Introduction to the AllianceBlock Staking Program

5 min readMar 12, 2021

1. Highlights

AllianceBlock Staking Program is launching on 17th March at 4 pm UTC.
Users will be able to choose from 4 staking periods: 3, 6, 12, and 24 months.
Each pool will have a maximum token cap; once reached, users will not be able to stake additional assets.
User rewards consist of dynamic rewards generated by the ecosystem’s utilization of staked assets.
In case of full utilization of the Staking program, an expected total of 38,500,000 ALBT will be locked
Users will earn rewards on a per-block basis.
Users participating in staking at the time AllianceBlock’s Node Operator Program launches will be automatically eligible to participate in the node operator program with their staked funds earning additional rewards.

All functions will be available via AllianceBlock UI. A detailed tutorial with an image guide will be provided before the staking starts.

2. Introduction

Last month in our AllianceBlock Liquidity Mining 2.0.0 Sneak Peak article, we announced our plans to launch AllianceBlock’s Staking solution. This innovative product is intended to provide staking as an essential part of liquidity provisioning for the AllianceBlock ecosystem and lay a strong foundation for an array of upcoming investment products being developed.

After making significant progress in recent months, we are delighted to announce that our solution has successfully passed two independent security audits and is ready to be launched on 17th March at 4 pm UTC.

3. Economic consideration

In AllianceBlock, we firmly believe that each part of the ecosystem has to provide value; thus, “staking for the sake of staking” is counterproductive to this core belief as it brings inflation whilst providing limited additional value to the rest of the ecosystem. AllianceBlock’s staking and single-sided liquidity provisioning programs were designed to combat potential inflation by being an integral part of the ecosystem. All staked funds will be used to provide sufficient liquidity to facilitate a true transformation of both DeFi and TradFi markets, and staking returns are tied to the system utilization and economic performance, virtually eliminating the impact of any potential inflation. This is achieved by using a portion of ecosystem fees as a staking reward source, meaning the staked funds are fully automatically used to “earn their wage” by:

Securing the network
Participating in nodes
Acting as a liquidity source
Acting as a counterparty to single-sided staking (more later)
Providing collateralization to loans backed by the NFTs
Support liquidity of client pairs deployed via Liquidity Mining as a Service
Support fixed income products powered by AllianceBlock DeFi lending
Facilitate remittance for FIAT backed saving products bridging Traditional Banking with Digital Banking

4. Staking Rewards and Metrics

As mentioned in the previous chapter, staked assets will be used to facilitate a number of crucial economic functions in AllianceBlock’s ecosystem; as such, the maximum APY is variable and technically unlimited.

AllianceBlock will deploy four staking smart contracts with different lock periods. The user will be able to choose in what “Period” staking contract to stake their tokens. As a rule of thumb, the longer the lockup duration, the higher yield will be provided. The total number of tokens depositable in each staking contract is limited; once this number is reached, users will not be able to stake additional assets. Users wishing to stake their assets will be served on a first-come-first-served basis. In case all staking contracts are fully filled, an expected total of 38,500,000 ALBT will be locked.

The reward that the individual participant is entitled to is a function of three variables:

The share of the total assets staked in the pool provided by the participant
The duration for which the user has provided their funds for
The economic performance of staked funds

Note: Rewards are distributed each block.

4.1. Staking Pool Overview

In phase 1, AllianceBlock will launch four pools, each with its own unique nickname, metrics, and future participation NFT providing various benefits to qualified participants (more details about the AllianceBlock NFT program coming soon).

Fast Alberts
Pool Duration: 3 months
Maximum deposit cap: 6,000,000 ALBT

Visions of Future
Pool Duration: 6 months
Maximum deposit cap: 7,500,000 ALBT

Iron Hands
Pool Duration: 12 months
Maximum deposit cap: 12,000,000 ALBT

No Mercy
Pool Duration: 24 months
Maximum deposit cap: 13,000,000 ALBT

5. Entering and Exiting staking

All staking contracts will act as “open door” contracts allowing new participants’ entrance throughout their whole duration, meaning that some users might enter the “12 months lock” contract with three months already elapsed. However, it’s important to note that once a user enters a given staking pool, they cannot exit the pool until the end of the given staking pool duration.

This decision was taken to protect genuine staking participants from speculative malicious actors aiming to exploit significantly higher yields in long-term contracts by entering for a short period of time and exiting prematurely, siphoning additional rewards from genuine participants.

5. 1. Personal contribution cap period

In order to provide a fair and equal chance to each member of our community to join our staking program, we have decided to introduce a contribution cap per wallet of 300,000 ALBT per contract per wallet.

5. 2. Withdrawal cooldown period

To provide fair and transparent withdrawals at the conclusion of the staking period and prevent any significant “supply shocks,” we have decided to introduce a concept of Cooldown windows for user withdrawals. There will be a fixed amount of assets (such as ALBT) that users will be available to claim every 24 hours for each contract. The time will be measured in blocks. If the amount of tokens to be claimed is exhausted, then users won’t be able to claim but will instead be put in a “cooldown” queue. Users will be able to see on the dashboard how much time is left until the cool-down period is over. Once this cool-down period is completed, Users will be served on a first-come-first-served basis.

About AllianceBlock

AllianceBlock is building the first globally compliant decentralized capital market. The AllianceBlock Protocol is a decentralized, blockchain-agnostic layer 2 that automates the process of converting any digital or crypto asset into a bankable product.

Incubated by three of Europe’s most prestigious incubators: Station F, L39, and Kickstart Innovation in Zurich, and led by a heavily experienced team of ex-JP Morgan, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Goldman Sachs investment bankers, and quants, AllianceBlock is on the path to disrupt the $100 trillion securities market with its state-of-the-art and globally compliant decentralized capital market.