Frequent
Questions & Answers

Cardano Questions


What is ADA?
ADA (or ₳) is the primary cryptocurrency used on the Cardano blockchain network, named after Ada Lovelace: a 19th-century mathematician who is recognized as the first computer programmer, and is the daughter of the poet Lord Byron. ADA tokens has 6 decimal places, demoninated Lovelaces.

Where can I buy/sell ADA?
You can buy or sell ada for fiat or other cryptocurrencies using cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, Binance US, Coinbase, Bittrex, among many others.
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What is a crypto wallet?
Crypto wallets store your private keys, keeping your crypto safe and accessible. They also allow you to send, receive, and spend cryptocurrencies like Cardano.

Staking Questions


What is staking?
Staking is the process of actively participating in transaction validation on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. By helping to secure the network, you earn Staking rewards.

How do I stake?
In order to stake your ADA, you need to have your funds in a wallet. The next step is to delegate your funds to a chosen stake pool, such as 1COMM. You may check the steps to delegate your stake here.

Is there a minimum amount of ADA I can stake?
The first delegation will require a 2 ADA deposit, which is refunded if you withdraw your stake key, and the delegation will cost a transaction fee (~0.17ADA) to have it registered in the blockchain. Therefore, any value above ~2.17ADA is valid for staking.

When I delegate my stake do I lose access to my funds?
No. Your funds will not be locked to stake or leave your wallet to stake. You will always have access to you funds and may transfer it out of your wallet anytime.

What is stake pool saturation?
Saturation is the limit of ADA a stake pool should be eligible to have, defined by Cardano's governance K parameter. If a pool is saturated, its ROA (return on ADA) will be diminished to the delegators staking on the pool to incentivize decentralization by moving the stake to another pool. The current value of K is 500, and as such the saturation of a pool is 64MM ADA.

Are there any risks of losing my funds by delegating my stake?
No, there are no risks for delegating. The stake pool you delegate to doesn't have access to your funds and as such, if the stake pool goes offline / closes you will not lose your funds - however you will stop earning passive income until you redelegate to an active stake pool.

What does it mean to mint a block?
To mint a block means to register a block in the blockchain. The block contains the executed transations in the Cardano network. The stake pool that registers the block receives the reward for minting the block, as well as income from the transaction fees. The rewards collected by the pool is shared with the delegators.

How is it defined which stake pool mints a block?
At the beginning of each Epoch, the Cardano protocol assigns the blocks to the stake pools, proportional to the percentage of stake the pool has in relation to the network, however adding some randomness - a luck factor. When its slot comes, the stake pool should then mint the assigned block. In order for that to happen, the stake pool must be up and running accordingly.

Rewards Questions


How long does it take for me to receive my first staking rewards?
This depends exactly when you staked - you will see your reward within at least 15-20 days. For more information, please check this post.

Why does my reward fluctuate so much?
The reward varies to balance the distribution of blocks in the network and according to a luck factor. In the long run, however, all pools will render the same ~5%, as long as they are not saturated and running accordingly.

What do you mean by balance the distribution of blocks in the network on the previous question?
A pool will have more blocks assigned by the network according to how much it has in stake. However, it is not always possible to mint in the exact proportion. A pool estimated to mint 1.5 block per epoch, according to the pool size, cannot mint 1.5 block as block should be a whole number. In this case, the pool would likely mint 0 or 1 block, or 2 or 3 blocks.

Does more minted blocks mean more rewards?
There is a catch in this topic. It is correct to say that more blocks means more rewards, however the correct way of analyzing this should be in relative to how much was minted according to the estimated block quantity for the pool size, not in absolute value. If a pool has a size to generate 1.5 block per epoch and mints 2 blocks, the ROA (return on ADA) will be above 5%. On the same time, if a large pool has a size to generate 30 blocks per epoch and mints 27 blocks, the ROA will be below 5%.

When I receive my reward, do I need to stake again?
No, your reward is automatically considered in the stake for the same pool your wallet is currently staking. This also applies to any additional ADA the you add to your wallet after delegating your stake.