Important Staking Updates for the SKALE Network Launch

Hello everyone!  

I have a few important staking updates to share.

Staking Deadline for Epoch 1 and Proof of Use Commencement

This is a very important detail if you are participating in the Activate Proof of Use Launch. The staking period for the first epoch will be live from Sept 1, 12AM UTC through Sept 7 at 11:59PM UTC. If you miss this deadline your stake will be put in queue and will not be accepted until the October 1st date.

If you are participating in the Activate auction and want your 90 day Proof-of-Use period to Commence on September 1st, it is imperative to not miss the deadline.

We are suggesting that all delegation requests be submitted by 5pm on September 5th in order to ensure validators have sufficient time to accept your delegation requests.

While in your wallet,  the tokens  are marked as LOCKED by the SKALE Manager system, and cannot be transferred out of your wallet until they are undelegated, and any other network or POU locks are removed. To give you a sense of cost, it currently costs approximately 600,000 units of gas to delegate. Assuming $400/ETH pricing, and 77 GWei network load, that’s approximately $18.50 to delegate.

Simplification of Staking Options for the Proof of Use Period

The second important update is that there will only be a 3 month staking option for the first 3 months.

The SKALE Network is designed to have 3, 6 and 12 month staking options, with higher returns for those who stake their SKL Tokens longer. After careful thought and analysis, it was decided that the best way to start the first epoch is with only the 3 month POU period and then open up the 6 and 12 month options following the Proof of Use period.

We came to this conclusion in part due to an issue found during the testnet where the smart contract logic had a business error which created an edge case for unfairness amongst stakers. Thankfully this was spotted early and found due to a diligent incentivized test net process. Limiting the staking options to only a 3 month option initially allows the smart contract fairness issue to be fixed and creates a more even playing field for all delegators the first 3 months. Also, starting simple and growing in complexity is in general a good strategy when launching such a complex system.

We are excited about the Phase 2 launch and all of the amazing support from the SKALE Validator community. Please join the SKALE Telegram to learn more about staking periods and delegation.

Thanks!

Jack