βοΈWhat is staking?
Staking is an easy way to earn rewards on your crypto whilst putting your digital assets to good use to help stabilize the network. The blockchain will use your crypto to ensure all transactions are verified and secured, called βProof of Stakeβ, and you will receive more crypto for doing so.
Crypto staking is a way of earning passive income, and it can be seen as the crypto world's equivalent of earning interest or dividends while holding onto your underlying assets.
Staking allows you to earn cryptocurrency as a reward for using your existing holdings to vouch for the accuracy of transactions on an underlying blockchain network. While this sounds complicated, everyday users can often do it directly from their digital wallets, or they can use services provided by crypto exchanges that will handle the technical details for a cut of the proceeds.
Generally speaking, cryptocurrency staking offers returns that exceed those you can earn in a savings account. However, staking is not without risk. You'll earn rewards in crypto, a volatile asset. Sometimes, you have to lock up your crypto for a set period of time. And there is a chance that you could lose some of the cryptocurrency you've staked as a penalty if the system doesn't work as expected.
That said, staking can also be a way to grow your crypto portfolio using assets you plan to hang onto for awhile. Staking is also a more energy efficient way of running a crypto network than the mining process used by Bitcoin and some others.
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