With cryptocurrencies, there are some ways to earn some extra income:
- Purchasing and hodling cryptocurrencies – as price spikes, so you make some cool income. The problem with this is, it can go the other way as well, and you lose a ton of money.
- Trading cryptocurrencies – trying to buy low and sell high. As simple as that sounds, you must have the proper knowledge for this to venture into it.
- Mining cryptocurrencies – this will cost you some money to buy hardware devices required to make any reasonable amount of money. Though fun to do, choosing the wrong coin could be disastrous. The good part is that a mining device usually works for more than one crypytocurrency, so you can easily swap.
- Staking cryptocurrencies – by a process called Proof-of-Stake, you can make some extra cash while hodling those cryptocurrencies which are concerned for even more gains.
We’ll be looking into the 4th option in this article to learn how to make some extra side cash from Proof-of-Stake cryptocurrencies.
How Does Coin Staking Work?
Staking, also referred to as Proof-of-Stake involves buying specific coins and keeping them in a designated wallet for a fixed period without spending them. You can relate that to a fixed deposit in a commercial bank. When the set time expires, you can choose to spend your coins + interest or re-invest for more gains.
Though all these sounds interesting, there are a few cons and pros you should have in mind.
Unlike mining for cryptocurrencies, with staking, investors don’t have to buy high configuration devices to earn. That money would be used to purchase the coins to hodl, and the more coins you have, the more you make.
One major disadvantage though is, when coins are locked in for investment, you cannot use those funds until the investment period is over. Well, since your money is with you, while you stake, you can decide to spend it anyway, but that means you will lose any gain you could have had if you had to hold your coins/tokens for that period.
Settling For The Best PoS Coin
So, how do you know what cryptocurrencies to settle for? Well, these question, though very important has no straightforward answer. First of all, you need to identify Proof-of-Stake coins, and secondly, you need to choose those coins that are reputable. To do this, you need to commit yourself to long hours of research so you don’t end up with coins that will cease to exist somewhere along the line.
Fortunately, you have landed on the right article. The following are top picks you could be confident investing some of your hard earned money and staking for extended periods.
Top 5 You Should Give A Try
In no particular order, here are some great picks that we think have a great reputation in the market. Staking these coins will earn you a percentage ranging from 20%, 50%, and even 99% of the value of your staked coins.
NavCoin (NAV)
This is a decentralized cryptocurrency which uses peer-to-peer technology to operate, eliminating intermediaries which are central authorities or commercial banks who will manage the transaction for a fee. With NavCoin cryptocurrency, no one owns or controls its transactions, and anyone can be part of it.
How To Stake NavCoin (NAV)
What you need first and foremost is the core version of the NavCoin cryptocurrency wallet with the value of the coins you want to stake in it.
To get some tokens to stake, you need to purchase using fiat (EUR) or exchange BTC, ETH, BNB, or USDT cryptocurrencies for it on crypto exchanges.
When you send some coins to your wallet at first, your coins should go into an immature state that requires you to wait about 2 hours or for 240 blocks to be precise. Then staking starts automatically without any additional efforts.
On each NavCoin staked, you get 5% which is 0.05 NAVs annually. So to make anything substantial, you need to invest something tangible. Here is the NavCoin calculator to help guide you on how much you’ll earn on your budget.
To download the NavCoin Core Wallet for your device, click here.
For maximum gains, your device on which you have your wallet installed need to be kept on and your wallet active.
NEO (NEO)
Neo token is not just a cryptocurrency; it’s also a platform to run decentralized applications (dApps) just like the Ethereum blockchain.
Neo, otherwise known as the Chinese Ethereum is a platform which uses blockchain technology to automate digital assets using smart contracts.
How To Stake NEO (NEO) Tokens
Staking your NEO coins gives you GAS, another token used to pay for services on the NEO blockchain. The GAS token as well can be traded for other cryptocurrencies on the exchanges.
You can stake your NEO tokens in two ways, on the exchanges, and in a NEON wallet.
If you choose to stake on an exchange, it’s advisable to ask the support of your exchange if you will get GAS for your NEOs on the platform. Two favorite exchanges confirmed to give users their GAS rewards are Binance and KuCoin cryptocurrency exchanges.
Staking with your NEON wallet, on the other hand, will require you installing the NEON wallet on your PC. You can click here to get the download link.
You get a 3.34% annually on staked coins. For each NEO you hold, you get 0.0980 GAS yearly. You can use the NEO calculator to know the return on your investment.
With NEO, you don’t need your wallet active to get your GAS rewards.
Lisk (LSK)
Lisk is a platform similar to Ethereum and NEO. The platform provides a JavaScript-based SDK to developers who extend the functionality to build their desired application.
Lisk cryptocurrency (LSK) is the native currency for the Lisk platform. These tokens can be acquired from some cryptocurrency exchanges like YoBit, CoinEgg, Bit-Z, Binance, HitBTC, Livecoin, and a host of others. Lisk can be traded for the dollars, pounds, and euros. It can also be traded/exchanged for other cryptocurrencies.
How To Stake Lisk (LSK) Tokens
The first step to start earning some passive income with Lisk is to download the Core wallet for your LSK tokens. To do that, click here to download your Lisk Nano wallet application for your PC.
When you install and set up your wallet, send some Lisk you purchased into it. It’s important to have your seed saved in a safe place, so you don’t lose your tokens.
You can vote up to 33 delegates at once, and a max of 101 representatives. Click on the “Voting Tab” and choose your favorite delegates by selecting the checkboxes in front of their names.
It will cost 1 LSK to vote. The more delegates you vote, the more you earn. The Nano wallet will require confirmation, click on “Confirm” and that’s it.
Since earning LSK tokens has to do with voting for delegates, these delegates are the ones who set the percentage you get on your investment. The rate ranges between 6.25% – 100% depending on the delegate you choose. Here is a great resource which lists Lisk delegates and percentage they pay. You can also use the calculator to know the average return.
Now that you’ve done those, you need not keep your wallet active as the delegates you have voted for has their nodes running for you. For more news regarding Lisk, you can check our Lisk Magazine
ARK (ARK)
ARK provides startups, developers, and users with innovative blockchain solutions, creating an ecosystem of linked chains. The ARK platform is secure and well developed for mass adoption and will deliver the services consumers and developers want and need.
They’ve also developed a technology called SmartBridge, which is created to allow multiple blockchains to communicate with each other.
The ARK token runs on the ARK blockchain, and it’s used to pay for services done on the network. You can stake your tokens for some passive income. To get some, you can exchange other cryptocurrencies for it on Binance, Bittrex, Upbit, OKEx, and Cryptopia.
How To Stake Ark (ARK) Tokens
ARK uses the DPoS consensus algorithm, just like the Lisk platform, ARK holders can vote one delegate at a time. It costs 1 ARK to vote for your chosen delegate. The more ARK tokens you hold, the more powerful your vote.
That being said, you must download the Core wallet for holding Ark cryptocurrencies. To get that, download here.
Now that you have gotten the right wallet, send your Ark tokens into the generated wallet address, and you’ll be all set to stake those tokens.
To start staking, click on the “Vote” tab and “ADD DELEGATE” button right inside your wallet. Choose the delegate name you are supporting and click on the “Add Delegate” button.
You should see an increase in balance from hence. All you need do is to keep staking to keep earning.
Here is the best resource on the web we found to calculate what you’ll earn on your Ark investment. All you need do is to enter an amount and your Ark address holding those tokens. You should see a tabular report on how much you earn daily, weekly, monthly, and annually.
Reddcoin (RDD)
A social currency as it’s being referred to, Reddcoin cryptocurrency makes virtual currencies easy to use for the public as they claim. The digital currency platform can be seamlessly integrated with major social networks, making sending and receiving tips and small payments straightforward, fast and easy.
How To Stake Your Reddcoins (RDD)
To get started, you should download the RDD wallet on their official site for your personal computer. Purchase some coins if you already haven’t done so, and send them into the wallet you just installed.
The coins should take some time to mature, but when it does, you should start earning on your unspent coins.
You get a 6.1% annual return on your Reddcoin investment. So if you are holding a 100 RDDs, you should get have an additional 6.183 RDD tokens with your initial deposit. Here is the Reddcoin Staking Calculator that you can use to calculate how much you’ll earn according to your investment budget.
Conclusion
Staking isn’t a get rich quick program. You want to earn a ton on payouts, then be ready to invest a ton. Well, the good thing is, your coins are in your hands with staking. You can choose to discontinue at any time.
As price goes up, as you earn more tokens, the value (price) of the tokens rise as well, so it’s a two-way win.
Know you have the knowledge, go ahead and put it into practice. Most of these cryptocurrencies can be found on Binance Exchange.
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