Polygon has launched their zk-EVM and has also been going about building out Polygon 2.0. But what can you do right now in order to maximize your returns on your Polygon assets?
In this article, we are going to delve into Polygon (MATIC) staking, exploring how you can earn free Polygon tokens through staking rewards.
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A Few Reminders
First and foremost, we need to understand a few key concepts of the differences between custodial and non-custodial staking, and the significance of MATIC tokens within the Polygon ecosystem.
Custodial staking means that your hand handing over your crypto to someone else to stake it for you. This could be okay if you trust the entity you are handing over your hard-earned crypto to. But the whole point of crypto is to not have to rely on or trust third parties. If the entity you are trusting goes out of business, gets hacked, or the owners decide to rug pull, then you could be left with nothing; so remember, not your keys, not your crypto.
With that said, some of the biggest platforms that offer custodial staking include Coinbase, Bitstamp Binance, KuCoin, OKX, and several others depending on your jurisdiction.
About Polygon
It is important to note that 12% of the total supply of the 10 billion MATIC is allocated to fund staking rewards, and the current staking reward percentage for staking Polygon is 4.95% annually.
If you are new to crypto and Polygon, one other important thing to note is that MATIC and Polygon are not interchangeable terms.
When someone uses the term “MATIC tokens,” they are colloquially referring to Polygon tokens, the distinction may initially seem confusing, but these two terms are linked within the Polygon network.
Polygon used to be called the “Matic Network” before they rebranded to “Polygon,” and according to their whitepaper for Polygon 2.0, they are planning to rebrand again and do a 1:1 swap out for MATIC tokens for POL tokens.
Read: Polygon’s Growth And The Path To Polygon 2.0
About Polygon Staking
You can stake Polygon from a lot of different wallets hardware wallets like Ledger or Trezor—Coinbase wallet and Binance wallet works too. You can also use other hot wallets like MetaMask.
It is really up to you on how you want to self-custody your tokens, but the point is that there are a lot of choices, so figure out which one is right for you.
Anyone who wants to stake their MATIC tokens has to delegate to a validator. Delegators earn rewards for their staked tokens—the amount of Polygon tokens required to stake, and the length of time you are required to stake can both vary depending on which validator you decide to delegate your tokens to.
There is no minimum requirement set by the network, but validators can choose to set up a minimum to delegate and stake on their node; they can and usually do charge fees for their services as well.
Staked Polygon tokens have an unlocking period of 80 checkpoints, which is usually about 3 to 4 days.
Read: Polygon (MATIC) Technical Analysis: Projected Breakout Aligns With Bitcoin Halving In 2024
Polygon Staking Tutorial
As I said earlier you can choose different kinds of wallets to stake, but for this tutorial let us walk through a step-by-step guide on how to take your MATIC token via MetaMask.
1. Install the MetaMask Extension to Your Browser
You will need to visit the MetaMask website in order to set it up as a browser extension and create a new wallet if you don’t have one already.
Read: How To Setup And Use MetaMask? – A Comprehensive Guide
2. Set Your Wallet to the Ethereum Blockchain
Once you logged into your wallet you will need to connect your MetaMask to the Ethereum Mainnet.
3. Transfer MATIC and ETH Tokens to Your MetaMask
To stake MATIC tokens you will need to have some in your MetaMask wallet. Copy the receiving address from your MetaMask wallet and paste it as the destination address when transferring MATIC tokens from another wallet.
You will also need a little bit of ETH for gas fee transactions.
Make sure that the MATIC and ETH tokens you are sending should be on the Ethereum Mainnet.
4. Visit the Polygon Wallet Suite
Visit the official site of the Polygon Wallet Suite and connect your MetaMask to the Polygon Mainnet.
5. Choosing a Validator
It is usually a good idea to check out a validator node before you jump into staking to make sure you feel safe trusting them with your funds.
Polygon keeps an open list of all validators on the network for anyone to review and you can find information here like the total MATIC token staked in each node, what commission they are charging, how many checkpoints the node is assigned and the current health status of the node.
6. Time to Stake Your MATIC Tokens!
Head over to the staking control panel on the Polygon Wallet Suite and click the validator’s name then click “Become a Delegator.”
Input how much of your MATIC tokens you want to stake and click “Continue” then confirm the transaction.
Final Thoughts
You have successfully staked your MATIC tokens and are now on your way to earning those free tokens; but do note that there are quite a few staking options avaialable and this guide shows the MetaMask route.