Subsocial chat program implements Ethereum usernames, Polygon donations

June 8, 2023 Coin Telegraph

chat

Despite running on a Polkadot parachain, Grill.chat lets users post using Ethereum wallets and send payments via Polygon.

Grill.chat, a chat app based on the Subsocial network, has now implemented Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) wallet compatibility, allowing users to chat using their Ethereum identities and send crypto to each other via Polygon, according to a June 7 announcement.

Subsocial is a Polkadot parachain designed for social media applications.

Grill.chat allows users to participate in over 70 chat rooms focused on mostly crypto-related topics. The development team seeks to attract new Web3 projects to build their communities on the platform.

*Polkadot Decoded chat room on Grill.chat. Source: Grill.chat*

The integration means that users can now connect their Subsocial wallets to their EVM wallets by signing a transaction verifying that they are the wallet’s owner. This prevents them from needing to own SUB tokens to donate to other users, and it allows them to prove their Ethereum identities to users in chat rooms. In the future, the developers plan to use this integration to allow nonfungible token (NFT) collections to be shown to other users.

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Subsocial CEO Zachary Edwards stated that Grill.chat is targeting crypto projects as potential sponsors of chat rooms. Currently, many crypto communities are built around Discord servers and Telegram channels. These channels cannot be integrated into the developer’s website, which means that users need to load a separate program to join the community or interact with it, creating what Edwards sees as unneeded friction for users.

By contrast, chat groups on Grill.chat can be integrated into a development team’s website or application interface. Edwards pointed to the example of Zeitgeist, a blockchain-based predictions market app. Its interface features a “chat” icon that opens directly into a Zeitgeist chat room on Grill.chat.

*Zeitgeist user interface with Grill.chat window open. Source: Zeitgeist*

However, the app’s users previously encountered friction from another source, Edwards said. Many of the biggest crypto projects are on EVM-based networks such as Ethereum, Polygon and Avalanche. Crypto users are accustomed to using wallets from these networks and don’t necessarily want to download a new wallet to use a chat app.

To partially solve this problem, the team implemented a feature that lets users create a Subsocial wallet directly from the app’s interface. They also paid for users’ gas fees via a smart contract that can delegate signing privileges for a limited number of functions.

But this still didn’t completely solve the problem, as it siloed the user’s Ethereum identity from their Grill.chat posts. The team implemented EVM compatibility to make it easier for Ethereum users to switch to the app, Edwards explained.

“The cool thing is it's sort of using this off-chain signer technology because, at the end of the day, it’s all running on Substrate [Polkadot parachain technology], and EVM wallets aren’t compatible with Substrate,” Edwards stated. “But we can still connect those two accounts together so you can chat on the substrate chain, but your EVM account is linked, so you can have identity, donations, NFTs, all of this sort of stuff.”

Grill.chat isn’t the only social media app trying to entice crypto projects into building communities on it. OpenChat is a chat app on the Internet Computer network. Its team told Cointelegraph it’s working on a similar feature to show OpenChat chat rooms on a project’s website.

Web3 companies are racing to create a blockchain-based social media app that will see mass adoption. On April 26, the Polygon-based Lens network announced a new scaling solution that it said would allow for “instant posts.” The same day, MeWe said it would move its 20 million users to the Polkadot parachain network Frequency.

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Users are going to decide if they can still trust Ledger with their wallet keys

May 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Ledger’s decision to introduce a third party to your wallet seed phrase created an exploit that could appeal to both governments and hackers.

Self-custody is important in crypto, and security is essential to self-custody. Ledger, a notable hardware wallet manufacturer, has built its reputation on the secure storage of users’ private keys. Hardware wallets create a secure offline environment for storing keys and using keys to execute transactions.

The user’s private keys are generated and stored within the device and are supposed to never leave it. This “cold storage” provides an unrivaled level of security compared with “hot wallets” or online wallets. The problem is that lots of people lose their keys.

Ledger rolled out a seed phrase backup product this week called Ledger Recover. If you give the company your ID and personal information, you can pay for a service that takes your seed phrase within your device, encrypts it into three “shards” and then shares them with various custodians.

Introducing a third party inherently centralizes control, creating a single point of failure that could be exploited by hackers or be subject to regulatory actions.

I don’t begrudge Ledger its effort to grow as a business to reach non-OG and non-cypherpunk-ethos users. Millions of normies, like our skeptical baby boomer in-laws, will only ever be onboarded to crypto through this type of custodial backup approach. Its mistake may have been in trying to use the same product to appeal to both crypto self-custody OGs and the broader future customer normies.

Ledger’s rollout of its backup product met with some strong reactions among its community of customers. Many were surprised to learn that Ledger has always had the capacity to touch your secret key with its hardware updates. Many of us view our hardware devices as sacrosanct. I clearly wasn’t knowledgeable enough about this device that I trust to protect my crypto assets.

Yesterday I freaked out about the revelation that @Ledger could spit out your private key with a firmware update.

Yet I noticed the smartest people were not freaking out. Was I missing something?

I spent the evening educating myself, and now I'm in the "nvm it's fine" camp.
— Haseeb ＞|＜ (@hosseeb) May 17, 2023

Haseeb Qureshi chimed in that while he also reacted negatively at first, he realized that this was always true about Ledger. We’ve always trusted it not to insert malware in its firmware updates to steal our seed phrases. He’s not wrong, but I wouldn’t say that’s a comforting thought.

In the end, nothing bad can happen on your hardware device unless you sign a transaction. You retain the power. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a coder — I can’t tell a malicious update from a legitimate one, so I’m trusting Ledger on that too. And I don’t exactly have the option not to approve the latest firmware update that includes Ledger Recover capability, as Ledger warns that failure to update your firmware is a security risk.

They do a shit job of providing trust in the software stack though. A better design would incorporate functionality like certificate transparency or key transparency, so you wouldn't have to hope they don't unaccountably send you a buggy firmware
— Andrew Miller (@socrates1024) May 17, 2023

I do trust Ledger — it’s a great company. It has been the linchpin in the technology stack for crypto self-custody, at least in my own crypto journey.

But the goal of a crypto self-custody tool should be to minimize trust requirements. And that could be improved at Ledger through open-sourcing more of its software and hardware. Ledger’s chief technology officer was asked about this on May 17’s Bankless podcast and responded that Ledger has signed nondisclosure agreements that preclude it from doing so and argued that people are unlikely to crowdsource security audits anyway.

I’ll bet security researchers like Andrew Miller, who uncovered vulnerabilities in the Secret Network, would take up that task.

1/ Ledger "Recover," a thread

Last night Ledger accidentally leaked some info on their new recovery subscription service, and today they revealed the details.

Let's walk through their proposed "solution" to cryptocurrency custody and how dangerous it is. pic.twitter.com/8GnCKv7hTH
— Seth For Privacy (@sethforprivacy) May 16, 2023

While Ledger’s communications regarding the rollout have been a disaster, its crisis communications have been enlightening. I have certainly realized I had an insufficient understanding of how hardware wallets work. But “Sorry, we can’t open-source anything because of NDAs” is an insufficient answer to those in the community who have concerns that Ledger Recover could be used by a malicious actor to trick users with a fake update and steal their seed phrase.

Ledger could also give me the option to continue to update my firmware without adding the Ledger Recover code to my device. But in the absence of open-sourcing its firmware, it won’t do much, as we won’t have any way to verify its claims.

This could be a branding win if Ledger pivoted to roll out a “cypherpunk”-branded dimension to its hardware and software that appeases the OG crypto community such that they might be willing to opt into it, and lets existing hardware owners opt into it for their previously purchased hardware such that new updates are cypherpunk-branded and -approved, as open source as possible, with crowdsourced security audits — the whole package. All would be forgiven.

For now, it doesn’t seem Ledger plans to do that. So, the options are to use open-source hardware wallets, but those do not have Ledger’s wide-ranging interoperability with emerging blockchains. Or you could build your own, or just use the new refurbished Gameboy open source hardware wallet.

For now, and for many coins, the safest option is probably to trust Ledger while staying open to competing developers of open-source hardware wallets.

J.W. Verret is an associate professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. He is a practicing crypto forensic accountant and also practices securities law at Lawrence Law LLC. He is a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Advisory Council and a former member of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee. He also leads the Crypto Freedom Lab, a think tank fighting for policy change to preserve freedom and privacy for crypto developers and users.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

I run a Ledger competitor — but I support them in blow-up over keys

May 18, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Ledger’s latest update — aimed at making private seed phrases on its wallets recoverable — was simply an attempt to innovate and improve user security.

It’s counterintuitive for a CEO to defend a competitor, particularly when that competitor is rolling out a feature similar to one we pioneered years ago. But given the debacle around Ledger’s new “Ledger Recover” feature, it’s time to provide a balanced perspective.

The company is under fire for releasing an update to its wallet firmware that allows it to send a version of the wallet seed phrase to third parties. But the outrage feels out of proportion. The perception that Ledger is carelessly “sending seed phrases to a server” is fundamentally misinformed. Let’s be clear: The new system is opt-in only. There is no forced participation or hidden backdoor. The seed is locally split into three encrypted shards using Shamir Secret Sharing, a well-respected cryptographic process, and sent encrypted, a practice the industry has been familiar with for years.

One of the corporations hosting the shards is EscrowTech, a company we brought into the crypto sector four years ago. I’m confident that Ledger, despite our rivalry, can successfully implement a system that matches its claims. They’ve shown commitment and seriousness in the past, and there is no reason to expect otherwise now.

WTF is this real @Ledger ? this is unreal im literally getting sick

do you have any idea how much money your devices secure ???

have you been lying all this time saying the seed on the device cannot be accessed in anyway? pic.twitter.com/34txno7koR
— Clouted (@CloutedMind) May 16, 2023

In the face of backlash, it’s essential to remember: If you don’t like it, don’t use it. Period.

We have always strived to provide an upgrade to such systems, but for those who choose to stick with seed phrases, Ledger Recover is undeniably a step forward. I’m giving credit to Ledger where it is due: To truly onboard billions, and move assets to our self-custodial universe, Ledger Recover is a potential solution. Securely encrypted secrets stored in the cloud are the future, not pieces of paper or steel plates stored under your mattress or worse in a bank vault (the irony…)!

That being said, there are a few things Ledger got wrong. Their suggested solution identifies a fundamental problem that cannot be fixed by Ledger Recover: seed phrases. I dislike them and consider them outdated and unfit for personal security. An estimated $100 billion in Bitcoin (BTC) (alone) has been lost or stolen in the last decade because of seed phrase mismanagement. And it’s not getting any better: Every day, new stories of key misplacement and loss appear on forums, such as Reddit and Twitter.

Seed phrases represent a single point of failure, which puts too much burden on the user and is prone to human error, phishing attacks, account takeovers and so many more disasters. Multiparty computation (MPC) wallets and other battle-tested cryptographic techniques offer vastly superior trade-offs where seed-based approaches seem archaic in today’s rapidly advancing digital landscape.

Ledger’s current users, mostly hardcore crypto enthusiasts, feel betrayed, but the existing seed model simply doesn’t work for everyone. Even Ledger acknowledged it on its own website.

Beyond ignoring the fundamental seed phrase vulnerability, Ledger Recover itself has its own share of issues: The one-way firmware update, the closed-source sharding, the Know Your Customer (KYC) gating, the pay-to-recover scheme and, most of all, the “trust me this is opt-in only” without ways to verify the source code. The closed code, dependence on external custodians and the seven-day cut-off if payment ceases will absolutely surface more questions (and already has).

The introduction of Ledger Recover might also invite new attack vectors on and off systems: From local malware to government coercion, social engineering (already deployed at scale in their last e-commerce breach) and fake KYC recovery, which need to be addressed. Lastly, Ledger’s communications and timing could have been better articulated and managed to avoid the current uproar.

However, this doesn’t take away from the fact that they are trying to innovate and improve user security, albeit in a different way than we might.

To Ledger, I suggest providing a comprehensive demo video end-to-end, a documented white paper with possible third-party audit reports, and a thorough explanation of how Ledger Recover works. The FAQs leave questions unanswered, and customers are left guessing or misinterpreting the service. The community thought they could trust you blindly, but you need to earn this back after this episode.

This is not a clear-cut case of right or wrong. Ledger is making strides in the right direction and has built a remarkable track record in an incredibly hostile environment — we know that first-hand. But they also have room to learn and improve.

Imposing a new security path, even optional, is like asking to believe in a second religion you did not choose in the first place. It’s a divisive issue, certainly, but it’s vital for the crypto community to focus on facts rather than interpretations. Eventually, our words here (or on social media) will not matter, and people will vote with their dollars (I mean their crypto). As competitors, we may not agree on every detail, but we can all agree on the need for innovation, security and transparency.

Ouriel Ohayon is a co-founder and the CEO of ZenGo, a consumer MPC wallet established in 2018. He’s a former executive at ICQ/AOL; the founder of TechCrunch France (sold to AOL); and the founder rof Isai.fr, a leading French VC. He was general manager of the Gemini’s internet lab and Lightspeed Ventures.

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Elizabeth Warren wants the police at your door in 2024

April 26, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Roger Marshall want to make your crypto wallet illegal — and their plan runs contrary to the principles they campaigned on.

In 2022, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren authored a bill that would require cryptocurrency wallet providers to comply with bank Anti-Money Laundering rules. Not crypto exchanges, mind you, but the wallets themselves. Kansas Senator Roger Marshall joined her on the proposal as a co-sponsor.

Sadly, Marshall betrayed the populist principles he ran on as a candidate. The bill also betrayed the civil liberties and privacy tenets of progressivism that Warren espouses.

Warren and Marshall are planning to reignite that debate on Capitol Hill this summer and have enlisted law enforcement advocates to their cause. Prosecutors and federal agents doubtless support the bill, as they have every other bill that turns the one-way ratchet of financial surveillance. If they had their way, our personal bank account and credit card logins would rest on a central repository for the Department of Justice to access at will and without a warrant.

The Warren bill would require that anyone who designs a crypto wallet (a computer program designed to store the encryption code that helps to keep your crypto tokens secure) register as a money services business and, essentially, be regulated like a financial institution.

This means that any computer programmer entrepreneur who writes code to help customers control crypto investments from their phone — and to help keep the crypto secure from hackers — would need to register with the Treasury Department as if they were Western Union. Good luck with that, crypto startups.

Last year, Senator Warren introduced a bill that would adopt's China's approach, by imposing a de facto ban on public blockchains hidden under the guise of AML compliance.

Reports say the bill will be reintroduced again soon.

Let's not take our cues on crypto from the CCP.
— Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) February 17, 2023

Warren instigated the bill. The quiet part she is not saying out loud (and that Marshall doesn’t seem to understand) is that this blunt application of rules for Western Union, when applied to entrepreneur computer coders, doesn’t work. They can’t comply, and she knows it.

This bill is a Trojan horse designed to destroy the crypto markets under the false guise of a pro-national security bill. It’s a smart strategy. Convince national security conservatives that this is an answer to a perceived problem, particularly members with little background knowledge of how crypto works, and then let crypto development die off.

The legislation also seeks to outright ban crypto privacy tools. If the vision of Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment will ever be realized, it needs to be private. Without privacy tools that would be banned by this legislation, every time you use Bitcoin to pay for a coffee, the barista can use your public key to look up your entire transaction history. Thieves and hackers can do the same.

There are tools on popular blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum that can provide user privacy, and they are being used around the world, as we speak, by citizens of totalitarian regimes like Iran’s. Women in Afghanistan living under Taliban rule use these crypto tools to provide for their families in secret. The Warren/Marshall crypto bill to end privacy would expose all of these crypto users to surveillance by the Taliban, Russia and North Korean hackers alike. That ultimately harms national security.

When donors sent Bitcoin to Canadian trucker protestors over vaccine mandates in Canada — protesters aligned with Marshall’s views against censorship and cancel culture — the Canadian government tracked down those donors and aggressively canceled their bank accounts.

The proposed bill would force crypto wallet providers to adopt regulations similar to those imposed on traditional banks that were used by Canadian authorities against the truckers. Marshall was glad to get help from Trump voters in his reelection, but now seems to be doing an about-face on that commitment. Marshall promised to fight against censorship and cancel culture — not give Warren allies more tools for censorship.

It’s ironic that even after Marshall gave trucker protest leaders a tour of the United States Capitol, he now supports a tool that has already been used against Canadian trucker protesters and those who tried to donate Bitcoin to support them. Ultimately, Marshall’s decision to co-sponsor this bill betrays the populist and pro-Trump principles he ran on as a candidate.

When Marshall was asked to choose between taking a stand against the financial regulatory tools progressives use to cancel anyone they disagree with or standing with Warren and her Trojan horse bill to destroy cryptocurrency, he chose to stand with Warren. Hopefully, his Republican colleagues in the Senate will not make the same mistake.

Law enforcement’s tired refrain that some really bad crimes might occur without the latest surveillance law should fall flat in Congress. And if it does not, civil libertarians on the Supreme Court — such as Justice Neil Gorsuch — may be crypto’s last hope.

J.W. Verret is an associate professor at the George Mason Law School. He is a practicing crypto forensic accountant and also practices securities law at Lawrence Law LLC. He is a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Advisory Council and a former member of the SEC Investor Advisory Committee. He also leads the Crypto Freedom Lab, a think tank fighting for policy change to preserve freedom and privacy for crypto developers and users.

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How to stake Cardano (ADA) in a self-custodial wallet

April 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Blockchain

Cardano is one of the largest layer-1 blockchains by market capitalization but what does the DeFi ecosystem offer for staking?

Cardano is one of the largest layer-1 blockchain solutions by market capitalization. The project is being driven by Input-Output (a Charles Hoskinson company), Emurgo and the Cardano Foundation. The chain was named after the Italian mathematician Gerolamo Cardano and its token ADA is named after the 19th-century mathematician Ada Lovelace.

Cardano uses Ouroboros, a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism where ADA holders can delegate their funds to stake pools. The cumulative stake allows each pool to verify transactions, create blocks and govern the network.

Ouroboros uses cryptography, combinatorics, and mathematical game theory to guarantee the protocol’s integrity, longevity and performance. These validators are paid by the Ouroboros protocol with a fixed pool cost and an optional margin. Ouroboros also directly assigns staking rewards to all delegators.

Combinatorics is the study of counting and arrangements, while mathematical game theory analyzes strategic interactions between rational decision-makers.

Staking allows ADA holders that do not have the skills or desire to run a node to participate in the network and be rewarded in proportion to the amount of stake delegated. Staking pools are a solution for users who want to stake their tokens onto their respective blockchains but do not necessarily play the role of validators on the network.

This article breaks down the steps involved in staking ADA in a self-custodial wallet, the tools needed and the rewards available for the users.

What are self-custodial wallets?

Self-custody is a method to hold cryptocurrencies or nonfungible token (NFT) assets in a wallet that only the user typically can access and control. The alternative option is to hold these assets on centralized exchanges where the users are exposed to counterparty risks if the exchange fails.

Nonetheless, most self-custodial wallets still require users to hold on to their private keys. Private keys are necessary for users to maintain control over their crypto assets. Unlike when stored on centralized exchanges, self-custody eliminates counterparty risk. This is why it is generally regarded as an ideal option for Web3 users, especially after the collapse of several exchanges in 2022.

Most layer-1 ecosystems have their native wallet solutions. For instance, Ethereum and ERC-20 assets primarily rely on MetaMask, while many Solana users rely on Phantom wallets.

When Cardano launched in 2017, there was a full-wallet implementation with IOHK’s Daedalus. Two years later, Emurgo launched the Yoroi light wallet. Since the Shelley mainnet hard fork in 2020, the wallet landscape in the Cardano ecosystem has expanded significantly.

There are full-node and light wallets for Windows, Linux and Mac as sovereign applications, browser plugins or mobile apps. Moreover, Cardano wallet apps can handle both single- and multi-address wallets. This is because Cardano is UTXO-based like Bitcoin and not account-based like Ethereum.

In addition, Cardano has native tokens: each user’s wallet can hold not only ADA but also thousands of other tokens and NFTs. Another functionality provided by Cardano is metadata additions as part of transactions.

Nami Wallet specializes in NFTs, while Flint Wallet builds bridges between various chains and technologies. On the other hand, Typhon and Etrnl wallets are highly advanced implementations that offer many features, such as support for multiple accounts within a user’s wallet, staking, voting, and the ability to transfer an unlimited number of assets to multiple recipients within a single transaction.

A key feature of custodial wallet staking in Cardano is the wallet owner never lets their ADA tokens out of their hands, retaining complete control over them at all times. Delegation is based on the amount of ADA in the wallet on the last epoch boundary (five days).

How to create a self-custodial wallet on Cardano?

The Yoroi wallet is one of many wallets that can be used to self-custody Cardano assets. Here are the steps to create a Yoroi wallet.

The Yoroi wallet can be downloaded as a browser plugin here.
Once the browser plugin is downloaded and installed, clicking on the plugin opens the Yoroi application page.
On the application page, clicking the “Add New Wallet” option kickstarts the wallet creation journey.
The next screen offers three options: Connect to hardware wallet, Create wallet, Restore wallet

To create the first Cardano wallet, choose the “Create wallet” option.
Next, users select “Cardano” as the currency, and the subsequent screens will prompt them to provide a name for their wallet and a corresponding password.
The next step is setting up the recovery phrase, which must be noted down in order and confirmed in the following step.
The wallet is now ready to accept Cardano assets.
To add some ADA to the wallet, users can click on the “Receive” tab that gives the wallet address.
Users can transfer ADA to the wallet from an exchange to kickstart the staking process.

How to stake ADA, and what are the staking rewards?

As previously mentioned, validating transactions on the Cardano network heavily relies on the staking of ADA by validators and other holders through staking pools. In return, the network offers staking rewards to these stakeholders. Holders of ADA who can’t run validators “delegate” their ADA to staking pools.

When staking began, pool operators and delegators received 5% in staking rewards. Over time it has slowly declined to around 4% due to the planned gradual reserves consumption. Of the 34.7 billion ADA in circulation, nearly 24.5 billion ADA (69% of circulating supply) are staked. Over 70% of ADA are staked by ADA holders through staking pools.

Holders can choose from over 3,000 staking pools on the Cardano network. To stake, holders can follow these steps from within the Yoroi wallet interface or any other Cardano wallet.

On the wallet page, the “Delegation list” provides a choice of delegates
Pool operators can also contribute to the pool, reflected by the “Pledge column.” A higher pledge shows higher skin in the game.
Holders who want to stake can choose a pool by clicking the “Delegate” button.

How to stake via Daedalus wallet?

Daedalus is another wallet for the users of the Cardano network. These are the steps to stake ADA using the Daedalus wallet:

The correct version of the Daedalus wallet is downloaded and installed from the official website: https://daedaluswallet.io/.
When opened on a laptop, the app offers the option to either restore an existing wallet or create a new one.
The user is prompted to provide a wallet name and password.
Choosing the create option gives a 24-word recovery phrase that the user must note down and confirm.
The wallet is created and syncs with the blockchain.
Once the syncing is complete, the user must click on the “Staking” tab to start the staking process.
Clicking on the “Delegation” button takes the user to the delegation center, where they can choose from several staking pools.
The stake pool is chosen, the amount of ADA the user wants to stake is entered, and the confirmation is submitted.
Once the transaction is processed, the user’s ADA will be delegated to the pool.
From now on, the selected pool takes care of packaging transactions into blocks and validating the chain.
At the end of each five-day epoch, the Ouroboros protocol, not the pool’s operator, takes automatically distributes the rewards from the reserves to all ADA wallets.

Troubleshooting common issues with self-custodial ADA staking

Here are some common problems that users may encounter when staking ADA in a self-custodial wallet, along with some potential troubleshooting steps:

Stake pool not found: If users cannot find a suitable stake pool to delegate to, they can try using a stake pool search tool or increasing their search parameters to include more options. There are dedicated stake pool portals like PoolTool, and explorers like Cardanoscan and Cexplorer that allow a more detailed look at the history and performance of all stake pools.
Wallet synchronization issues: If a user’s wallet is not syncing correctly or displaying inaccurate information, the user can try restarting the wallet or using a different device. They can also check for any updates or patches that may be available for their wallet software.
Transaction errors: If users encounter an error when attempting to delegate their ADA or withdraw their rewards, they must ensure that they have entered the correct information and that they have sufficient funds in their wallet to cover any transaction fees. Users can also try clearing their cache or using a different browser.
Staking rewards not received: To receive staking rewards, users must confirm that their delegation is active and that the pool they have delegated to produces blocks, as no blocks being produced means no rewards will be received. Users should also try refreshing their wallet or checking the blockchain explorer to verify that the rewards have been distributed.

Users should be aware that if they cannot use one of the ADA wallet apps, the recovery phrase can be used to restore the wallet in another wallet app at any time, allowing access to all their ADA and native assets. If users encounter any other issues when staking ADA in a self-custodial wallet, they can contact their Cardano wallet app support team or consult online forums and communities for guidance.

Also, it’s crucial for users never to share their wallet recovery seed words or a screenshot with anyone who claims to help with their wallet. Additionally, users should not believe anyone telling them to transfer their funds to a new address and should be cautious of scammers.

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