Re-delegating staked FET token 👥

Re-delegation is the process of moving some or all of the stakes you delegated with one validator to another.

It you wish to re-delegate, please do not manually remove your stake from one validator and stake with another. This will trigger the unbonding period, causing you to miss out on staking rewards for 21 days while you wait for the unbonding period to end. Re-delegation, unlike manually removing and adding stake, is an instant process for moving some or all of your staked FETs from one validator to another.

Why Re-Delegate

There may be different reasons why you might choose to re-delegate and redistribute your stakes. For instance:

1. To increase the decentralization and therefore security of the network.

   For the Fetch network to be as secure as possible, there should not be a large concentration of stakes (e.g. more than 33% of the delegated FETs) staked within only a small number of (e.g. 10) validators. If you see this is currently the case and that you have also contributed to it by delegating your stakes with one of those validators, you may want to consider redistributing your stakes to some of the other validators.

2. To reduce your staking risks.

   Remember that when you delegate your tokens with a validator, just as you share the rewards for their contribution to the network's consensus protocol, you also share the punishment they would receive if they misbehave and act against the network's protocol. If this happens, your stake with them will be slashed. To reduce this risk, you may choose to re-delegate parts of your stakes to other validators to have a wider stake distribution.

To Re-Delegate your Stake

1. Go to the ledger browser page ↗️ (opens in a new tab).

2. Connect your wallet, if it is not yet connected, by pressing Connect Wallet at the top right.

3. Click on your wallet address at the top right of the page to go to your staking dashboard.

4. In the Delegations section, click Transfer Stake for the validator you wish to re-delegate some or all of your stakes from.

5. In the pop-up, select a validator that you'd like to re-delegate your stakes to.

   The validators are not in any order on the drop-down list. To see the validators' details see validator voting power distribution ↗️ (opens in a new tab) and validator details ↗️ (opens in a new tab).

6. Enter the amount of FETs you wish to re-delegate to the new validator and click Transfer Stake.

7. The wallet shows you a summary of the transaction. Review it, select a transaction fee, and if you are happy, hit Approve to complete the operation.

Choosing a Validator

Choosing a validator to delegate your stake with is an important decision which ultimately impacts the network's security and performance. When you choose a validator, you are essentially casting a vote in the network indicating their trustworthiness, and that it is beneficial to have them participate in the maintenance of the network's operation.

When it comes to choose a validator, it is completely up to you to research about the delegators thus to do your own research and due diligence to find out about their reputation and how well they have performed so far. Delegation is meant to be an active role between you and a validator.

To help you choose the most suitable validator, here is a list of criteria you could look for:

• Do they have a website?
• Do they have an active presence on social media (e.g. Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, ...)?
• Are they easy to contact (e.g. on Discord, Telegram, ...)?
• Do they have FET self-bonded to their node?
• Are they active in the community?
• Do they have a high uptime?
• Do they offer slashing & double sign protection?
• Do they participate and vote on proposals?
• Do they have a mission or set of principles that align with yours?
• Some of these questions can be answered via our Native Block Explorer or Mintscan. Some of the others on this list will require you to reach out to validators for answers, which is a good opportunity to see if they are active or not.