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Staking in the IOTA Network Ecosystem

In 2022, IOTA introduced a new staging network and battlefield for IOTA's core technological innovations: Shimmer. This marked a vast increase in the utility of the IOTA token. Shimmer launched with its native tokens: SMR. With the tokenomicsThe economics and principles governing the behavior, distribution, and value of tokens within a system or network. and incentive structure around this network, it is possible to stake tokens.

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Find the blog post introducing IOTA stakingThe process of holding and locking cryptocurrency in a wallet to support the operations and security of a blockchain network. here. Find the announcement of the start of IOTA staking here.

There are several ways to stake your tokens and earn staking rewards:

  • Shimmer pre-launch staking created the initial token supply for SMR and distributed it to those who stake their IOTA tokens.
  • SMR token staking helps testing on the Shimmer network and supports the network.

Shimmer Pre-launch Staking​

The Pre-launch staking period rewarded IOTA token holders for their participation and distributed SMR tokens to them. In the case of Shimmer, it also created the total initial supply of the network.

Starting from 28th December 2021, IOTA holders who possess IOTA tokens in the Firefly wallet and who had chosen to participate in the staking period generated Shimmer tokens for 90 days.

The Shimmer staking period was limited to these initial 90 days.

IOTA Staking for SMR Rewards​

The Shimmer network was bootstrapped purely from IOTA token stakers. The initial token supply of the Shimmer network only relied on the amount of IOTA tokens staked for Shimmer in the 90-day staking period, and 80% of the initial supply was distributed to IOTA token holders, while the remaining 20% was distributed equally between the Community DAO and the Tangle Ecosystem.

  • The staking functionality in the Firefly Wallet was used for Shimmer.
  • Shimmer tokens were distributed at a fixed rate of 1 SMR per 1 MIOTA per milestone.

shimmer staking

  • With the launch of the Shimmer network, the generated Shimmer tokens were distributed to the IOTA stakers. This distribution was implemented as a functionality within the Firefly wallet.