Initially, chainlink staking had a 12- to 24-month lockdown time. Nonetheless, the team has consulted with the community and node administrators. The result is faster iteration and frequent updates. Each version would have a “focused scope on important features,” according to the statement.
“Consequently, the next iteration of Staking (v0.2) is currently scheduled to debut in 9 to 12 months, at which time v0.1 stakers will be able to unlock or move their staked LINK and prizes.”
The introduction of beta Chainlink Staking (v0.1) on Ethereum is currently restricted to addresses eligible for priority access. These may wager up to 7,000 LINK (about $53,270) in a limited staking pool. Approval is decided by on-chain and off-chain activities, which may be verified using the user’s wallet.
On December 8, all other LINK holders will be able to join in the staking pool. Furthermore, the first aggregate pool ceiling is 25 million LINK, as per a blog post published on November 30. The staking v0.1 pool covers the Ethereum mainnet ETH/USD data stream. Users who participate in a decentralized notification system will get staked incentives. The network generates an alarm if the data stream has not satisfied “specified uninterrupted performance standards.”
The proposal to stake coins is a component of “Chainlink Economics 2.0.” It allows owners of LINK tokens and node managers to receive incentives for “working to increase the cryptoeconomic reliability of oracle solutions.”
During a September keynote address at SmartCon 2022, Chainlink Co-Founder Sergey Nazarov stated, “We also anticipate that as the need for staking security increases, the staked quantity will keep rising.”
1/ With Chainlink Staking v0.1 launching on Ethereum mainnet on December 6th, we'd like to provide an update on our iterative approach to building future versions of Staking beyond this initial release and how that will affect important attributes like the lock-up period.
— Chainlink (@chainlink) December 1, 2022
He noted that Chainlink Economics 2.0 enables the platform to extend its growth and safety over many chains and thousands of additional applications.
The native crypto token of Chainlink, LINK, has done exceptionally well in the previous two weeks, gaining 23%. As per CoinGecko, LINK prices are now up 2.5% in the last 24 hours to $7.65 as of time of writing.
LINK’s price reached a market cycle trough of $5.60 on November 22 but has since recovered substantially. Despite this, LINK still trades 85.6% below its all-time peak of $52.70 in May last year.