How To Stake Cardano ADA

Daedalus is the “official” Cardano wallet, and you can download it for free from Cardano.org (https://daedaluswallet.io/). You’ll want to get the latest Shelley-compatible version, which is designed to let you delegate your ADA and earn rewards.

If you want to learn how to stake ADA with Daedalus, the most straightforward way to do this is to simply download the wallet application, install it, and follow the instructions provided within the software itself.

However, very basically, staking ADA on Daedalus works like this:

1. Open the app (currently called “Daedalus Mainnet"). It will take a few moments for the wallet to open and sync with the blockchain.
2. Navigate to the Rewards and Delegation section of the wallet using the navigation icons on the left-hand side. It will be the network icon, the second one listed.
3. Once you are in the rewards section of Daedalus, you will see an option for Delegation Center. When you select this tab, you will see a list of your wallets and their delegation status.
4. Select which wallet you would like to delegate from and click on the word ‘delegate’ for that wallet. A dialogue box will appear that prompts you to select your wallet and hit continue to proceed.
5. Once you hit continue, you will be directed to select your stake pool. You can type in the name of a pool you want to join or you can browse the list of available pools. For example, to join AdaStrong, you would type in: ADAST or Adastrong to find our pool. To explore various stake pools, you can click on a pool’s ticker to view performance metrics, fees, and other information about that pool.
6. After you find the pool you want to delegate to, simply click on the pool and hit continue.
7. You will be prompted to enter your spending password to approve the pool delegation and the small fee associated with it. NO ADA will be moved from your wallet other than the nominal transaction fee.
8. You can redelegate your stake to another pool at any time, though changes during an epoch will not be reflected until after that epoch completes. You can see a running real-time countdown of the epoch in the delegation center option.

These basic steps will be similar across all Cardano wallets that support stake pool delegation, though each will have its own specific setup. For most users, the Cardano Daedalus staking system offers the most straightforward and simple step-by-step process, though it can sometimes be more time-consuming than other options.

Daedalus does allow users to browse stake pools, their rankings, and their performance metrics from inside Daedalus instead of having to reference an outside source such as pooltool.io.

If you use the popular lightweight crypto wallet Yoroi (official link here https://yoroi-wallet.com/#/), you can now stake your ADA through the platform. (These instructions assume you have created your Shelley wallet and if applicable, have transferred your funds from a previous Byron wallet to your Shelley wallet).

1. The Yoroi dashboard has rewards data integrated into it, and there is a delegation tab provided for Cardano staking. Navigate to the Delegation Center using this tab.
2. Yoroi now allows users to browse the list of stake pools directly from their wallets. You can sort the list by score or alphabetically by ticker.  If you'd like to explore the data on our pool, the ADA Strong stake pool ticker is: ADAST. 
3. You can also simply add a stake pool ID using the tab titled: Delegation by ID.  If you would like to delegate to Ada Strong, you can use our pool ID: e2eed9f58a161573050ab9324252b4fcccbf9fe06e1a034b6f91d748
4. Once you’ve chosen your Cardano stake pool, you can hit the delegate button on the far right and you will be prompted to verify your selection.
5. To authorize the delegation and the nominal fees associated with the process, you’ll need to enter the spending password you established when you created your wallet.

Many users prefer Yoroi for its Cardano proof-of-stake pool implementation, but it mostly comes down to personal preference of UI and UX. Yoroi is a trusted crypto wallet, is easy to use, and is a great alternative to Daedalus. It's also a little faster to access since it doesn't require synchronization with the entire Cardano blockchain each time it's used (as Daedalus does).

The Yoroi ADA wallet is available as a browser plugin for Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. It is also available as a mobile ADA wallet, and you can download Yoroi for iPhone or Yoroi for Android from the App Store or Google Play. Please note that the Yoroi mobile apps do not currently support Cardano Catalyst voting, but they do allow for full, secure funds storage, sending, receiving, and ADA delegation. 

When it comes to how to stake ADA Cardano on ADALite, the process is similar to the above. ADALite is the leanest of the reputable ADA wallets out there, but there are also many hoaxers who attempt to copy the look and feel of this wallet in an attempt to trick users into providing access to their funds. As such, please be sure to download the ADALite wallet only from the official ADALite website here: https://adalite.io/.

ADALite is a software wallet with hardware wallet support for select Trezor and Ledger devices. Again, please only buy these devices directly from the manufacturers themselves, as third-party sellers may have compromised their built-in security measures.

Once you have installed ADALite onto your computer or hardware wallet, follow these simple ADA staking instructions:

1. To create or access your wallet, you must enter your ADA pass phrase (aka mnemonic password). This allows you to log into your wallet.
2. Click the “Unlock” button.
3. The wallet interface is now open. To send ADA coins to your wallet, follow the instructions at the bottom of the opened page.
4. Manually enter the ID number for the staking pool you wish to join (i.e. ADA Strong, which can be found at pool ID e2eed9f58a161573050ab9324252b4fcccbf9fe06e1a034b6f91d748). If you do not input a stake pool ID, your wallet will default to an AdaLite stake pool option.
5. Once you have entered your preferred stake pool ID, you simply hit the delegate button and voila, you’re on your way to earning rewards.

That’s all there is to it when staking Cardano with the ADALite wallet. Many users prefer using ADALite thanks to its hardware wallet support and easy interface, but it is not any better than Daedalus or Yoroi, nor is it any safer or more reputable.

That said, both of these other wallets also support hardware wallets with their newest software iterations, though ADALite hardware integration is still the simplest. 

Some ADA holders will naturally want to join a Cardano stake pool directly from the exchanges where they keep their crypto. When it comes to how to stake your Cardano at these exchanges, each will have a separate procedure to do so.

Many exchanges are still updating to the Cardano Shelley release, so you may have to wait before you can stake ADA from your chosen network. To date, the exchanges confirmed to support Shelley (or that will support it in the near future) are the following:

• Bidesk
• Binance
• Bitfinex
• Bithumb
• Bitrue
• Bittrex
• Bitvavo
• BKEX
• CEX.io
• ChangeNow
• CoinEx
• Coinfalcon
• CROSS
• Crypto.com
• DragonEx
• EXMO
• HBTC
• HitBTC
• Huobi
• Indodax
• Kucoin
• Litebit.eu
• MXC
• Octopuses
• OKex
• Quantum
• Upbit
• ZB.com