Frequently Asked Questions

In order to distribute the STRD supply and thereby further the decentralization of the Stride blockchain, 6.3% of the total supply has been allocated to various airdrops.

Airdrops are granted to new chains when they are onboarded by Stride protocol. Periodically, unclaimed airdrops are clawed back and redistributed to all original recipients on a pro rata basis.

It's a good idea to frequently check the airdrop page to see if you're eligible to claim any airdropped STRD.

Not once, but thrice!

At Stride, security is our biggest focus. That's why we engaged three auditing firms to conduct three separate audits of the Stride code.

Stride has been fully audited by Informal Systems, Oak Security, and Certik.

ATOM, OSMO, EVMOS, LUNA, JUNO, STARS, and INJ are supported (as of April 7th).

Any Cosmos chain using IBC V3 with interchain accounts can be on-boarded via a governance vote. Here's a list of some additional candidates, which may be supported by end of the year.
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•Secret Network (stSCRT)
• Sei Network (stSEI)
• Kujira (stKUJI)
• Sommelier (stSOMM)
• Comdex (stCMDX)

Liquid staking is where a token is staked, and then another token is issued to represent that staked token. For example, a user deposits ATOM with Stride, Stride stakes that ATOM, and issues the user stATOM. stATOM represents underlying staked ATOM, and can be used to redeem that ATOM at any time. But unlike staked ATOM, stATOM is liquid, meaning it can be sold, transferred, or used in DeFi.

With liquid staking, users no longer have to choose between staking their proof-of-stake (PoS) tokens and using their tokens. Traditionally, users could either stake their tokens and earn staking rewards, or they could forego staking rewards in order to keep their tokens liquid. But with liquid staking users can do both: earn staking rewards without giving up the ability for tokens to be sold, transferred, or used in DeFi.

Stride receives PoS tokens, and in exchange issues stTokens. An stToken represents the an underlying staked token, and can be used to redeem that token at any time. stTokens are issued on the Stride blockchain, but using the native Cosmos IBC bridge stTokens can be easily and securely sent to any Cosmos blockchain (so long as it has IBC enabled).

There’s no need to claim staking rewards, as they are automatically compounded and accrue to the stToken, increasing its value against the token.

For example, take stATOM. At genesis, 1 stATOM can redeem 1 ATOM. But as staking rewards accrue to stATOM, it will gradually become worth more ATOM.

If the staking APY for ATOM is 18%, then one year after genesis 1 stATOM will be worth 1.1956 ATOM (more than 1.18 ATOM, due to to compounding). Staking rewards accrue to stTokens, making them appreciate against the underlying token at the staking reward rate. Note that staking rewards are given as an APR (annual percentage rate), but since Stride compounds staking rewards it becomes an APY (annual percentage yield).

Absolutely!

By redemptions, we mean the ability to use an stToken to redeem the native token. Redemptions are crucial for maintaining price stability between tokens and stTokens. If the price of an stToken falls relative to the underlying token, arbitrageurs will buy the stToken on the open market, redeem it for the underlying token, and sell the underlying for a profit. Without redemptions, this arbitrage process would not be possible, and the stToken would be more likely to depreciate relative to the native token.

The basic utility for stTokens is that they can be transferred or sold without having to either wait through a lengthy unstaking period or foregoing staking rewards. But in addition to this base utility, there is DeFi utility for stTokens.

Currently, stATOM can be provided as liquidity to the ATOM / stATOM pool on Osmosis and lent and borrowed on Umee and Carbon Nitron.

In the future, there will be further integrations. stTokens may appear on other Cosmos decentralized exchanges, may be approved as collateral for additional money markets, and may be approved as collateral for Cosmos CDP-backed stablecoins.

An important attribute of Cosmos PoS tokens is that they can be used for on-chain governance. At launch, Stride users will not retain the governance power of the tokens underlying their stTokens. However, shortly after upgrade, Stride will provide governance support for stTokens. Users will be able to vote in on-chain governance of host chains using their stTokens.

For context, no Cosmos liquid staking provider currently lets users retain the governance power of their underlying tokens. Stride may well be the first.

The validator set and validator weights will be determined by Stride on-chain governance, using the STRD token. See this article for full details on Stride's inclusive host-chain validator sets.

Many blockchains and applications offer their services virtually for free. Stride could do the same, optimizing for user acquisition. However, we believe it's more fair, transparent, and sustainable to charge a small fee for the service Stride provides. As such, Stride charges a 10% fee from the staking rewards of liquid staked tokens. The fee is adjustable by Stride on-chain governance. Also, Stride governance is in charge of handling fee proceeds.

Note that Stride’s stToken auto-compounding often can offset this fee entirely, depending on the staking reward rate. For example, for a token with a 40% staking reward APR, auto-compounding gives users a 49% APY. After the 10% fee is deducted, the user is left with an APY of 45%. In this example, users earn more in extra yield from auto-compounding than they pay in fees.

Details are still being worked out, but it will go something like this:

Three months after an airdrop became claimable, all unclaimed STRD will be clawed back. It will then immediately be recycled into a new airdrop, which will be distributed proportionally across the original recipient set. Effectively, this means that users will have a chance to claim STRD that was left unclaimed by other users.
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Full airdrop details available here.

When Stride on-boards a new chain STRD tokens will be airdropped to members of those communities. Eligibility requirements will be similar to the genesis airdrop, i.e. snapshot taken just before announcement, airdropped to governance token stakers, exchange validators excluded, similar min and max thresholds.

Full airdrop details available here.

The "unbonding period" is the waiting period between when you unstake your tokens and when they show up in your wallet. This is a security measure implemented by the Cosmos protocol to prevent validator misbehavior and is not specific to Stride (all unstaked tokens go through this waiting period). Unbonding can take 2-4 weeks, so if you'd like to get native tokens more quickly (e.g. ATOM), you can sell stATOM on a DEX like Osmosis for ATOM, and skip the unbonding period.

In the future, withdrawals could be matched with deposits to be processed instantly.

The Stride protocol warehouses native tokens (such as ATOM) and mints staking tokens (such as stATOM). Staking tokens like stATOM are voucher for underlying ATOM. stATOM can be traded and used in DeFi, while ATOM accrues staking rewards. The Stride protocol has automated logic that stakes the underlying tokens on users' behalf. If you ever want to redeem your stATOM for your native ATOM, you can burn your stATOM with the protocol, which will trigger an unbonding of your native ATOM to your Cosmos Hub address. Note, ATOM is just an example here, the process is the same for all blockchains that Stride supports!

This is an occasional issue with the nodes that the app is using. If you refresh the page, the token should appear in your Stride wallet and you can continue to liquid stake.

This is an issue with Keplr; their team is working to improve the user interface.