One of the reasons why I withdrew Harmony $One tokens from Binance is to stake them on Harmony’s Staking Dashboard. Mainly because of the higher yield, and also, to help with the decentralization (even if I’m just a small holder).
I’d like to share today how it’s done. Looking back, it took me months to gain some confidence in taking out the crypto tokens that I bought from Binance to various DeFi apps.
At first look, DeFi apps seem to be intimidating, but once I spent time understanding how to navigate them, then it’s not as intimidating to my perspective anymore.
Anyway, before we continue, I just want to remind you again that this is not financial advice and should not be treated as such. If you need financial advice, please consult a professional financial advisor.
And also, always do your own diligence and always Do Your Own Research (DYOR) regardless of the type of investment that you will pursue especially crypto.
Crypto is a highly volatile market. And it can be very stressful if you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.
Anyway, let’s get back to the topic, shall we?
Important Update:
Harmony announced that they will be sunsetting their browser extension wallet and will be using Metamask for the meantime until the launch of 1Wallet. I will update this post once 1Wallet details become available.
1/ As @Harmonyprotocol works relentlessly to bring more features to the 1Wallet, we have decided to sunset the Harmony Wallet Chrome extension with an end-of-life date of April 15th.
More about the update 👇https://t.co/EkSxSPeF3v
— Harmony 💙 (@harmonyprotocol) February 28, 2022
What is Harmony Staking Dashboard
Harmony’s Staking Dashboard is one of the best options to stake your Harmony $One tokens with. It’s on Harmony $One’s Mainnet and it can be accessed using a browser and the official Harmony browser extension wallet.
It’s not the only option though when it comes to staking Harmony $One.
You can also stake your Harmony $One tokens on various crypto exchanges such as Binance or on various mobile wallets as well such as Guarda, Blits Wallet, etc.
Why Am I Staking on Harmony’s Staking Dashboard
As I have mentioned earlier, you can stake your Harmony $One tokens on exchanges and other wallets depending on your preference.
The main reason why I’m staking on Harmony’s Staking Dashboard instead of using the crypto exchange (Binance) is that:
- I’d like to earn a higher yield
- To help improve decentralization and
- To have ease of access in interacting with other Harmony DeFi apps.
You don’t have to transfer your Harmony $One tokens out of the crypto exchange that you use especially if you don’t plan to hold (Hodl) your tokens for quite some time anyway.
In my case though, since I’m planning to keep my Harmony $One tokens for some time, I find it more practical to keep them outside the exchange.
Oh and also, as they say, “Not your keys, not your coins.”
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How to Connect Your Harmony Wallet to the Staking Dashboard
Before you can stake your $One tokens on Harmony’s Staking Dashboard, you need to have your tokens on your Harmony browser extension wallet first. If you don’t have the tokens on your browser extension wallet yet, check out my previous post on how to do this:
The direct link to the staking dashboard is https://staking.harmony.one/. But since it goes directly through to the Validators’ page, it would be best if you go directly to the sign-in page which is – https://staking.harmony.one/welcome to minimize unnecessary steps.
Before you log in to Harmony’s Staking Dashboard, be sure that you’ve already logged in to your Harmony wallet.
Once it’s done, click on ‘Use an Existing Address.’
And then, click on ‘Sign in.’
A pop-up will appear confirming the sign-in process. Just click on accept.
Once you click on accept. It will log you into the Staking Dashboard Validator’s page.
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How to Stake Your $One Tokens on Harmony’s Staking Dashboard
On this page, you will see the various validators where you can delegate your $One tokens to. This is the process of staking.
When I first saw this, I was a bit overwhelmed. I just came up with my personal strategy in choosing a validator after reading various forums and tutorials on how to do it.
I filtered the list based on the highest ‘Expected Return’ and then choose the one with low commission and 100% Uptime.
I don’t go with 0% commission because practically, I don’t know if it’s sustainable for them to do this or not. And also, based on my experience with Cosmos ($Atom) staking, usually 0% validators were not included when there are airdrops given to delegators.
Based on the parameters that I have mentioned above, I will stake some of my $One tokens to this validator.
By the way, please be advised that this is not an endorsement of a specific validator. Feel free to choose whichever validator you’d like to stake your tokens with. I’m just sharing the step-by-step process of delegating $One tokens to a validator.
Going back to the topic, once you have chosen a validator, click on their name to delegate your tokens. This is also the same page where you can see additional information about the validator that you’re thinking of staking your tokens with.
Another data that I look at before staking my $One tokens is the ‘Expected Return History’ to see if the return is somewhat consistent.
I also check the Harmony One Reddit Community to check if there’s any feedback about the validator that I’m interested in delegating my tokens with. If there’s no negative feedback, then I’ll just proceed to delegate my token.
To delegate your $One tokens, click on ‘Delegate.’
A pop-up box will appear, type in the number of tokens that you want to delegate to a particular validator.
In my case, I tend to split my tokens into various delegators to minimize risks. Since I only have a small amount of $One token, I usually delegate just 1000 per validator.
Click ‘Next’ once you have typed in the number of tokens that you wish to delegate.
By the way, if you’re wondering what the minimum is, as of the time of writing and based on the Staking FAQ of Harmony, it’s 100.
After you click on ‘Next,’ you will be asked to confirm it.
You will also be prompted to type in your Harmony One Wallet Password for additional security.
Once you’ve completed those steps, a pop-up will appear saying that you have completed the process. Go to your portfolio and you should be able to see your staked tokens there inside the ‘Delegations’ box.
And that’s it.
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What are the Risk in Staking on Harmony Staking Dashboard
Here are some of the risks that I could think of when staking your $One tokens.
Losing Access to Your Harmony One Wallet
When you lose your seed phrase to your Harmony One Wallet, then you’ll also lose access to the Staking Dashboard.
This is practically the same case with any other non-custodial wallet. That’s why it’s important to keep multiple copies of your seed phrases in locations that you only have access to.
Penalties on Validators Affecting Delegators
As per Harmony, “A fraction of the staked tokens is slashed as penalties. Slashing penalties are imposed on both validators and delegators.”
This is when the validators breach the protocols in two ways – Unavailability and Double signing. You can read the details about slashing here.
This is why Harmony, is advocating doing our due diligence when delegating our tokens.
According to Harmony’s FAQ page, “As a delegator, you should carefully choose validators based on their historical performance metrics such as APR, uptime, and commission. In case of indifference or indecisiveness, you should distribute your delegations among multiple validators in order to minimize risk.”
Another thing that I personally do to minimize my risk is that I follow the Twitter accounts of all validators that I delegate my tokens with regardless of platform (Cosmos, Terra, Harmony, etc).
I also check various relevant Reddit communities from time to time to check any feedback regarding the validators that I have delegated my tokens with.
If I see or perceive any possible red flag, then I will redelegate my tokens to another validator.
Investing Money You Can’t Afford To Lose
This is true for all types of investment. And in crypto, you also have to bear in mind various variables at play such as:
- Fluctuation of price
- Locked up period (Staking)
- Network downtime due to congestion, updates, etc.
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Final Thoughts
It’s a great time to be alive. There are so many options being created in the crypto space that makes a lot of things accessible to a lot more people in various parts of the world.
But let’s all keep in mind that since this is a new thing to a lot of us, there are good actors and bad actors existing in the same space. Having said that, if we do our due diligence, we will be able to dodge a lot of them, and also we will be able to minimize the risks of our crypto investments.
This is why DYOR should always be the foundation not only in investing in crypto but in all other types of investment as well.
Take every piece of information that you get with a grain of salt and use multiple sources of information before you come up with any decision.
Anyway, I’ll be trying other apps in the Harmony ecosystem in the near future and I’ll link the post here once it becomes available.
By the way, if you want to learn more about staking in Harmony, check out their FAQ page here.
How to Stake ONE on Harmony Staking Dashboard Click To Tweet
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