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Cardano Essential Guide

In this Essential Guide, you should learn Cardano basics and how to perform the most common operations.

Hor to Buy Cardano ADA

Buying options include bank transfers, and credit/debit cards, depending on where you live (in some countries, governments banned using credit cards to purchase cryptocurrencies). 

The P2P (peer-to-peer), or person-to-person without intermediaries today, has few options (soon there will be many, same about Cardano Blockchain). Binance has a P2P platform. Check the Official list of exchanges to buy ADA (the exchanges that read Shelley-ready) to find one that fits your needs. Review our post about the best cryptocurrency exchanges for a detailed review of some exchanges.

Create a Wallet

The best option is to keep your ADA in a non-custodial wallet. Leaving your funds in exchange could be risky since you do not own the private keys. Your funds can be hacked and confiscated for legal issues, or the company that owns the exchange can go bankrupt. The official wallets are Daedalus or Yoroi, but there is also ADAlite, which has a good reputation. You can download them from their official sites: Yoroi, Daedalus, and ADAlite. 

Always download the wallet software from their official sites when using your browser. Never access an address sent to you by email or a messaging app because it can be fake (phishing). 

Daedalus: it is a full-node wallet that connects directly to the blockchain. It is only possible to install it on a pc because of its hardware demands. Recommended requirements are 64-bit dual-core processors, 8 GB RAM, 15 GB free disk space, and broadband Internet connection. The advantage is connection privacy, as there are no intermediaries between you and the network. The problem is that it can take a few minutes to connect, and if you connect it after many days, it must update all the blockchain data since your last connection. 

Yoroi has two versions: Yoroi Mobile, which runs on the cell phone (Android or IOS), and Yoroi Desktop Extension for Chrome or Firefox browsers. The interface is much faster as it is a lightweight wallet because it does not store the entire blockchain. The advantage is that it requires little computing power and network bandwidth and has desktop and mobile versions. The disadvantage is that you have to connect to Emurgo servers, its developer, a serious company responsible for the commercial development of Cardano.

 

Cardano Staking

Staking in Cardano is a great way to get passive income from ADA. You do not have to risk your funds since you control the private keys and can dispose of your coins anytime (Staking does not lock your coins). When you delegate your ADAs to a Stake Pool, you contribute to validating transactions on a Proof-Of-Stake Blockchain like Cardano. 

By delegating, we can help make the Cardano network more operational and functional. The rewards are an incentive to do so, thus increasing the chances that the chosen Stake Pool will produce blocks. 

When you first delegate your wallet, it creates a delegation key to identify your wallet’s staking (if you make more than one wallet and then delegate, the process is the same for each one). You’ll have to one-time deposit 2 ADA and a network fee of approx. 0.17 ADA. If you un-delegate in the future, the 2 ADA deposit is refunded, but not the fee.

 

Receiving delegation rewards

Rewards incentivize Pool operators to keep the network operational and functional. They are paid after 15-20 days, depending on when you have delegated.

Once you start receiving rewards, if you do not interrupt the cycle by removing all your funds from the wallet or re-delegating, you will receive rewards for the previous epochs. The reward amount is always proportional to the amount you had in your wallet four epochs ago.

Every reward is self-delegated and thus generates the magic of compound interest. Any ADA sent to your wallet is automatically delegated. In Yoroi, there is no need to “claim” rewards unless you want to spend those ADAs or send them to another wallet. Claiming has a net cost of ~0.17 ADAs. 

The ROS (return on staking) is around 5% to 6% annually. It depends on Pool’s performance. In general, it tends to that value (except for saturated pools or pools that don’t sign blocks because they have too little delegation or subpar work from the operator because he has network connection failures, which is unusual for Cardano pool operators). 

We can delegate to multiple pools using multiple wallets. That way, you not only decentralize the network (it’s healthy), but you have different returns, but as I said, they all tend to be the same when compounded annually. You can delegate to another pool anytime, and you don’t lose any rewards. 

Check your rewards in Cardano PoolTool by clicking on the “Rewards Data For Taxes” button, typing any of the “Receive” addresses of your delegated wallet in the “Address” box, and then following the link it shows.

 

Choosing the Right Stake Pool

You naturally want to get the highest rewards as a delegator, so you should choose the appropriate Stake Pool carefully. The most important factors are the saturation limit and specific parameters, such as commission and generating blocks by a pool. 

Do not delegate to saturated Stake Pools because you will get lower rewards. Delegators do not all go to one Pool because it would harm the network’s decentralization. Today, the protocol parameter determining saturation (k) takes the saturation amount above 65 million ADA. If you choose a saturated pool, you do not lose your ADA. You collect fewer rewards compared to a non-saturated Stake Pool. 

Generally, the Pool with more than ₳1 million in the delegation will sign blocks, and you will receive rewards. If you don’t sign, there are no rewards. When signing blocks, these small pools collect a lot of rewards per epoch, proportionally more than large pools, which signifies a lot of blocks every epoch. The protocol (Ouroboros) randomly chooses the pools that will sign in each epoch. It also weighs in that lottery to the delegation (it has importance in the randomness), and when a minor pool signs, it gets “lucky,” which raises the amount of ADA you will receive in rewards. As I said, most pools currently yield 5% to 6% annually. 

If you choose a small pool, do not despair if an epoch does not sign a block. When you sign, the amount of ADA you receive will compensate for not signing in the previous epoch (it concerns “luck” and how Ouroboros work). Knowing the pool operator’s actions through its website and social networks is good; you can ask him questions. He will surely help you; if he does not, it is not a good pool to choose from. 

The operators with more than one Pool do it because their pools are so big that they are getting saturated, and then they create new ones to participate in their delegation to these pools. They are large pools, and as I said, I suggest delegating to small ones to help decentralize Cardano. You will collect equal amounts of ADA in the long run.

Pool reliability

Look at Pool’s reliability. It has to be running 24/7 to validate blocks because it does not have any signing operation if it is not connected. There are no rewards (as I said, most Cardano operators perform well on this issue). Pool operators use bare metal machines (on-premise) or can use cloud services such as AWS or Google Cloud Platform, among other providers, to ensure decent reliability. Check what the operator says on their website regarding the infrastructure. Also, ask them how many relays (blockchain connections) they have. The more relays it has, the better (recommended minimum 1). 

Also, check if the operator of your Pool contributes to the Cardano community with educational content, informs social networks about issues of interest, builds projects in the Cardano blockchain, or supports charities (that you can check and that it is not a scam). 

Every Stake Pool has a fixed margin (fixed fee) of a minimum of 340 ADA. The higher this is, the fewer rewards you will charge because it is the cost operators deduct before distributing rewards (most charge that minimum). 

Finally, every Stake Pool has a variable margin, the payment he considers appropriate for his work as a validator. The Pool subtracts the variable fee before paying you rewards. Most of them are between 1% and 3%, and some momentarily have 0% to attract new delegators (they are only willing to charge the cost, fix fee, and do not receive income for their work). If the fee is between 1% and 3%, it doesn’t matter which Pool you choose because it doesn’t have a significant economic impact on your rewards.

 

Some useful websites

 

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