of the first fully decentralized cryptocurrencies in the world. Its architecture guarantees that no one actor, or country, can control the cryptocurrency. It is free for the entire world. And free from government corruption.
In order to make this vision a reality, the Cardano network has to run not on Cardano Foundation servers, but rather, on computers all over the world. The worldwide network of computers join together to form one giant machine, ensuring scalability, performance, and reliability for the network as a whole. The distributed network is responsible for processing and validating all transactions.
Gathering a network of computers all around the world is not an easy endeavor. The Cardano Foundation could not purchase them, rent them, or lease them, as that is not only expensive but would defeat the goal of decentralization. The computers must be 100% independent of Cardano, and be self-sustaining and ever growing.
In order to grow the network, Cardano incentivizes teams around the world to build and run Cardano nodes. How does it do this? By paying them for processing transactions. The payment comes from the pool of ADA that has never been distributed to the public (approximately 20B), and NOT from the Cardano Foundation. The Cardano Foundation has no control over these pools or the remaining undistributed ADA. The NETWORK does. Every time a Cardano node processes a transaction, it gets paid a tiny little bit from the network's treasury of unspent ADA (the actual process is more complicated, and nodes aren't paid every time they work on the network; in actuality, their payment is unpredictable but averages out over time).
So where does Delegating come in?
Delegating is the process of ADA holders "supporting" a pool. By requiring "support" from ADA holders, Cardano prevents a bad actor from creating one million pools and trying to take down the network by stealing all the transaction rewards. Essentially, the amount of payment a pool makes is directly correlated to how many ADA holders "support" that pool. If no one supports a pool, the pool will make no money. This "support" is basically our way of saying, as a community, that a node is reliable and trustworthy.
Giving your support to a pool is known as "delegating" your ADA to the pool. Think of each ADA you hold as a vote for a pool. You can, if you really want to, delegate your ADA to multiple pools (this would require multiple wallets). To incentivize ADA holders delegating to pools, the network pays delegators ADA just like the node operators. The node operators earn ADA for helping to run the network. Delegators earn ADA for validating the network. Currently, delegators will earn 4%-5% rewards on their delegation amounts per year. In other words, if you delegate 10,000 ADA, you will earn 400-500 ADA during the course of one year. Just for supporting pools.
How do I Delegate to the ENDVR (New York) or ENDJA (Tokyo) pools?
Step 1: Download Daedalus/Yoroi wallets from the OFFICIAL Cardano website. NEVER download wallets or "viewers" from any other website!
Step 2: Click the "Create Wallet" option. Create a 24-word Shelley Wallet. Send all your ADA into this wallet. Make sure you have written your 24-word seed phrase down in MULTIPLE places, and secure these documents. Consider splitting them up into multiple pieces. These key words can be used to restore your wallet in the future, on any device. Treat them with care.
Step 3: Click on the "Delegation Center" button on the left side of the screen. You will see a list of stake pools. Click on the ENDVR/ENDJA stake pool! You may need to search for it by ticker name in the search bar.
Step 4: Click "Delegate to Pool"! That's it! You've delegated to the ENDVR/ENDJA stake pool with just a few short clicks.
Step 5: Receive your 4%-5% rewards. Forever. No further action is needed. This is just a thing that happens to you every week! Your rewards will be added to your wallet automatically, and interest will compound automatically.
Step 6: This is not a real step. We've added this step to remind you about all the scams out there! We want you to be safe, no matter what pool you pick. Be smart!
1) NEVER send your coins directly to a stake pool. Coins should never leave your wallet. They are delegated only, and only from Daedalus.
2) NEVER download a wallet from any address other than an official Cardano Foundation address.
3) There will never be a coin giveaway on Twitter or YouTube. Sorry, we aren't that lucky.
4) Never store your passphrase on your computer. Or email. Ever. Write it down, print it out, and make backups.
5) Before sending ADA to anyone, ask yourself some basic questions? Do you know this person? Have you done business with them before? Where did you learn about the address? From the web? From social media? Is there a giveaway or prize involved? Be careful!
Why Choose Endeavor (ENDVR/ENDJA)?
Endeavor INTL was formed by professionals with over 35+ years of experience developing software, working in IT security, and running software in cloud computing environments like Amazon and Azure. We are professionals, and are not running nodes out of our garages.
We have the infrastructure and the resources to keep our pools running consistently, and reliably. We set up our nodes to succeed and give everyone the best chance of making the highest returns possible.
We've pledged a lot of personal money into our stake pools. We want them to succeed as much as you do.
And lastly, we are honest, and hard working. We do care about Cardano, and what it is trying to achieve. And we also care about you, and pledge to answer questions and help you through the whole process with dignity and respect.
Let's get started, together!