Staking Guide

Welcome to the ONINO Delegated Staking Guide!

Delegated staking allows you to participate in securing the ONINO Network and earn staking rewards - without needing to run your own validator node. By delegating your $ONI tokens to a trusted validator, you help support the network's consensus while receiving a share of the validator’s rewards in return. It’s a simple and secure way to put your tokens to work while contributing to the decentralization and integrity of ONINO.

This guide will walk you through the full lifecycle of delegated staking - from making your first delegation to eventually withdrawing your tokens.

ℹ️ ONINO uses a secure and flexible staking architecture based on smart contracts often referred to as the network contracts, ensuring transparency and decentralization. These contracts keep track of all validators of the network, their delegations and everyone’s rewards.

📌 What You’ll Learn

How delegated staking works on ONINO
The lifecycle of a delegation
Step-by-step instructions for:
- Staking
- Locking stake for higher rewards
- Unlocking stake
- Creating a withdrawal request
- Withdrawing tokens

🔄 Staking Lifecycle Overview

Here's a simplified visual of the complete flow:

Each step has its own mechanics and rules, which we'll explain in detail below.

🛠 Prerequisites

Before you can stake, make sure:

You have Mainnet $ONI in your wallet. If you did not upgrade your legacy ERC-20 ONI yet, you can do so directly in the ONINO Wallet App.
You have created an account in the ONINO Wallet App. You can register easily either via email and password, or with your Google Account.

1️⃣ Staking ONI Tokens

🧾 You can delegate any amount of $ONI to a validator and start earning rewards.

Steps to Stake

Navigate to https://wallet.onino.io and connect your wallet.
Go to the Staking section.
Select a validator from the dropdown.
Enter the amount of $ONI you wish to stake.
Confirm the disclaimer checkbox.
Click “Stake Now”.
If you haven’t completed the identity verification yet, a popup will disappear and guide you through the process. It takes less than two minutes! After this one-time verification, you can continue to stake.

ℹ️ Why is KYC required? Since the initial ONINO Mainnet nodes are ran by ONINO as a german incorporated company and our validators are issuing rewards in the form of tokens to delegators, in compliance with current MiCA regulations, we're obligated to conduct a one-time identity verification of all delegators. For this we use the trusted and battle-tested british provider SumSub. The identity verification is super fast and requires only taking a quick photo of your ID document and a selfie. Give it a try!

2️⃣ Boosting Rewards by Locking Stake

⏳ Locking your stake for a certain period of time increases your rewards by factor 5 🚀🔥 Please note that after the locking period has expired, your rewards will decrease and you have to re-lock them again to continue receiving boosted rewards.

Key Rules:

You can only lock unlocked stake.
You can’t lock longer than the validator’s own lock duration.
Lock durations are available in preset intervals (e.g. 30, 60, 90, 180, 365 days).

How to Lock Stake

Go to “Manage Staking Delegations”.
Click “Boost” next to your desired delegation.
Choose a lock duration from the dropdown.
Confirm to start the reward boost.

3️⃣ Unlocking Stake

🧩 Once you unlock (or your lock expires), your rewards will be reduced back to the normal reward rate.

To Unlock:

Navigate to “Manage Staking Delegations”.
Click “End Boost” on a locked delegation.
Confirm unlock. Your stake will now be in “Unlocked” state.

4️⃣ Claiming Rewards

💰 Regularly claiming your staking rewards ensures you receive the benefits of your delegation.

Understanding Rewards You can find the currently estimated average APR (annual percentage rate) highlighted in green on the top right corner of the Staking page. Please note that the composition of the rewards is complex and consists of many components, such as a base reward per second and a variable transaction fee, and depends on the current total stake and behavior of the delegation’s validator. Therefore, the displayed APR value indicates an estimation based on the minted out rewards of the last completed epoch, and it is averaged across all validators.

To Claim Rewards:

Navigate to “Manage Staking Delegations”.
Click “Claim Rewards” on a delegation, locked or unlocked.
Simply confirm the transaction in your wallet.

Note: Claimed rewards are transferred to your wallet and become immediately available for use.

5️⃣ Restaking Rewards

🔄 Restaking your earned rewards can compound your earnings over time, leveraging the power of compounding interest.

Understanding Restaking

Restaking involves taking the rewards you've earned from your existing staking activities and delegating them back to a validator, without them being withdrawn to your wallet first. This process increases your total staked amount, leading to higher future rewards.

To Restake Rewards:

Navigate to “Manage Staking Delegations”.
Click “Restake Rewards” on a delegation, locked or unlocked.
Simply confirm the transaction in your wallet.
Your currently unclaimed rewards will be automatically added to your delegation, i.e. “restaked”.

Tip: Regularly restaking your rewards can significantly enhance your total returns over time due to the compounding effect

6️⃣ Creating a Withdrawal Request

🏁 Unlocked stake must be undelegated first before withdrawal. Please note that only unlocked stake can be submitted for withdrawal.

Steps to Create a Withdraw Request

Go to the “Unstake” tab.
Select a delegation from the list.
Enter the amount you want to undelegate.
Click “Continue” to send the transaction.

🧠 Note: After undelegation, you must wait a 7-day cooldown period before actually withdrawing your tokens.

⏳ Why is there a cooldown period? After undelegating your tokens, there is a mandatory 7-day cooldown period before you can withdraw them. This delay protects against sudden stake withdrawals that could destabilize the consensus mechanism and is a common practice in Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks. It ensures network security by giving time for the system to adjust validator weights and finalize pending rewards.