Thread by @LoverPlaid

Seems to be a hot and misunderstood topic, so here goes. A thread about $LINK staking.

$LINK staking is NOT like other staking mechanisms, where depositing $LINK will simply earn you more $LINK, based on the number of tokens you supplied times a certain %

In the #Chainlink network, staking is done in/by nodes. The party requesting data from the network can set a condition that any node supplying data needs to have x amount of $LINK staked to be eligible, so that they will have skin in the game when providing bad data,

or go offline. This is called "slashing" and will result in nodes that don't perform well losing staked $LINK. How ever, having this skin in the game will allow nodes to take these more complex, higher paying jobs that have more value secured in them,

resulting in higher revenue for that node in $LINK paid (higher risk jobs pay more $LINK to the node per request). To answer the question "What will staking $LINK pay?" there are many factors to consider.

How does the staking pool you're using function?
So far the only known party to have set out their parameters for pooled staking (where you can stake $LINK without running a node yourself) is @linkpoolio. They run the node and pay for any slashing. People staking with

Linkpool receive 75% of the node's total revenue, divided by the percentage of the staked $LINK you supplied. To get access to these pools though, you will need to own Linkpool shares (at start up at least).

So far, there are no clear alternatives for pooled staking of $LINK outside of #Linkpool. But there are sure to be initiatives popping up once staking is rolled out.

So at the end of the day, it's about how many requests the node handles, how much $LINK they might lose when slashed, what their fee in $LINK per request is and what their rules for pooled staking are. It's a free market dynamic, basically.

I'm sorry if you were looking for "You'll earn x percent", but $LINK staking just isn't that simple. It's a revolutionary system, first of it's kind, and it will change the way deterministic digital agreements work for ever.

It is not even remotely the same or comparable to "staking" mechanisms like that of $BAND, that don't actually secure the correctness of the data delivered by oracles, or accountability when nodes misbehave.

#Chainlink staking is a whole new ball game, will make large scale adoption of smart contracts by enterprise possible and nodes that are set up for it extremely profitable $LINK #Staking