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Kusama

Kusama is an experimental version of Polkadot. It enables users, teams and developers to experiment with Polkadot’s governance, staking, nomination and validation functionality or to build and deploy a parachain in a real environment. In addition to the staking rewards earned on Kusama, 1% of DOTs (native to Polkadot) will be distributed to Kusama participants, although the reward distribution mechanism has not yet been determined.

LetzBake Tezon icon

Return of Stake and Fee

ROS: ~20%
Fee: 5%

Kusama Delegate Address

HCAodiEP8xmKiG2LpzT5FACKmZEBFUMri5efvP48hcCFBuR

Or search for LetzBake! V2 in the Polkadot JS web app.

Kusama FAQs

We recommend using Polkadot JS web app in combination with the polkadot{.js} extension for either Firefox or Chrome. You can then safely generate your keys with the extension and manage your delegations (nominations) through the web app. Hardware wallets are not yet supported, but an app for Ledger is currently in development.

We also recommend setting up separate stash and controller accounts so that your stash can be held in cold storage, but that you are still able to manage your delegations and participate in governance with your controller account. At the Polkadot/Kusama Wiki are good guides available on how to set up these accounts and nominate a validator to earn rewards.

Note that to participate in staking you need to lock (bond) your coins and that it takes 7 days until your funds will be transferrable after unbonding. Contact us with any questions you may have. We’re happy to help!

Only download wallets from the original sources, and never from a random link on the Internet!
The controller account is a semi-online key that is in the direct control of a user and can be used to start or stop nominating for a validator or several validators. Controller keys should hold some KSM to pay for fees, but they should not be used to hold huge amounts or life savings. Since they will be exposed to the internet with relative frequency, they should be treated carefully and occasionally replaced with new ones.

The stash account is a key that will, in most cases, be a cold wallet, existing on a piece of paper in a safe or a hardware wallet. It should rarely, if ever, be exposed to the Internet. The stash key is intended to hold a large amount of funds. It should be thought of as a savings account at a bank, which ideally is only ever touched in urgent conditions.

Since the stash key is kept offline, it must be set to have its funds bonded to a particular controller, which will never be able to actually move or claim the funds in the stash key [source].
Rewards can be claimed after every era, which last 6 hours in Kusama. Payouts are not automatic, but can be initiated by anyone, irrespective of delegation status to a respective validator. If rewards are not claimed within 21 days, they expire and will be lost. Although payouts can be initiated by anyone, we regularly trigger payouts and ensure that rewards never expire for our delegators.

If you wish to initiate payouts yourself, you can do so via the staking payouts page on Polkadot JS, where you will see a list of validators that you have nominated in the past 84 eras. Each one has the option to trigger the payout for all unclaimed eras. Note that this will pay everyone who was nominating that validator during those eras, and anyone can call it.
If you hold the Polkadot indicator token (DOT), you are entitled to claim an equivalent amount of KSM on the Kusama network. You can claim KSMs by signing a message with the Ethereum account that holds your DOT indicator tokens. The Polkadot/Kusama Wiki provides a guide on how to do that.

If you do not hold DOT indicator tokens, then you need to buy KSM at one of the few exchanges that currently offer respective trading pairs, ideally at those with the highest trust score. As order books are generally thin, we recommend to not buy at market price, but to limit to the maximum price you are willing to pay per KSM. When you buy at market price, you risk buying at a much higher price as indicated when hitting the buy button.
This is the information provided by Parity here.