# How Staking Works
### Creating a Staking Position
To participate in staking:
1. Connect your wallet and navigate to the [staking page](https://www.asterdex.com/en/staking)
2. Select a validator and click Stake button
3. Enter the amount of $ASTER to stake
4. Choose a lock period
5. Confirm the transaction
Once confirmed, the staking position becomes active and begins earning rewards in future Epochs.
### **Rewards Pool per Epoch**
Emissions per Epoch at launch:
* Base Rewards pool: 150,000 $ASTER
* Loyalty Rewards pool: 300,000 $ASTER
#### **Base APY**
Base APY is the foundational reward layer tied to validator performance. Each validator receives a share of the Base APY pool proportional to the transactions it processes.
**Validator reward calculation:**
Validator Share = Validator Transactions ÷ Total Network Transactions
Validator Reward = Base APY Pool × Validator Share
**Example:**
If the Base APY pool is 100 $ASTER and a validator processes 40% of network transactions:
Validator Reward = 100 × 40% = 40 ASTER
#### **Your Share of Base APY**
After the validator receives its reward, users earn proportionally based on their stake within that validator.
**User Base Reward Formula:**
User Reward = Validator Reward × (User Stake ÷ Total Validator Stake) × (1 − Validator Commission)
**Example:**
Parameter
Value
Validator Reward
40
Total Validator Stake
10,000,000 $ASTER
User Stake
500,000 $ASTER
Commission
10%
User stake ratio = 500,000 ÷ 10,000,000 = **5%**
After commission = 5% × (1 − 10%) = **4.5%**
User reward = 40 × 4.5% = **1.8 ASTER**
#### **Loyalty Rewards**
Loyalty Rewards are designed to reward long-term commitment. The longer you lock, the more you earn.
Reward weight is determined using veASTER and a Trading Volume Boost.
**Power formula:**
Power = veASTER × Boost
**Where:**
veASTER = Locked Amount × Time Weight
Time Weight = Remaining Lock Duration ÷ Maximum Lock Duration
Maximum lock duration = 208 weeks (approximately 4 years)
***
### **Trading Volume Boost**
Your reward weight can be boosted based on your personal trading volume within each Epoch.
| **Your Epoch Trading Volume** | **Boost** |
| ----------------------------- | --------- |
| > 500K | 1.05 |
| > 50M | 1.15 |
| > 200M | 1.25 |
***
### **Loyalty Rewards Distribution**
Loyalty Rewards are distributed proportionally based on Power share.
**User Weekly Reward:**
User Reward = Weekly Loyalty Pool × (User Power ÷ Total Network Power)
**Example:**
| **Parameter** | **Value** |
| ------------------- | -------------- |
| Weekly Loyalty Pool | 100,000 $ASTER |
| Total Network Power | 1,000,000 |
| User Power | 5,000 |
User share = 5,000 ÷ 1,000,000 = **0.5%**
User reward = 100,000 × 0.5% = **500 $ASTER**
***
### **Epoch Settlement**
Rewards are calculated and distributed using weekly Epoch cycles. Each Epoch runs Monday through Sunday. A snapshot of staking data is taken at Monday 00:00 UTC.
| **Event** | **Timing** |
| ----------- | ---------------- |
| Epoch Start | Monday 00:00 UTC |
| Snapshot | Monday 00:00 UTC |
| Settlement | Sunday 00:00 UTC |
Operations that take effect in the next Epoch include:
* New stake deposits
* Additional stake top-ups
* Lock extensions
* Redeem requests
