Delegated staking

Delegation of MPC tokens to a node operator is a way to stake tokens and earn rewards without running a node yourself. You can see an example of how rewards are calculated here.

Delegated staking begins with the delegation of MPC tokens to the account of a node operator. If the node operator accepts the tokens, they have control over the tokens. This means that the node operator can associate the delegated tokens to a node service. You can only retract your tokens when the node operator disassociates the tokens from node service.

Expiration of delegated MPC tokens

As a delegator, using an expiration date, gives more certainty about when your tokens can be retracted. The expiration date is the date where the node operator can no longer use the delegated tokens to run new jobs. Delegated MPC tokens that expire later, or never expire, are given higher priority by node operators. A delegator can only choose one expiration date per node operator, but it is possible to have different expiration dates for different node operators. The expiration date can be changed to a different date later on.

Delegated stakes as a node operator

As a node operator, the most efficient way to run a node is to automate the acceptance of delegated stakes. This is done by setting a staking goal for your node. An automated node will continue accepting staked tokens until it reaches the staking goal. Once the goal is met, the node will prioritize stakes based on the expiration of the delegated MPC tokens. It will prioritize:

1. Tokens staked to self
2. Delegated stakes with no expiration
3. Delegated stakes with an expiration (favoring later expiration dates over earlier ones)

Automatically accept delegations

A node can automate its acceptance of delegations by setting a staking goal, indicating how many tokens the node wish to have staked to run jobs for.

Step by step:

1. Go to Node operation
2. Sign in
3. Click SET UP STAKING GOAL
4. In the Amount column, insert your desired amount of MPC tokens to run jobs for

Manually accept delegations

If you choose not to set a staking goal, you will have to manually accept each delegation offer. You can choose to accept the full amount or only a partial amount of a single delegation offer.

Step by step:

1. Go to Node operation
2. Sign in
3. Click ACCEPT for the delegation you wish to accept
4. In the Amount column of the offer you wish to respond to, either click on CONFIRM to accept the full amount,
5. or fill in a lower amount and click on CONFIRM to accept a partial amount

Delegated stakes as a delegator

As a delegator, we recommend you to communicate with the node operator, as there may be situations where your tokens are not immediately retractable. In the event your tokens are associated towards jobs, you may need to reach out to the node operator and request them to free up tokens for you.

If you want to delegate a large amount of tokens, it might also be beneficial to distribute your delegations to multiple node operators. This will help ease the burden of retracting from each node and have fewer short term consequences for the node operators

How to delegate MPC tokens

Before delegating any tokens you should visit the Staking Marketplace, where you can find node operators interested in receiving delegated stakes.

Step by step:

1. Go to the Delegations menu
2. Sign in
3. Locate the node operator you'd like to delegate to
4. Select the row of to your chosen node operator
5. Click the DELEGATE button on the top box in the right-hand panel
6. Enter the amount of MPC tokens you wish to delegate and an expiration date
7. Click CONFIRM

How to set or update an expiration date for delegations

After a delegation has been made to a node operator, the expiration date can be updated or set if it does not have any yet.

Step by step:

1. Go to the Delegations menu
2. Sign in
3. Locate the node operator you'd like to update or set an expiration date for
4. Select the row of to your chosen node operator
5. Click the SET button or edit icon on the top box in the right-hand panel
6. Choose the expiration date you wish to have for your delegation

How to retract delegated MPC tokens

Step by step:

1. Go to the Delegations menu
2. Sign in
3. Locate the node operator you'd like to delegate to
4. Select the row of to your chosen node operator
5. Click the RETRACT button on the top box in the right-hand panel
6. Enter the amount of MPC tokens you wish to retract and click CONFIRM

How to retract delegated MPC tokens locked to a node service

1. Contact the node operator and ask them to disassociate your tokens from node service
2. Wait for the pending time to be over
3. Follow the steps in the previous section: How to retract delegated MPC tokens