As you have probably already picked up in the media; Cardano has reached the third and final phase before the Shelley mainnet goes live: an Incentivized Testnet that all ada holders can join to earn real ada rewards.

Rewards earned from the Incentivized Testnet will be transferred to the mainnet: the ada earned from delegating your stake are real and will be transferred to the mainnet when it goes live.

The Incentivized Testnet will begin with a snapshot, sometime later this month, of all the ada balances held across the mainnet. This snapshot will capture the value of your ada balance at the time. This balance value – not the ada itself – will then be copied over into the Incentivized Testnet.

To participate in the Incentivized Testnet you’ll need to ensure that you are holding your ada in a Daedalus or Yoroi wallet prior to the snapshot. Don’t worry. The snapshot works as a freeze-frame; ada held at the time can be freely exchanged and transferred immediately after.

You will be informed of the snapshot details as soon as they are known, so you’ll be able to move your funds in advance. We don’t want you to miss out!

No technical knowledge is required to delegate your stake. To take part, you will need to download one of the special testnet Daedalus or Yoroi wallets.

After the snapshot, you’ll be able to access your testnet wallet as you would your mainnet wallet – by entering your mnemonic phrase – to view your Incentivized Testnet ada balance. The testnet wallets will feature an option to delegate your stake to one or more stake pools. You’ll be able to choose how you delegate from within the wallet.

The ada within the Incentivized Testnet can be used to delegate or to operate a stake pool. It cannot be spent and cannot be transferred out of the testnet. Once this phase is complete, however, the rewards accumulated within the testnet will be transferred to the mainnet, as a real, spendable payment: the ada earned on the testnet represents real money!

You will be able to work out the approximate rewards for delegating a stake pool using a soon-to-be-released calculator on this page. Stay tuned for more news soon!

Click on the button below for the official announcement by the Cardano team.

Best regards,

Staking4ada.org