Most proof-of-stake networks set a defined period of time where a user must wait after staking their tokens before they are eligible to earn rewards. This can be referred to as a bonding period, warm-up period, activation queue etc. For simplicity, Netcoins refers to this wait time as a “bonding period” in our documents and mobile app.
The bonding period is the process of telling the network you want to stake tokens. The length of the bonding period represents the amount of time you wait before your assets are bonded and ready to earn rewards. Certain POS networks have bonding periods that remain constant and others change dynamically based on network activity.
When you stake ETH, as an example, a new validator must be activated on the Ethereum network before rewards can be earned. Each new validator must wait in an “activation queue” prior to being activated. The length of the activation queue fluctuates based on the number of validators waiting to be activated.
If the network is seeing an increase in staking activity, more validators will be waiting for activation and therefore the activation queue (bonding period) will be longer. Netcoins provides an estimate of the current bonding period based on current Network activity; however, it is important to remember that this estimate can change at any time.
How does this affect my staked assets?
During the bonding period, your cryptocurrency is “locked up” and cannot be sold or withdrawn. For more information on asset specific bonding periods, please see here.