How to stake GLMR

To get started, head to apps.moonbeam.network/moonbeam. MetaMask will prompt you to connect to the network. Click next and then click connect. MetaMask should prompt you to add the Moonbeam network to the wallet, click approve, and then ‘Switch Network’.
Make sure you are connected to the account that you are staking with by selecting the correct account on MetaMask.

Navigating the homepage
The balance tab shows your free balance that is available to stake, the amount you currently have that is being staked, and also the number of tokens locked in democracy. The resources tab has different tutorials to help you navigate the application.

Staking
To start staking your GLMR tokens, click on the manage delegations button. Next, click on select a collator. This will open a new tab listing the different collators you can delegate your stake to.

Selecting a collator
At this step, there are two tabs, namely ‘Active’ and ‘Waiting’. The active pool contains collators that are actively receiving staking rewards. The waiting pool contains collators who don’t yet have enough stake to make it into the active pool. If you would like to earn staking rewards right away, click on the active pool.
When choosing a collator, be aware of the following terms:
- Self-Bonded means how many GLMR tokens this collator has put in themselves (you ideally want to see a relatively high number here as it shows commitment from the collator)
- Effective amount bonded is the amount of GLMR that is currently in this pool (lower is better)
- Delegations are the number of unique accounts that have delegated to this collator
- Min bond is the minimum amount of GLMR you need to delegate to the pool and earn staking rewards
- Blocks per round tell you the performance of the collator in the last round. Make sure this is not zero for the collator you choose to delegate to.

Once you have selected a collator, type in the amount of GLMR you want to stake with the collator and click delegate. Sign the transaction and you will start earning staking rewards two blocks (12 hours) from the time you delegate.
Conclusion
To optimize your staking rewards you need to ensure you are delegating to the collator offering the highest rewards for your delegated stake. Check out our other articles which provide a more in-depth explanation on choosing the best possible collator.

If you haven't done so already, check out our staking + analytics dashboard at stakeglmr.com