Chainlink Staking represents a new era of cryptoeconomic security for the industry-standard oracle network.
Staking provides Chainlink ecosystem participants with the opportunity to earn rewards for increasing the security guarantees and user assurances of oracle services by backing them with staked LINK tokens. Chainlink initially launched with v0.1, is now in v0.2 and will evolve with the upcoming upgrades
Staking helps improve the cryptoeconomic security of oracle networks, initially through alerts around predefined performance standards.
Stakers gain access to staking rewards for securing the network through timely and valid alerts, and in the future, for slashing and loss protection.
Staking enables community members to play a key role in the Chainlink Network and support a world powered by cryptographic truth.
Building upon the foundation established by the Chainlink Staking v0.1 release in December 2022, the v0.2 upgrade in November 2023 expanded Chainlink Staking into a fully modular, extensible, and upgradable staking platform. This upgrade focused on the following key goals:
For more information on the Staking v0.2 upgrade, read Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Staking v0.2 involved a three-phase launch sequence.
Phase 1: Priority Migration
On November 28, 2023 at 12PM ET, v0.1 stakers had the exclusive opportunity to migrate their v0.1 stake and accrued LINK rewards to v0.2. The Priority Migration period lasted for nine days, wherein v0.1 stakers could choose to migrate all or a portion of their v0.1 stake and rewards. If they chose to migrate only a portion, then all non-migrated v0.1 stake or rewards were automatically withdrawn. If a v0.1 staker took no action, then their staked LINK and rewards remain in v0.1, no longer earn rewards, and can be withdrawn at any time.
Given that the v0.2 pool at launch was larger than the v0.1 pool, and accounting for accrued rewards, v0.1 stakers had guaranteed access to v0.2 if they participated in the Priority Migration phase. After the Priority Migration period ended, v0.1 stakers could still migrate during Early Access; however, entry to v0.2 was not guaranteed due to the capped pool size.
Phase 2: Early Access
After the Priority Migration period ended on December 7, 2023 at 12PM ET, LINK token holders who met at least one predefined criterion on the updated Early Access Eligibility List had the opportunity to stake LINK in v0.2 up to a total of 15,000 LINK. Similar to the Early Access period during v0.1 launch, being on the eligibility list provided an opportunity to stake in v0.2 but did not serve as a guarantee of entry given the capped pool size. The Early Access entry period lasted for four days.
Phase 3: General Access
After Early Access ended on December 11, 2023 at 12PM ET, the v0.2 staking pool opened to General Access, at which point anyone has the chance to stake up to the per-wallet maximum, provided that there is space available in the v0.2 pool. When the v0.2 community pool is filled, additional LINK can only be staked once an existing staker completes a withdrawal of their staked LINK and pool space becomes available.
Chainlink ecosystem participants, including token holders and node operators, can stake their LINK and participate in securing the Chainlink Network. Learn more about the v0.2 upgrade to Chainlink Staking in the following blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Community Stakers can stake a minimum of 1 LINK and up to a maximum of up to 15,000 LINK on a per-address basis, provided pool space is available. When the v0.2 community pool is filled, additional LINK can only be staked once an existing staker completes a withdrawal of their staked LINK and pool space becomes available. Node Operator Stakers can stake a minimum of 1,000 LINK and a maximum of up to 75,000 LINK.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
At launch, Staking v0.2 featured an expanded total pool size of 45,000,000 LINK to increase the accessibility of Chainlink Staking to a more diverse audience of LINK token holders. The pool size represented an 80% increase from the pool cap of v0.1. The capped 45,000,000 LINK pool consisted of a 40,875,000 LINK allotment for community members, with the remainder allocated to Chainlink node operators currently servicing Chainlink Data Feeds.
The expanded pool size of v0.2 reflected the goal of increasing the security guarantees and user assurances provided around in-scope oracle services over time, while maintaining a security-conscious approach to the expansion of Staking. Furthermore, the capped pool size also supports the network’s economic sustainability before new sources of staking rewards, such as user fee rewards, are made available to LINK stakers. Over time, the pool size cap is expected to increase, particularly as Chainlink Staking continues to evolve to support additional Chainlink services.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
For v0.2, the reward rate calculation was rearchitected, including to improve support for new sources of staking rewards in the future (e.g., user fees). While v0.1 had a fixed reward rate (i.e., a single rate for all Community Stakers regardless of pool fill rate), v0.2 introduced a variable reward rate.
The variable reward rate results from the fact that a fixed amount of rewards in total are made available to the staking pool per unit of time, regardless of how much aggregate LINK is staked in the pool. Therefore, stakers don’t have a fixed reward rate, but rather the rate of reward is variable based on how full the pool is and the amount of rewards made available per unit of time (creating an effective floor rate at a specific pool size limit and fixed reward amount). If the pool isn’t full, the same amount of rewards will be made available proportionately to a reduced number of stakers, resulting in a higher reward rate, and vice versa.
This change in reward rate calculation was required given that the source of rewards in Chainlink Staking in the future is expected to increasingly shift towards being derived from external sources of rewards (e.g. user fees), which may be a variable amount.
Assuming an entirely filled community pool, the community stake portion of the v0.2 pool at launch features a base floor reward rate of 4.5% per year in LINK for helping secure the Chainlink Network. From those annualized rewards, 4% of Community Staker rewards is automatically directed to Node Operator Stakers as a Delegation Reward. The result is an effective base floor reward rate of 4.32% on an annualized basis for Community Stakers in v0.2 at launch. As noted previously, the actual amount of rewards made available to stakers will depend on how full the pool is, with a higher effective reward rate if the pool is less than full.
This base floor reward rate was determined based on the need to balance the network’s economic sustainability over time, while ensuring stakers are fairly rewarded for their work securing the network. It is expected that emissions-based rewards will eventually trend toward zero as external sources of staking rewards, such as user fees, grow to sustainably support the network’s cryptoeconomic security staking layer.
The node operator stake portion of the v0.2 pool features the same 4.5% base floor reward rate but is supplemented by Delegation Rewards from Community Stakers and made available to Node Operator Stakers proportionally based on the amount each operator stakes.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Additional LINK can be staked by v0.2 participants, provided the pool is not full and the staker has a remaining allotment above zero. However, staking additional LINK on an address that is already staking LINK in v0.2 will reset your ramp-up period for rewards, extending the time it takes for locked rewards to become fully claimable to 90 days. Locked Rewards will not be forfeited.
For example, if your ramp-up period progress is at 10 days and you stake an additional amount of LINK on that address, then your existing locked rewards will become fully claimable in 90 days instead of 80 days. To avoid resetting your ramp-up period progress, consider staking any additional LINK from a new address, (assuming pool space availability).
More information about the ramp-up period can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
At any point in time, stakers can initiate a withdrawal of their staked LINK from v0.2, marking the beginning of a 28-day cooldown period. Once the cooldown period is complete, a seven-day claim window begins wherein staked LINK can be withdrawn. During the claim window period, the staker can withdraw all or a portion of their staked LINK. Any staked LINK that is not withdrawn during the claim window will automatically re-enter v0.2. Therefore, if a staker changes their mind after initiating a withdrawal of their staked LINK, they do not have to take any action and will not lose their spot in v0.2.
Staked LINK continues to accrue rewards during both the cooldown and claim window periods, up until any staked LINK is withdrawn. Note that withdrawing staked LINK via the unbonding mechanism may incur penalties on accrued rewards, depending on how long a staker has participated in v0.2.
The unbonding mechanism plays a key role in the security assurances provided with Chainlink Staking, namely by supporting the stability of the staking pool over extended periods of time and ensuring that there will be a sufficient amount of staked LINK available in the system to be slashed if a valid alert is raised (i.e., preventing withdraws before slashing can occur).
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Withdrawing staked LINK via the unbonding mechanism may incur penalties on accrued rewards, depending on how long a staker has participated in v0.2.
Attributed Rewards are earned by stakers during their participation in staking, which are composed of Claimable Rewards and Locked Rewards. Claimable Rewards can be withdrawn by stakers at any time without penalty. Locked Rewards turn into Claimable Rewards over a period of time known as the ramp-up period. The ramp-up period is a 90-day period, tracked individually for each staker, that starts at 0% when a staker first stakes and linearly increases to 100% of the possible reward rate. The percentage of claimable Attributed Rewards is proportional to the amount of time spent in the ramp-up period.
For example, if a staker has progressed through 50% of their ramp-up period, then 50% of their Attributed Rewards become available as Claimable Rewards. After a staker has progressed through 100% of their ramp-up period, all previously earned Attributable Rewards are made available as Claimable Rewards, while any additional Attributable Rewards earned moving forward will automatically take the form of Claimable Rewards.
If a staker completes a withdrawal of any amount of their staked LINK, their ramp-up period will reset to 0% and any Locked Rewards earned will be forfeited back to the rewards pool and become available for all stakers in the same category (i.e., a Community Staker’s Forfeited Rewards can then be earned by all Community Stakers). After a withdrawal of staked LINK, a staker will need to go through the full ramp-up period again in order for Attributed Rewards to fully turn into Claimable Rewards.
Note that Claimable Rewards can be withdrawn at any point in time by a staker without resetting their ramp-up period progress. For Node Operator Stakers, the ramp-up period only applies to the base rewards on their staked LINK, but not for auto-delegation rewards from Community Stakers.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
No, Claimable Rewards can be withdrawn at any point in time by a staker without resetting their ramp-up period progress. For Node Operator Stakers, the ramp-up period only applies to the base rewards on their staked LINK, but not for auto-delegation rewards from Community Stakers.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
In v0.2, Community Stakers can raise alerts regarding the performance of oracle services secured by Staking. An alert can be raised using the Chainlink Staking interface or directly against the v0.2 smart contracts on Etherscan.
At launch, v0.2 secures the ETH/USD Data Feed on Ethereum, for which valid alerts can be raised by Community Stakers if there’s been more than three hours of feed downtime (i.e., there’s been more than three hours since the last valid oracle report was published onchain for that feed), with 20 minutes priority for alerting by Node Operator Stakers. Node Operator Stakers serving the ETH/USD Data Feed on Ethereum will be slashed 700 LINK each if a valid alerting condition is met. For raising a valid alert, the alerter will be rewarded 7,000 LINK.
Future iterative upgrades to Staking can include the expansion of Chainlink Staking to secure additional oracle services (e.g., CCIP) by adding new alerting condition modules.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Token holders can stake their LINK using the staking.chain.link interface. Read this blog or watch this video for a step-by-step tutorial on how to stake your LINK in v0.2. Note that when the v0.2 community pool is filled, additional LINK can only be staked once an existing staker completes a withdrawal of their staked LINK and pool space becomes available.
In order to stake LINK, you’ll need to have LINK tokens on Ethereum in a self-custodial wallet, where you can connect to Chainlink Staking v0.2’s frontend interface using a Web3 wallet such as MetaMask. Your wallet will also need to contain ETH to pay for Ethereum network transaction fees.
Here's a video tutorial showing you how to self-custody crypto, and another on how to connect your hardware wallet to MetaMask.
When the v0.2 community pool is filled, additional LINK can only be staked once an existing staker completes a withdrawal of their staked LINK and pool space becomes available.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Information about your staking rewards in v0.2 can be found at staking.chain.link/rewards, which shows the current variable reward rate, your locked rewards and claimable rewards, and your ramp-up progress.
Many Web3 wallets, such as MetaMask, allow you to connect to hardware wallets as an additional layer of security. Refer to the official support documentation of your Web3 wallet and hardware wallet providers for best practices around using wallets in tandem.
Here's a video demonstrating how you can connect your Ledger or Trezor hardware wallet to MetaMask to stake LINK.
If you have any additional questions, please follow up with your hardware wallet manufacturer.
Chainlink Staking currently supports widely-used Web3 wallets including MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and WalletConnect-enabled wallets. Smart contract wallets are also supported. Refer to the official support documentation of the above Web3 wallet providers for more information on connecting to Web3-enabled websites.
The Brave Wallet in the Brave web browser may conflict with the MetaMask browser extension, if installed. In order to resolve this issue when using MetaMask on Brave, the Brave Wallet must be disabled or a different web browser must be used.
No, proof of stake is a consensus mechanism used by some blockchain networks to validate blocks of transactions. Staking within decentralized oracle networks aims to achieve a fundamentally different goal from staking within blockchains—that is, the creation of reliable and tamper-resistant oracle reports that accurately reflect the state of the external world.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform and Blockchains and Oracles: Similarities, Differences, and Synergies.
Community Stakers in v0.2 have their stake automatically delegated to Node Operator Stakers without node operators taking control of community stake. Delegation rewards in v0.2 will be made available to Node Operator Stakers proportionally to the amount they have staked.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Staking is a core initiative of Chainlink Economics 2.0 that brings a new layer of cryptoeconomic security to the Chainlink Network. Staking enables ecosystem participants, such as node operators and community members, to back the performance of oracle services with staked LINK and earn rewards for helping secure the network.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Staking in v0.2 requires an onchain transaction on Ethereum mainnet. Users should be aware of the dynamics around blockchain network resource availability.
Chainlink Staking v0.2 supports the staking of LINK on Ethereum mainnet.
The v0.2 upgrade to Chainlink Staking offers increased cryptoeconomic security by supporting the ability to slash a portion of staked LINK by Node Operator Stakers who help power oracle services secured by Staking. When a valid alert is raised and a slashing condition is met, these Node Operator Stakers will see a portion of their staked LINK slashed as a penalty for failing to meet performance requirements. At launch, Node Operator Stakers serving the ETH/USD Data Feed on Ethereum will be slashed 700 LINK each if a valid alerting condition is met. For raising a valid alert, the alerter will be rewarded 7,000 LINK.
Over time, the conditions around alerting and slashing amounts are expected to evolve, particularly as Chainlink Staking expands to support more oracle services. In v0.2, Community Stakers will not be at risk of slashing, with such a change requiring a migration to a new Staking version. Additionally, Node Operator Stakers only serving oracle services not secured by staking will not be at risk of slashing.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
The Staking v0.2 smart contracts have undergone multiple audits from a number of independent and industry-leading auditors. The codebase also underwent a time-limited competitive audit program on the Code4rena platform.
Yes, the Chainlink Staking smart contracts in v0.2 are non-custodial, meaning stakers have complete control over their staked LINK position, which cannot be withdrawn by any other entity. Withdrawals of staked LINK can only be initiated by signing an onchain transaction using the original private key used to stake. Any future migration from v0.2 to a new Staking version will involve a manual migration from stakers, similar to v0.1.
For any iterative upgrade to the modular Chainlink Staking v0.2 codebase that materially impacts stakers, such as the modification of slashing conditions, upgrades will be announced proactively such that stakers can choose to initiate and complete a withdrawal of their staked LINK before the upgrade is completed onchain.
As an additional security measure, all onchain security-critical configuration changes and upgrades to Chainlink Staking v0.2 must pass through a timelock smart contract featuring a time delay of up to a few weeks, with critical configuration changes taking the longest (longer than the unbonding period). This timelock mechanism allows the community to review and choose to opt out of such changes before they are implemented onchain. Only emergency functions that are designed to protect stakers and certain ministerial functions, such as adding rewards, can be called without a time delay. However no configuration changes or upgrades can be deployed without going through the timelock.
The official interface to stake LINK is located at staking.chain.link.
Make sure to bookmark this web page and verify the URL each time you access the interface to help protect yourself against spoofing and phishing attacks. Additional security best practices for crypto from the Ethereum Foundation can be found here.
The staking.chain.link website provides a trusted interface for stakers to interact with smart contracts associated with Chainlink Staking v0.2. However, as an alternative choice, this IPFS-hosted guide describes how to interact with the Chainlink Staking v0.2 protocol on Ethereum mainnet directly against the contract or through Etherscan.
On November 28, 2023 at 12PM ET, v0.1 stakers had their staked LINK and accrued rewards unlocked. On the same date, the v0.1 staking pool became inactive and is no longer emitting rewards or securing Chainlink services. Stakers who withdraw their staked LINK and accrued rewards from v0.1 do not need to go through a cooldown period, as the unbonding mechanism is a new feature introduced in v0.2. v0.1 staked LINK and rewards can be withdrawn at https://staking.chain.link.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
No, the smart contracts for Chainlink Staking v0.1 and v0.2 are non-custodial by design, meaning no entity other than the staker themselves can withdraw or migrate their staked LINK from one version to the next. v0.1 stakers have to provide explicit approval to move their staked LINK and/or rewards by signing an onchain transaction.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
Starting on November 28, 2023 at 12PM ET, v0.1 stakers had the exclusive opportunity to migrate their v0.1 stake and accrued LINK rewards to v0.2. The Priority Migration period lasted for nine days, wherein v0.1 stakers could choose to migrate all or a portion of their v0.1 stake and rewards to v0.2 with guaranteed access. Once the Priority Migration period ended on December 7, 2023 at 12PM ET, v0.1 stakers had the opportunity to migrate during Early Access before the pool filled.
After the launch of General Access on December 11, 2023, v0.1 stakers can still migrate to v0.2 whenever an existing staker completes a withdrawal of their v0.2 staked LINK and sufficient pool space becomes available. However, access to v0.2 is first come, first served and access is not guaranteed. v0.1 stakers can withdraw their staked LINK and accrued rewards at any time.
More information can be found in the blog Introducing the Chainlink Staking Platform.
If you did not migrate your v0.1 staked LINK and accrued rewards to v0.2 and have not withdrawn from v0.1, then your LINK still resides in the inactive v0.1 community pool and can be withdrawn at any time. Staking v0.1 became inactive upon the launch of v0.2 and no longer emits rewards. Stakers in v0.1 can only migrate to v0.2 if pool space becomes available, which happens whenever existing v0.2 stakers withdraw.
Note that the smart contracts for Chainlink Staking v0.1 and v0.2 are non-custodial by design, meaning no entity other than the staker themselves can withdraw or migrate their LINK. v0.1 stakers will need to provide explicit approval to migrate or withdraw their staked v0.1 LINK and rewards by signing an onchain transaction.
The staking.chain.link website provides a trusted interface for stakers to interact with smart contracts associated with Chainlink Staking. However, as an alternative choice, this guide describes how to interact with the Chainlink Staking v0.1 protocol on Ethereum mainnet directly against the contract or through Etherscan.
In short, withdrawing from v0.1 can be done by going to the writeContract commands at https://etherscan.io/address/0x3feB1e09b4bb0E7f0387CeE092a52e85797ab889#writeContract and calling "19. Unstake"
Disclaimer: The v0.2 Staking platform remains in “beta”. This post is for informational purposes only. Eligibility for Early Access does not guarantee your participation in the Chainlink Staking program. There is no guarantee any of the contemplated features of Chainlink Staking will be implemented as specified. There can be no assurance that actual results will not differ materially from those expressed in these statements, although we believe them to be based on reasonable assumptions. All statements are valid only as of the date first posted. These statements may not reflect future developments due to user feedback or later events and we may not update this post in response.
