Polkadot DOT

About Polkadot

Polkadot is a sharded blockchain protocol which allows for autonomous chains called parachains to transfer information between each other and operate under a shared security model.

Rewards

Each validator in the active set earns the same reward, regardless of the stake nominated to it. The reward, after validator commission, is distributed pro-rata to nominators. Since all validators are paid the same, validators with less stake will pay more to nominators per-DOT than validators with more stake. 

Rewards are paid at the end of each era (~24 hours), and must be claimed manually. However validators can claim rewards on behalf of nominators in a non-custodial fashion.

How to stake Polkadot (DOT)

Polkadot has a very informative wiki-page. We do recommend all beginners to start from visiting it: Learn Staking
The best instructions on how to stake Polkadot (DOT) also can be found on their wiki-page.
There are to ways to earn Polkadot (DOT) by staking. You can be either a validator or a nominator.
See below:

• How to nominate (stake as a nominator) Polkadot: How to nominate
• How to validate (stake as a validator) Polkadot: How to validate

Nominating Validators

If you have 10,000+ DOTs, please request a Controller Address from Staked instead of nominating validators directly. If you have less than 10,000 DOTs, please use the following instructions to nominate 14 validators. 

Visit the Polkadot JS Dapp: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/explorer to get started, and make sure the network is set to Polkadot.

To nominate validators by bonding DOTs from a Stash Address:

1. Click on the Staking tab: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/staking in the left hand navigation menu
2. Click on the Account Actions tab: https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/staking/actions in the vertical navigation menu.
3. Click on the + Nominator button in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This will open a Setup Nominator 1/2 modal.
4. In the Setup Nominator 1/2 modal, select the Stash Address to bond from in the Stash Account drop-down.
5. Select the same Stash Address in the Controller Account drop-down. Ignore the message warning you not to use the same address for the Stash and Controller accounts.
6. Enter the amount you want to bond in the Value Bonded input field. Make sure to have at least 1 unbonded DOTs in your account after bonding to prevent the account from being burned.
7. Select Stash Account (increase the amount at stake) to re-stake your DOT rewards. You can choose Stash Account (do not increase the amount at stake) if you do not want to re-stake your DOT rewards.
8. Click on the Next button in the bottom right of the modal.
9. In the Setup Nominator 2/2 modal screen, turn off the option to “use an automatic selection of the currently most profitable validators.”
10. Enter each of the 14 validator addresses in the list below into the “filter by address” field individually
11. Then select each validator address from the Candidate Accounts section until all of the validator addresses are populated the Nominated Accounts section.
12. Once all of the validator addresses you are nominating are populated in the Nominated Accounts section, click on the Bond & Nominate button in the bottom right to sign and broadcast the bonding transaction.

There is a 28-day unbonding period for DOTs, during which they can’t be transferred or sold.