TL;DR
- Meta Pool is moving ~1.4m NEAR (15% TVL) through Meta Staking Vote, where it will be assigned to the highest voted validators.
- Standard delegation moves ~8m NEAR (85% TVL) and is based on the same criteria as before.
- The process will take roughly 1 month to ensure that there is no delay in rewards accrued.
Overview
Over the last few months, Stake Wars III has been drawing to a close. NEAR now faces the process of onboarding chunk producer nodes for both existing validators and new ones who have joined through the competition. During this time, Meta Pool introduced Meta Staking Vote. This mechanism was designed to redistribute 15% of Meta Pool’s total TVL to top performers voted on by the community. This article will explore the delegation process, and how Meta Staking Vote will look in the wake of Stake Wars III.
The Delegation Process Explained
As of January 2023, there are approx. 8m NEAR being assigned through standard delegation. This means that Meta Pool is deciding where these NEAR are being delegated according to the four criteria we have used since day one:
- Low fees (<10%)
- High uptime (>95%)
- Non centralized (Below Nakamoto Coefficient)
- Activate validator (Above Seat Price)
Additionally, with the advent of Stake Wars and a rise in the number of overall validators, we are also now considering the following criteria for our standard delegation process:
- The node should produce reward on the last 4 epochs or the delegation of Meta Pool will be removed.
Timeline for the Transfer of TVL
An important part of the delegation process through Meta Staking Vote is the transfer of he 15% TVL from where it currently is, to the nodes that have been voted on. Rather than an immediate transfer, 1% of the TVL (approx. 88k NEAR) will be redelegated every four epochs. This will take a total of 60 epochs, or roughly 1 month, to completely reassign the total delegation. With an immediate transfer, there would be downtimes for NEAR rewards accrued in your stNEAR tokens, and we want to make sure our users are getting the highest possible APY while we make this change.
For any of those validators concerned about the amount of time delegation takes, there is an important caveat. If your node is very high in the vote count, you will likely be receiving both standard and voted delegation at the same time. This is a way to increase your delegation more rapidly than just the 15% of TVL voted on by the community.
Questions about the New Delegation Process
We understand that there may still be some concerns about the timeframe of the reassignment, and want to address them here. The slow and gradual nature of the transfer is due to a few factors. First, there is a delayed unstake through the NEAR validator system which means we need to wait before withdrawing stake from nodes. Secondly, Meta Pool cannot immediately assign all of the unstaked delegation to new nodes immediately without some downtime, which would disrupt rewards. As such, the above outlined process is the best way to protect users APY and safely delegate funds.
Furthermore, As announced here, close to ~2.2M NEAR Tokens are being assigned by Meta Pool to new chunk producers coming into mainnet. For any and all Stake Wars III winners who have not yet mounted their node, you want to do it as soon as possible. Not only can you get added to the list receiving those 2.2m NEAR, but also earn standard delegation if you are meeting our criteria. So don’t forget, and Keep on Staking!
About Meta Pool & stNEAR
Meta Pool is the leading liquid staking solution for $NEAR and wNEAR token holders. With Meta Pool you earn NEAR staking rewards and maintain your liquidity to participate in DeFi protocols on NEAR and Aurora.
Users staking $NEAR and wNEAR with Meta Pool receive in exchange stNEAR (staked NEAR) tokens.
stNEAR simultaneously accrues staking rewards and unlocks users’ liquidity enabling them to participate in DeFi activities (e.g. lending, farming, borrowing) on NEAR and Aurora.
Stake $NEAR on Meta Pool
~9.5% APY
Get stNEAR
Yield-bearing token
Go DeFi on NEAR & Aurora
More APY and more rewards
Meta Pool also solves the problems associated with Proof-of-Stake networks staking: illiquidity, immovability and accessibility. Meta Pool also aims to distribute staking in multiple validators to improve censorship-resistance of the NEAR network.
With a TVL of ~9 Million $NEAR and growing, Meta Pool has become in just a few months a cornerstone element of the NEAR ecosystem. Meta Pool is making NEAR Protocol more decentralized and therefore more secure.
In February 2022 Meta Pool has been successfully audited by BlockSec, confirming the implementation of the highest security standards.
For more information visit https://metapool.app.
