Eth 2.0 Staking - Earn Interest Holding ETH
First and foremost, before you take the time to learn how to Stake ETH, you would want to know why you would even want to Stake ETH at all.
Staking ETH on the Ethereum network is essentially the equivalent to mining BTC on the Bitcoin network, which means you get rewards for running the network properly. Ethereum, the world’s largest decentralized smart contract platform, doesn’t use computational power per se to mine like Bitcoin for its security though, instead, it requires individuals with funds of 32 ETH to run the Ethereum program on their computers and provide a globally decentralized financial wall of security protecting against any hackers. So, one could say, you’re both gaining interest on your deposit over time like you would with a Bond, and also contributing security to one of the world’s most exciting, disruptive technologies for freedom of financial expression and inclusion ever invented.
Much like miners are rewarded for verifying transactions on the Bitcoin Network by earning BTC, people who stake ETH will be rewarded in ETH interest payments every 6.5 minutes with APR’s of anywhere from 15% down to approximately 5% by time of full adoption. This is an open-sourced smart contract protocol in which you deposit capital and gain interest, like an automated and real-time viewable US Treasury Bond.
As an investor and believer in the future potential of the cryptocurrency space, it’s hard not to love the idea of gaining interest on an appreciating asset. Your money can grow while it’s growing. Saving is getting more and more appetizing in this new paradigm.
So now that you’re interested about gaining interest on your money again, here’s how:
STEP 1: Obtain 32 ETH. You can purchase or trade for ETH at almost any cryptocurrency exchange today.
STEP 2: Go Here. Read through and go through their steps to become a validator. Download the program and deposit your ETH to it. You can see the current APR based on how many other people are staking their ETH and validating the network simultaneously.
STEP 3: Keep your machine on and running the programs and watch your ETH grow!
Other requirements: Processor, Hard Drive,
WARNINGS:
You can lose ETH if you try any funny business and attack the network with any hack that is incongruent with the other validators’ telling. If you simply run the network and leave it be, you’ll be fine.
You also lose the equal amount of ETH you should have earned any time you are off-line with your Validator. This encourages people to do their part and contribute to the network in return for their rewards in ETH. This means if you were offline for a day where you would have earned .01 ETH, then you would lose .01 ETH. If you were 95% efficient, you could still be offline 18 days, so it’s hard not to be profitable with this system.
You cannot withdraw your funds until an unknown date in the future, this is where you have to have faith in the development of Ethereum to continue its quite amazing trajectory over time. The more validators, the sooner this date will be discovered it appears. The network just needs to be sufficiently secured and large enough in order to let validators go on and offline, essentially, so the community is waiting to ensure that first and foremost.
You have to store your own keys like Bitcoin. This is essentially like sailing across the ocean with your gold, if it spills over and you lose it, it’s gone for good. So proper asset management is necessary as it should be with all your investments. This is as good as storing your password in a safe, safety deposit box, in your memory, and maybe with a trusted friend or loved one. Keys are just multi word passwords essentially, write them down and keep them locked up.
