NEAR Wallet Update: Staking and Withdrawing Tokens

On the journey to make blockchain-based apps accessible to everyday people, the NEAR Wallet plays a vital role for usability in the community. Usability for developers has been our priority in architecting the platform from day one, but as the MainNet gets closer to completing its final launch phase, it is important to consider usability of the tooling and user interfaces needed to support a thriving ecosystem of exchanges, applications, and integrations for NEAR users. The NEAR Wallet will make using applications and managing tokens easier than ever before.

Our previous release for the NEAR Wallet this summer announced NEAR Drops, a much simpler way to onboard new users to NEAR by making it possible to send links with $NEAR attached to them so app developers can seamlessly create accounts without their users having to worry about having a $NEAR token balance. 

Today, we’re excited to announce a new release from the Wallet Team which makes it easier for the community to stake with NEAR Validators using a new User Interface in the NEAR Wallet.

If you have a NEAR Wallet (only locked tokens supported for now), try it out!

A New User Interface for Staking

Key to the Proof-of-Stake model is how Validators are supported by the community via Staking. Validators earn NEAR token rewards for operating the nodes which run the network in the form of a static inflation rate of 5% each year, creating new tokens for Validators every epoch (~12 hours) as rewards. 

Validators must maintain a minimum amount of Stake to keep their Validator seat. Token holders are able to stake with a particular Validator they believe is performing well for the network and earn a portion of Token rewards generated by the network too. This incentivizes Token holders to stay involved with the community!

With this release, the NEAR Wallet now has a staking user interface built directly into the web app. 

To Stake:

1. Select “Staking” from the navigation bar (or dropdown on mobile)
2. Click the “Select Validator” button
3. Choose a validator
4. Confirm your choice and select “Stake with Validator”
5. Enter the amount of NEAR you would like to stake, and click “Submit Stake”

You will need to confirm two transactions, one to select the validator, and another to deposit and stake with the validator.

To Unstake:

1. On the staking dashboard (/staking), select your current validator
2. Click “Unstake” and confirm the transaction

After 36 to 48 hours (3 full epochs), you will be able to withdraw your stake. To do so, return to the validator page, and click “Withdraw”.

Monitoring Key Staking Information

Not only does this interface allows you to choose Validators to stake with and see key information you need to make a staking decision like:

• Total Amount Staked: NEAR tokens your account has currently staked with Validators. These tokens are accumulating rewards. To access these tokens once again, you must first unstake and then withdraw them from the staking pool.
• Unclaimed Rewards: Token rewards that have been earned, but not withdrawn from the staking pool. Unclaimed rewards are automatically restaked, which means your “Total Amount Staked” automatically increases over time, and your rewards are compounding.
• Tokens Available for Withdrawal: These tokens have been unstaked and are ready to be withdrawn.
• Tokens Pending Release: These tokens have been unstaked, but are not yet ready to withdraw. Tokens are ready to withdraw 36 to 48 hours after unstaking.
• Validator Fee: This is the fee paid to the validator to stake on your behalf. This fee is only charged on your rewards earned not your total token balance staked to the Validator. Each Validator can set their own fees, so take this into consideration when deciding who to stake to.

Staking features in the NEAR Wallet are new and should still be considered beta. If you have any concerns or questions about staking, check out the docs, or pose the question to the community in our Discord chat.

Join the Community

Join us on the journey to make blockchain accessible to everyday people who are excited for the future of the Open Web with NEAR. If you’re a developer, be sure to sign up for our developer program and join the conversation in our Discord chat. You can also keep up to date on future releases, announcements, and event invitations by subscribing to our newsletter for the latest news on NEAR.