Solaris Platform - Introduction to Cold Staking
What is Staking?
Solaris is secured by the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism. Staking is the essential component of a Proof of Stake network, where blocks are mined and verified by participants who have set aside their XLR coins in an always online wallet with staking enabled. This processes effectively freezes the coins so they cannot be spent while staking is active, for this action you are granted the right to verify transactions and earn rewards for finding blocks in the Solaris Network. The larger the number of coins you stake, the greater the probability of finding the next block.
What is Cold Staking?
Cold Staking acts exactly the same as normal Staking, allowing the user to lock up their XLR and have it staked by an always online wallet. The difference is that with Cold Staking it is possible to use a separate online wallet (Hot Wallet) on a server to stake XLR coins, while keeping the coins safely in your personal wallet. The Hot Wallet has no direct accesses to these coins and only acts as a wallet to stake them. Your personal wallet does not have to be online to receive rewards and you can withdraw the coins from your Cold Balance at any time.
This means you get the benefit of staking your coins and securing the network, without the need to keep your personal wallet at all times and knowing that your coins are safe even if the server with the Hot Wallet gets compromised.
How do I start to Cold Stake?
Users that want to begin Cold Staking have two options.
- Run your own Hot Wallet on a server such as a VPS. We highly recommended this to keep the Solaris network healthy and decentralized. If you are staking a considerable amount, over 1,000 XLR, then consider running your own server.
- Use a Cold Staking service. We are proud partners of trustaking.com, who offer a Hot Wallet that can be used by anyone to setup Cold Staking. This service is free of charge, but does rely on donations to keep it this way.
How to setup Cold Staking with whichever option you choose, can be found on the Solaris Platform website:
How it works under the hood
The solution is the introduction of a new opcode that can be used in scriptPubKey to allow UTXO spending and full access with one private key and only staking with another key.
In order tio Cold Stake you have to create a coldstaking setup (scriptPubKey with that cold stake opcode) in a way that the key that can spend Cold Balance(cold key) belongs to a cold wallet and the key that can only be used to stake (hot key) is stored in a wallet that is always online and staking (Hot Wallet).
Cold Staking can be setup through the Cold Staking controls in Solaris Core wallet:
- To start Cold Staking the user first needs to create a special “coinstake” transaction that moves coins to their Cold Balance for the purpose of Cold Staking and also makes the Hot Wallet eligible for mining.
- Cold Staking can be cancelled at any time, simply by spending (i.e. transferring) the coins they have in Cold Balance.
Once Cold Staking has been initiated, the Hot Wallet starts tracking the resulting UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) from the cold wallet as if were its own.
Join The Solaris Community:
Website — https://solarisplatform.com
Twitter — https://twitter.com/SolarisCoin
Telegram — https://t.me/solariscoin
Discord — https://discord.gg/wMcqapP
Reddit — https://www.reddit.com/r/solarisxlr/
Facebook — facebook.com/solariscoin/
Offical ANN — https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1831629.0
