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How is ada mined? What can I do with ada? 

Olga Hryniuk
ada
Mining ada isn't possible because mining is the feature of proof-of-work blockchains. On Cardano, owners can stake and delegate ada to earn rewards. By delegating their stake, users help run the Cardano blockchain. All rewards are distributed in ada every 5 days.
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How does Ouroboros work?

Olga Hryniuk
OuroborosConsensus
Ouroboros randomly elects a slot leader from among the stake pools to create block within a slot. A slot is the primary unit of time used by the Ouroboros algorithm. The more stake a pool controls, the greater the chance it has of being elected as a slot leader to produce a new block. When validating a transaction, a slot leader needs to ensure that the send...
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What is Ouroboros?

Olga Hryniuk
ConsensusOuroboros+ 1
Ouroboros is Cardano's proof-of-stake consensus protocol. It is the first consensus protocol proven to be secure through academic peer review. The name comes from an ancient symbol that represents eternity and symbolizes the theoretical eternity of a blockchain. There have been several versions of Ouroboros: Classic (Byron phase, 2017), BFT (Byron/Shelley ph...
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How does Cardano work?

Olga Hryniuk
Cardano
Cardano is a fully decentralized blockchain platform. This means that thousands of people’s computers (nodes) cooperate to agree if a transaction is valid. This process is enabled by the proof-of-stake consensus protocol Ouroboros. On Cardano, people can send and receive ada (Cardano’s native currency), participate in staking and delegation to earn rewards, ...
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What is the history of Cardano's development?

Olga Hryniuk
CardanoDevelopment
Cardano was launched in 2017 to address problems with earlier blockchains such as high energy use, limited interoperability, and scalability. Cardano is being developed in five phases: Byron (completed 2019), Shelley (decentralization, 2020), Goguen (smart contracts, 2021-), Basho (performance improvements, 2021-), Voltaire (treasury and governance, 2021-).
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When will I receive my rewards?

Olga Hryniuk
StakingDelegation+ 1
Rewards are distributed at the end of each epoch (every five days). If this is the first time you delegated your funds to a pool, the process will take longer. If you delegate your ada during the first epoch, the pool that you delegate to can produce blocks two epochs later. Two epochs after that, you will begin receiving rewards. In this case, you will begi...
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What is the saturation point?

Olga Hryniuk
Staking
Saturation is a term used to indicate that a particular stake pool has more stake delegated to it than is ideal for the network. Saturation is displayed as a percentage. Once a stake pool reaches 100% saturation, it will offer diminishing rewards. The saturation mechanism was designed to prevent centralization by encouraging delegators to delegate to differe...
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What is the 340 fixed fee?

Olga Hryniuk
StakingFees
Providing a stake pool produces at least one block during an epoch, the stake pool operator will earn the minimum fixed fee of 340 ada. This is a constant value to help operators with the running costs of maintaining a pool.
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What is a stake pool operator pledge?

Olga Hryniuk
PledgeStaking
Pledging is an important mechanism that encourages the growth of a healthy ecosystem within the Cardano blockchain. When you register a stake pool you can choose to pledge some, or all, of your ada to the pool, to make it more attractive to people that want to delegate. Although pledging is not required when setting up a stake pool, it can make the stake poo...
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What is a profit margin?

Olga Hryniuk
Staking
A profit margin is the percentage of total ada rewards that the stake pool operator takes before sharing the rest of the rewards among all the delegators to the pool. A lower profit margin for the operator means they are taking less, which means that delegators can expect to receive more of the rewards for their delegated stake. A private pool is a pool with...
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Can I stake with hardware wallets?

Olga Hryniuk
Staking
It is possible to stake using a hardware wallet by connecting it to Yoroi or Daedalus wallets.
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Can I stake on exchanges? Is it bad?

Olga Hryniuk
Staking
Staking on exchanges means that ada is kept on exchanges, which incurs security risks. Given that exchanges own a large amount of ada, this also poses a centralization issue. It is important for Cardano to maintain a healthy distribution of stake across many pool operators. The best way is to choose a stake pool that best meets the goals and values that a pe...
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Who is a stake pool operator (SPO)?

Olga Hryniuk
StakingStake pool operator+ 1
A stake pool operator is a person or organization that takes responsibility for setting up and keeping a pool running. This usually entails owning or renting a server, holding the key to the pool, and maintaining and monitoring the node. The operator earns rewards for validating transactions on Cardano. These rewards are distributed between the operator and ...
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What is a stake pool?

Olga Hryniuk
StakingStake pool
A stake pool is a virtual ‘pot’ that holds the combined stake of various holders. It is maintained by an operator, who is responsible for transaction validation on Cardano.
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What is stake?

Olga Hryniuk
Staking
Stake is the amount of ada a person owns.
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What is a cold wallet?

Olga Hryniuk
WalletCryptocurrency wallet+ 1
A cold wallet is one that is not online. It can be in the form of a hardware device, similar to a USB stick, or a printed paper wallet. It is harder to hack (but may be easier to lose).
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What is a paper wallet?

Olga Hryniuk
WalletPaper wallet+ 1
A paper wallet includes scannable QR codes or crypto keys that you can use to access, send, or receive coins.
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What is a light wallet?

Olga Hryniuk
WalletCryptocurrency wallet+ 1
A light wallet does not download the full blockchain when a transaction is made. Instead, it relies on a website host, but is faster and needs less computing power. Light wallets are better suited for smartphones.
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