Delegating via Mobile App or Web Browser

Quick steps to delegate HYDRA via the mobile app or web browser

Quick Links

Hydra Mobile App for Android

Hydra Mobile App for iOS

Hydra Browser Extension for Chrome

Hydra DEX

Staking Hydra on Hydra Chain

Staking your Hydra on-chain via the Hydra mobile app is quick and easy. You always have access to your Hydra, as there is no vesting or lock up periods for delegation and the Hydra always remains in your wallet and stays in your wallet.

Please go through the steps and pictorial walkthrough to stake your $HYDRA and review some important points below to get acquainted with the process.

Delegating using mobile app

  1. Create or import your wallet address in the mobile app. If creating an address, please save the seed phrases and mnemonic password somewhere extremely safe. If importing an address, you can do so using your private key or your 12 word mnemonic seed phrases (and Mnemonic passphrase if applicable).

  2. After address is created, swipe the address to the right and reveal the private key. Copy and Save this private key somewhere extremely safe.

  3. Fund your wallet with the Hydra you want to delegate. $HYDRA is currently available on Kucoin, MEXC, Gate and BitMart.

  4. Click on the blue "Stake" button and select Hydra from the staking list.

  5. On the next page you can choose any Superstaker after reviewing fees and the minimum UTXO. Worth noting that Superstakers with a minimum UTXO of 5 or below, allow for your rewards to compound automatically and does not need additional optimization.

  6. Click on the "Delegate" button against your chosen Superstaker. Click Yes to confirm your delegation and wait for the transaction to complete on the blockchain.

  7. Click on the blue "Split UTXO" button. For most purposes we recommend to proceed with the default settings (200 HYDRA + unchecked checkbox).

  8. Click on "Split Coins" to optimize the Hydra. (More about Optimization shared below).

That's it! Your Hydra is now Delegated & Optimized and will start staking after 2000 confirmations (Around 17.7 hours).

Create or import address

Click on "Stake"

Click on "Hydra"

Choose a Superstaker and delegate

Click on "Yes" to confirm

Allow a minute for delegation to process

Click on "Split UTXO"

Click on "Split Coins"

Optimization Complete!

Delegating via web browser

  1. Create an address using the Hydra Mobile App. Then import the address using the private key to the Hydra browser extension on Google Chrome on a desktop / laptop.

  2. You can obtain the private key for your address from the Hydra Mobile app. Swipe the address to the right, to reveal the private key (click the eye to authenticate and display)

  3. Fund your wallet with the Hydra you want to delegate. $HYDRA is currently available on Kucoin, MEXC, Gate and BitMart.

  4. Visit https://hydradex.org/#/stake and Ensure that Pop-ups are allowed on your browser for hydradex.org.

  5. Click on the "Stake" tab from the center top menu and select HYDRA from the staking list.

  6. On the next page you can choose any Superstaker after reviewing fees and the minimum UTXO. Worth noting that Superstakers with a minimum UTXO of 5 or below, allow for your rewards to compound automatically and does not need additional optimization.

  7. Click on the "Delegate" button against your chosen Superstaker. Click Yes to confirm your delegation, submit the wallet confirmation and wait for the transaction to complete on the blockchain.

  8. Click on the blue "Split UTXO" button on the top right. For most purposes we recommend to proceed with the default settings (200 HYDRA + unchecked checkbox).

  9. Click on "Split Coins" to optimize the Hydra. (More about Optimization shared below).

That's it! Your Hydra is now Delegated & Optimized and will start staking after 2000 confirmations (Around 17.7 hours)

Important considerations

  1. When you delegate, your entire balance is delegated. You do not need to select any particular amount when delegating.

  2. Any Hydra you add to your address will automatically stake after 2000 confirmations without needing to delegate again. You may need to optimize again depending on the amount you top up.

  3. All Superstakers listed on the Hydra Mobile app are active. You can delegate to any one of them after reviewing fees and the minimum UTXO. Superstakers with a minimum UTXO of 5 or below, allow for your rewards to automatically compound and does not need additional optimization.

  4. The Superstaker fee displayed (for example 5%) is applied to the rewards only and not the whole balance. Example: The current block reward is 7.15 Hydra, so a 5% fee would be ~ 0.36 Hydra

  5. Irrespective of which Superstaker you choose, the average APR you receive is the same as shown in the Hydra Mobile App and Hydra staking calculator, as long as your Hydra is optimized. If you wish to conect with your Superstaker, please refer to this spreadsheet which has contact links for all of them.

  6. Use the Hydra Staking Calculator to get an approximation on when you earn rewards and how much.

  7. The frequency at which you earn staking rewards is not fixed. You can earn rewards slower or faster than the estimate shown on the Hydra Staking Calculator. For example, when staking 5000 Hydra, you can earn a block reward in a range of 1.5 to 6.5 days, however the average APR over time will be more or less accurate.

  8. If you are staking amounts above 1000 Hydra, it is advisable to optimize your Hydra (Split UTXO) for an efficient staking APR. Why do you need to optimize is explained in theOptimizing Hydra section.

  9. As Hydra remains in your wallet when you delegate, it is advisable to use one address dedicated for staking only. If you would like to participate in other DeFi activities like Liquidity mining or arbitrage, trading etc., we would recommend using a different second address so that the Hydra which is delegated in your staking address is not used.

Optimizing Hydra

A little background: Like Bitcoin, Hydra Chain is based on the UTXO accounting system. Each UTXO is independent and the total combined value of all UTXOs within your wallet equals your total Hydra balance. A UTXO is similar to what a cash bill is in a physical wallet ($1, $5, $100). You can use different bills for different transactions simultaneously, including staking operations.

What is Optimizing ?

To put it plainly, optimizing splits the Hydra UTXO's in your wallet into appropriately sized chunks for optimal staking conditions. This helps your Hydra stake efficiently which in turn helps you get an optimal APR. You should optimize whenever you send Hydra to your address in large amounts. (We’ll explain why below)

Please remember that after optimizing Hydra, the amount will need to mature for about 17.7 hours (2000 confirmations) before earning rewards.

Why do we need to Optimize?

When you deposit Hydra into your Wallet, it goes in as one chunk (UTXO). Whenever a block is mined, one chunk (UTXO) of Hydra needs to mature for 2000 confirmations (~ 17.7 Hours) and is unavailable for staking during this maturing period.

Sharing an example to clarify: Let’s say you are staking 5,000 Hydra, and the entire 5,000 is in one chunk (UTXO). That would not be a very efficient way of staking, because the entire 5,000 Hydra would need to mature for ~ 17.7 hours whenever you win a block reward.

Considering this, large UTXO's would not be a very efficient way of staking as this would reduce your APR / staking efficiency . Optimizing your balance by splitting the UTXO's to 100 each would allow only few UTXO's worth 100 Hydra mature and not the entire amount of 5000. The remaining Hydra would continue to stake efficiently.

When should I Optimize?

  1. If you have already sent large amounts of Hydra in one transaction to your staking address.

  2. When you send an amount of Hydra to your staking address that is higher than 200 Hydra.

  3. If you lock more than 200 Hydra to mint Lydra in one transaction.

If you are delegating to a Superstaker that has the minimum UTXO as 100 Hydra, then we would advise to optimize whenever your collected rewards total more than 105 Hydra and whenever you send Hydra to your address in large amounts.

How should I Optimize?

Optimization can be done from the Hydra Mobile App, Hydra DEX or the Hydra Desktop Client.

For optimizing using the Hydra DEX or the Hydra Mobile App, you will notice a button named "Split UTXO" on the Delegation interface. Clicking it will open a window with the following settings:

Split UTXOs above: Here you can enter a bigger number if you want to keep certain UTXOs untouched. For example setting it to 1,000 will only split UTXOs that are bigger than 1,000 HYDRA in size.

Include UTXOs below 100: Checking this box will not only split big UTXOs, but also merge smaller ones below 100 HYDRA (including "dust" from fee refunds). Be careful with this option, as the transaction fee increases with the number of UTXOs involved. You may end up paying more than the small UTXOs are worth.

For most purposes we recommend to proceed with the default settings (200 HYDRA + unchecked checkbox). Please note that any UTXOs altered will need to re-mature for 2,000 confirmations (~18 hours) before they start staking.

Important Considerations

  • Each split transaction can optimize a maximum of 10,000 Hydra. If you have more, you will need to repeat the process for every 10,000 Hydra (allow for some time between each transaction).

  • Merging small UTXOs via the "Include UTXOs below 100" checkbox (including the ones from block rewards) may be beneficial from time to time, for example if your Superstaker does not accept UTXOs below 100 HYDRA.

  • The transaction fee for the optimization depends on the number of UTXO's involved. The standard transaction fee is @ ~ $0.10 - $0.20 per UTXO

- Hydra Mobile App

  1. Login to the Hydra Mobile App and tap on your Hydra address

  2. Click on the blue "Stake" button and select Hydra.

  3. Click on the blue "Split UTXO" button on the top of the tab.

  4. A Window will pop-up with some pre-populated settings. We recommend to proceed with the default settings. Please read the first section here if you want to learn about changing the default settings.

  5. Click on the "Split Coins" button and confirm the transaction. It will process in less than a minute and will be visible on the Hydra Explorer. The split UTXO's will start staking after 2000 confirmations (~ 17.7 hours). Repeat process if you are staking more than 10,000 Hydra.

That's it! Your Hydra is now properly Optimized for staking.

Click on Stake then Hydra

Click on "Split UTXO"

Click on "Split Coins"

- HydraDEX

  1. On HydraDEX on Google Chrome. Install the Hydra browser extension and import your Hydra staking address using the private key.

  2. You can obtain the private key for your address from the Hydra Mobile app. Swipe the address to the right, to reveal the private key (click the eye to authenticate and display)

  3. Once you log in to your address on the Hydra browser extension, visit HydraDEX and click on "Stake". Then click on "Hydra".

  4. Click on the "Split UTXO" button on the top right of the page, just below your Hydra address.

  5. A window will pop-up with some pre-populated settings. We recommend to proceed with the default settings. Please read the first section here if you want to learn about changing the default settings.

  6. Click on the "Split Coins" button and confirm the transaction. The transaction will be processed in less than a minute and will be visible on the Hydra Explorer. The split UTXO's will start staking after 2000 confirmations (~ 17.7 hours). Repeat process if you are staking more than 10,000 Hydra.

That's it! Your Hydra is now properly Optimized for staking.

- Hydra Desktop Client

Another way to split your UTXO's is by using the Hydra Desktop Client. Since the blockchain is quite big, it can take anywhere from 9 to 24 hours for the blockchain to fully download depending on your computer specifications. However, by following the below steps, you can reduce the blockchain update time to around an hour or less. Once the data updates completely, you can import your address using the private key and optimize your Hydra. please read below on how to install / load the desktop client and subsequently, how to optimize

Quick Loading the Desktop Client

  1. Download the Backup Data Directory zip folder and latest version of the staking client. If a windows user then the most commonly used is hydra-0.20.18-win64-setup-unsigned.exe

  2. Unzip the folder and you shall see the backup data folder named 11Dec2023. Keep this window open

  3. Install the desktop client and launch it, it will start loading the blockchain from scratch. At this point, Exit the Client and wait for 2 minutes.

  4. Now open a new windows explorer (not internet explorer :D ) or Windows search and type in %appdata% in the address bar / search box and hit Enter. You will reach a Path that will look similar to C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Roaming). Here you will find the existing HYDRA Folder (Data Directory) which contains many blockchain files & folders, for example block, chainstate, stateHYDRA etc.

  5. Delete all the Files in this existing HYDRA folder. (Do not delete the HYDRA folder itself)

  6. Now go to the backup unzipped 11Dec2023 Folder, here you will find 4 folders: blocks, chainstate, stateHydra and indexes.

  7. Copy the blocks, chainstate, stateHydra folders from here and paste it into the existing HYDRA Folder where you had just deleted the old files

  8. Now launch the staking client. It should ideally start up within a few minutes.

  9. The backup data is until 10th December 23, so it will take between 45 minutes to an hour thirty to update till the current date, depending on your computer specs.

  10. After the desktop client is fully updated, import your address using your private key via the console. Click on Help -> Information Window, then the console tab. Details and a short illustration how to import your private key is available here.

  11. You can obtain your address private key from the Hydra Mobile app, by swiping the address to the right, which will reveal the private key (click the eye for it to display) See image below for clarity. Copy it from there to a very safe location as this is very important. DO NOT Share this with anyone.

Using the Optimize Button

  1. Click on the Stake Tab

  2. Click on the "Delegations" sub-tab

  3. On the right side on the tab, click on the "Restore Delegations" button that looks like below

  4. Click yes on the pop-up "Are you sure you wish to restore your delegations?"

  5. You will now see your delegation address here. Now on the right side of the tab, click on the "Split coin for offline staking" button, which looks like below

  6. On the following pop up, leave the default values as they are and click on "Split coins", then click on "Yes" to confirm the splitting. After a minute or so, the transaction will process. Please note that this will cost some fees depending on how many UTXO's are being split.

and that's it! Your Hydra Coins have been optimized. The above optimization is for balances up to 10,000 Hydra. If your Hydra balance is more than 10,000 Hydra, then please repeat step 5 and 6 for every 10,000 OR you can increase the Maximum Outputs accordingly (100 for 10,000, 200 for 20,000 and so on 👍)

If you have any questions, please do no hesitate to contact an Admin on the official Telegram group https://t.me/hydrachain

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