When will I receive my ADA Staking Rewards?
If you decide to stake with us, your staked coins will only be included in the pool from the next epoch (one epoch lasts 5 days).
This means that you still have to wait for the current epoch before your coins can take part in the staking process. In the second epoch, a "snapshot" at the beginning of the epoch determines that your coins will now be included in the next staking process. From the 3rd epoch onwards, you are finally involved in the actual staking process. In the 4th epoch, the rewards for the previous block are calculated. Only in the 5th epoch will you receive your rewards from the third epoch - once the pool has verified blocks.
It therefore takes AT LEAST 20 DAYS (4 epochs) until you receive the first rewards (they are paid out at the beginning of epoch 5). The process is repeated with every epoch from now on. Your rewards will automatically be added back to your stake for the next staking round. You don't have to do anything. This is done fully automatically directly on the blockchain. As a stake pool, we can neither influence nor stop this automated process - you will receive your rewards in any case!
It is decided by lot which staking pool is allowed to confirm a block, so there will also be epochs where the pool does not produce any blocks.
Please be patient and leave your coins in the pool - otherwise you might miss an era when it's our turn!
If the pool has not been allocated a block by lot in an epoch, we as pool operators will not receive any rewards either - and suffer with you, so to speak. That's why we take meticulous care to ensure that the servers are always running and have enough power to deliver blocks on time. (If the server does not deliver results fast enough, the block goes to another pool).
What happens when I change the pool?
A pool change follows the same rules as described above. You remain in your old pool for 2 epochs and receive its rewards. From the third epoch onwards, you will be staking in the new staking pool. You will therefore not lose any rewards by switching pools.
Why are small pools no worse than large pools?
In small pools with few pledges and few delegators, it can take several epochs for blocks to be allocated by lot due to the algorithm. This may wear people down and tempt them to switch pools.
However, because there are only a few delegators in these small pools, the rewards for each individual are much higher because they have to be shared with fewer delegators!
It can therefore be well worth waiting for rewards in a small staking pool, because the rewards there are much higher (in the two to three-digit ADA range - per block!).