IDEX Staking

IDEX staking enables traders, market makers, and fans of IDEX to operate part of the IDEX infrastructure and, in the process, contribute to the decentralization of IDEX and robustness of the platform. Stakers use IDEX tokens to operate the IDEXd node staking software. Stakers earn 50% of trade fees collected by the network as compensation for their work.

XCHAIN and Data Availability

IDEX settles to XCHAIN, an app-specific Ethereum Layer 2 built using Arbitrum Orbit. XCHAIN relies on an external Data Availability Committee (DAC) to store data and provide it on-demand instead of using its parent chain (Ethereum Layer 1) as the Data Availability (DA) layer. Storing the data offchain reduces L1 settlement costs by over 99% and allows IDEX to offer gas-free trading for its users.

The members of the DAC run a Data Availability Server (DAS) to handle the DA operations. At this time the DAC consists of IDEX and their infrastructure provider. Over time this may be expanded to include other partners, market makers, stakers, etc.

IDEX Staking - Data Storage

XCHAIN data is used both for finalizing L1 settlement as well as for processing withdrawals directly from L1. The latter ensures that users can always exit their funds from XCHAIN even if the L2 is unavailable or their transactions are being censored.

Under normal circumstances IDEX itself will provide this data. To safeguard against the risk that IDEX is unavailable, staking node operators also store a copy of the offchain data. This enhances security and ensures that users are not dependent on IDEX to guarantee access to their funds.

There are 2 ways IDEX holders can participate in staking:

1) Operate your own staking node

2) Delegate your IDEX to an existing node

Running a staking node requires downloading and running the IDEXd software. Users sign a message with their custody wallet to link their node to their staked IDEX. This can be done using any custody method, i.e. it does not require depositing or bonding tokens.

Help

If you need any assistance with IDEX staking, please use the live help feature on exchange.idex.io.