Setup a Polkadot Staking Nomination Proxy

For the purposes of creating a proxy account that Figment can use on a nominator’s behalf, customers must create a new account on Polkadot.js to be used as a proxy. Once a nominator has created this account, they will back up the account as a .json file or mnemonic, then send the account information along with the access password in order for Figment to operate the account.

important

The creation of this account will not compromise a nominator’s tokens, as those are held within the stash account operated by the controller that holds their proxy list - the staking proxy will not have the power to do anything other than nominate with the account, and a nominator can delete the proxy at any time.

Required DOT For Deposit and Transactions

In order for a Controller to have a proxy list, the Controller must have a ProxyDepositBase of 20.008 DOT, in addition to the product of ProxyDepositFactors (.033 DOT) multiplied by the number of accounts that will be included on the proxy list.

Each proxy account must hold a small deposit in order to execute transactions. Transaction fees are measured in milliDOTs, so a small balance of around 5 DOT should be sufficient for the lifetime of transactions on the account.

important

When deleting a proxy account, the deposit will be returned to the Controller account.

Refer to the Polkadot documentation on Removing Proxy for more information.

For specifics on removing proxy rights via the Staking API, refer to our guide: Remove a Staking Proxy.

Creating a Staking Proxy Account in polkadot.js

1. Go to https://polkadot.js.org/apps/#/accounts and click Add account.
2. Follow the given steps to add the account.
3. Once you have added the account, you will still need to set it as a proxy on your Controller account. Do this by clicking on the account menu in polkadot.js (three vertical dots on the right side of the UI) and selecting Add proxy.

4. The Proxied account must be your Controller account - the Proxy account will be the account you just added to polkadot.js for this purpose. Set the type of the account to Staking as well. Once you have confirmed the details, click Submit.

5. You can verify that the proxy has been created by checking the accounts list in polkadot.js. You can click on Proxy overview to see details.

6. When you added the account to polkadot.js, you should receive a password protected .json file. Below is an example of what the file looks like. This file, along with the password you set when making the account, must be sent to staking@figment.io with a request to implement this staking proxy. The Figment team will then operate this proxy to make validator nominations on your behalf, maximizing your staking rewards.

• If for any reason you did not receive this file, you can create a new backup from the account options in the polkadot.js UI.

{
  "encoded": "MoAoycMls/0jP8lwaxcSgOoc3b/UEcQTcDJL1TFEB5cAgAAAAQAAAAgAAACWbWFR374N1mmw4l9IOyzSsy/HfBYAqmLKifd4qhfhL89zr1FlNKVAJozgN3Br8eAUjIfF0VcIIjqemCv2PJ3F8IMLaNO2IZ/PNxg3X7VEVdANjBAscAMSmWhLfEQAcqA4vsdsYJo/J1ORV0h0zIetF5WQZ1WaTDAcJLzLXKmEtRweaELSPxVLopKo0l+lHsIyQLS9hCVkTsfdrs6W",
  "encoding": {
    "content": ["pkcs8", "sr25519"],
    "type": ["scrypt", "xsalsa20-poly1305"],
    "version": "3"
  },
  "address": "5Gk6mC1wGsKow9HfQhtkHEmVTH8C2SoJe25G6r6dBy3t4zzh",
  "meta": {
    "genesisHash": "0xe143f23803ac50e8f6f8e62695d1ce9e4e1d68aa36c1cd2cfd15340213f3423e",
    "isHardware": false,
    "name": "FirstProxy",
    "tags": [],
    "whenCreated": 1667583095748
  }
}

References

• Polkadot Wiki
• Controller and Stash keys