1.) Research and choose 2 platforms where you can do Staking, explain them, compare them and indicate which one is more profitable according to your opinion. (Binace is not allowed)

2.) What is Impermanent Loss?
3.) What is Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)?
4.) Conclusion

Image made by me from logo maker

Introduction

Staking coins is a terminology used when tokens are purchased and kept or held onto to build a network of nodes that sustain block mining and thereby build a 'safety net' for overall network activity. By virtue of purchasing tokens, the owner becomes a significant part of the network safety infrastructure and is paid for it according to the number of assets they posses. The more the assets, the more interest earned.

• The PoS mechanisms for blockchains work by selecting validators in proportion to their quantity of 'shares' they hold in a chosen cryptocurrency. PoS mechanisms unlike PoW, are especially relevant with reduction in my the amounts of energy consumption.

Staking income in the form of interest is given to the purchaser (who we can call a validator) relative to the wallet or platform purchased from and these rates are dependent on the volume of trade (demand and supply). A purchaser who has secured more of a certain coin is more likely to be chosen as the new block validator.

In any given blockchain, blocks are related chronologically so that no existing transaction could ever be changed or canceled. The chain’s expansion is unidirectional, meaning that adding new blocks is the only way to update a blockchain. In public networks, any node can become eligible to participate in the creation of new blocks, and it is the job of the consensus algorithm to decide which nodes become “miners” or validators.

If done correctly, staking coins is well worth it, depending on how much you choose to hold. With increase in mining difficulty, staking became more attractive for cryptocurrency investors and therefore every crypto holder can receive regular rewards in a decentralized way.

Pros of PoS

• Keeps the network decentralized while giving all participants an equal opportunity to generate new blocks.

• Protects the network from malicious behavior and hacking.

• Ensures that the blockchain has only true version of the history of transactions.

_______________________________

Explaining Atomic and Hyperjump Platforms.

_______________________________

Hyper-jump

The hyper jump platform is a decentralized application that runs on binance Smart chain and is supported by the Trust wallet.

Image Source

Hyper Alloy commonly referred to as Alloy is the exchange or trading token on the Hyperjump platform whilst Mech is the official staking token although it must be converted from the Alloy, even though it may be bought from another Exchange.

With a market cap of $319,132 US dollars and a circulating supply of 3,453 286 the token has become popular by the day and since it is a yield farming token, it's supply is infinite and alot of it is being mined everyday.

Staking on Hyper-Jump

The trustwallet can be used to stake on the hyper jump. One needs to have BEP 20 BNB token in the Trust wallet to be able to stake on Hyper-Jump (hyperjump.fi). You then buy Alloy from your wallet.

Image Source

With Alloy, you find the stacking pool and convert Alloy into Mechs, where;
01 Mech equals 05 Alloy tokens.

Image Source

There are four mining pools on Hyper-Jump;

• One compulsory pool and
• Three optional pools.

The compulsory pool is the Alloy Pool where you build Mench and start earning Alloy immediately. The other two are optional pools from which you can choose to stake according to the incentives given out.

Source

Source

Transactions on the platform are characterized by buying Alloy for staking, building Mech, converting Mechs to Alloy and swapping the Alloy back into BNB or USDT.

Source

Investors on the pools detach their stakes from the inactive pools and place them on more active pools since the reward for each pool depends on the APR. They can convert it back to Alloy anytime they want with a small gas fee. The pools and the NPR are Alloy (89.72%), Wings (114.61%), BHN (138.62%) and ONT (128.55%).

Atomic Platform

Source

When stacking from a cold storage environment like the Atomic wallet, staking is a safe way to gain interest on your investment. You can get full control over your private keys and you can withdraw your tokens at any time.

Source

Staking on Atomic Platform

In Atomic staking, users are able to stake for assets or delegate funds to personally chosen validators without fear of being charged and rewards flow directly from them hence a centralized zero fee staking experience. They can unstake or stake anytime they want with no limits.

Source

Source

Source

Source

The Atomic wallet also supports any ethereum ERC20 tokens and therefore users can either work with the in-built ones or add any other tokens by sending it to their Atomic wallet ETH address. After downloading the wallet, I chose to stake TRX and earn upto 5.0% in the wallet interface.

Source

Source

Source

Source

Source

_______________________________

Comparison of both staking platforms.

_______________________________

Similarities.

HYPERJUMP	ATOMIC
DPoS is possible	Funds can be delegated to verified validators.
You can mine more than one token(Alloy)	More tokens earned than Atom

Both also run on the Binance Smart Chain.

Differences.

HYPERJUMP	ATOMIC
Native Token is Alloy	Uses Native Atom
One can not stake on the pools without BNB BEP 20 token	The fees are charged by the COSMOS blockchain directly.
The APR is relatively high on all pools	Atomic has higher rewards of 5% per annum.
The total value locked (TVL) is $16,045,418	(TVL) is $90,000,000

My take; Staking on Atomic platform is more profitable because it offers an higher APR compared to Hyper-Jump. Staking 40 TRON on Atomic wallet would get 2 TRON in a year while the same on Hyper-Jump would fetch 0.298 TRON.

______________________________

2.) What is Impermanent Loss?

_______________________________

Impermanent loss is the difference between owning two assets and pooling them where one of the assets is volatile in relation to the other.

• This is the difference that occurs in value between funds in an AMM and funds in the wallet paid. When the value of the cash staked in the AMM unexpectedly changes, it is called impermanent loss. Because of the volatility in a trading pair, the price change results in an impermanent loss of funds.

The bigger the price changes, the greater the chance of the impermanent loss

• Impermanent loss can be reverted or recovered if the tokens' initial price in the AMM returns to the level it was at initially, when you first engaged the AMM. It may take little time or longer depending on the volatility.

However, sometimes the loss can become permanent, consuming all of your trading profits and leaving you with zero or decreased interest.

Example

An example can be taken from the Steemit internal wallet to illustrate what an impermanent loss can be related to.

While buying Steem to power up, I bought it at a low price. However, because I delayed in verification of the transaction that required my active key, by the time I put it in and powered up, the prices had changed and it was stuck in a 'que', waiting for the price to go back to the initial buying price.

I waited for about 52 minutes and after it went back, I was given my power up.

In such a state, I had experienced a sort of impermanent loss, which was later re-embarsed to my account.

_______________________________

3.) What is Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS)?

_______________________________

The word 'delegate' means to give someone power and authority to act on your behalf, in your capacity.

• Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) therefore comes from the Proof of Stake (PoS) idea, in which network users vote and elect delegates to validate the next mining block, with the capacity of their votes.

These delegates are also called 'Witnesses' or 'block producers' whose main job is to get paid mining new blocks on the Blockchain network. Witnesses are voted using DPoS where tokens are staked in a staking pool and attached to specific delegates of your choice. Witnesses' responsibilities include ensuring the nodes are running with no interruptions, and building into blocks to validate transactions.

Instead of transferring tokens to another wallet, they are staked in a staking pool through a staking service provider. The DPOS has a voting method in which each vote is equal to one frozen token, a system that is not found in the PoW or PoS mechanisms and is admirable for its scalability and low power consumption. DPoS is important as it increases the number of operations, yet shortening the times for response.

Conclusion

• In the task above, I have tried to cite two platforms of my choice i.e Atomic and Hyperjump, to clarify on the topic of staking for interest on them. I have explained, and compared them and stated the Atomic platform as more profitable according to my analysis*.

• I have also explained the meanings of impermanent loss and DPoS in the Cryptocurrency world.

I beg to submit, thank you professor.

Cc @steemcurator02
c.c @imagen
c.c @pelon53