With the major release of Mainnet GA “Machina”, IoTeX has officially established independence from Ethereum and is now a fully native blockchain. From now on, voters will use native IOTX and ioPay, the official IoTeX wallet for both Desktop and Mobile (iOS, Android), to stake and vote on the IoTeX network. Here are the simple steps:
1. Obtain IOTX in exchanges
Native IOTX is supported by many exchanges with popular trading pairs such as IOTX/USDT, IOTX/BTC, etc. You can easily obtain IOTX from the exchanges here.
2. Download ioPay for Desktop or Mobile
The official IoTeX wallet, ioPay, is now available for Desktop (Mac, Windows) and Mobile(iOS, Android, APK)! ioPay is not only a great wallet to store your native IOTX, but it also facilitates Native Staking on the IoTeX Mainnet.
3. Login to ioPay
Login to ioPay from the native address you wish to stake/vote from before proceeding. Create a new address or login to an existing wallet via ioPay:
- Create a new address: if you do not have a native IOTX address, create one. When prompted, record your address, private key, and mnemonic phrase. You may also save your credentials as a keystore file.
- Login to existing address: if you already have a Native IOTX address, you may import it using your keystore file, private key, mnemonic phrase, or Ledger hardware wallet.
4. Visit voting website (member.iotex.io) to stake/vote
IoTeX stakeholders can stake/vote using either Desktop or Mobile ioPay:
For Desktop users: make sure your ioPay Desktop app is open before proceeding to the voting website. Begin by clicking “My Votes” and then click “New Vote”.
For Mobile users: the voting website is integrated into ioPay — access it via the “Discover” tab. Choose the “IoTeX Staking” app, click “My Votes” and authorize ioPay to login via your address. Finally, click “New Vote”.
5. Select Delegate and Voting Parameters
After clicking “New Vote” you can select which Delegate you wish to vote for and your voting parameters, which are summarized below:
- Delegate: select a Delegate to vote for — you may change your vote to another Delegate at any time. See the full list of Delegates here.
- Amount: the # of tokens you wish to use to vote for the selected Delegate. Note: you can add tokens to an existing bucket after your initial vote.
- Stake Duration: the amount of time you wish to stake your tokens (value between 0 and 1050 days, in multiples of 7). The longer you stake, the more bonus votes (and rewards) you get! You may extend your stake duration at any time but it cannot be decreased. New in Mainnet GA: the concept of “decay” is now removed. Instead of your bonus votes gradually converging to zero, your bonus votes will be retained for your entire stake duration and will be reduced to zero after your stake duration expires.
- Auto-stake: if you turn auto-stake on, your stake duration and bonus votes will be retained indefinitely until you turn off auto-stake. Once auto-stake is turned off, your stake duration countdown will begin — after your stake duration expires your bonus votes will be reduced to zero and you will be able to unstake your tokens. You may turn auto-stake on/off at any time.
IMPORTANT: you will NOT be able to un-stake your tokens until your stake duration expires. The un-staking process lasts 3 days, after which you may withdraw your tokens to your wallet. If you want to be able to un-stake your tokens at any time, select a 0 day stake duration.
6. Sign transaction via ioPay
After selecting your Delegate and voting parameters, click “Proceed to Vote” and confirm the staking/voting transaction.
For Desktop users: confirm the transaction details on the voting website. Then in the ioPay Desktop app, sign the transaction. You will see a confirmation screen in ioPay with your transaction hash.
For Mobile users, confirm the transaction details and sign the transaction. You will see a confirmation screen with your transaction hash.
Congratulations, you staked/voted with Native IOTX via ioPay!
Check full details about Native Staking on IoTeX Mainnet GA here.