Stephanie Douse 
Amid the introduction of the staking roadmap by Chainlink, the price of LINK surges as whales leverage the new mechanism.
Chainlink, an Oracle service provider, has revealed a new economic roadmap for the platform by introducing the much-anticipated staking mechanism to the blockchain. Chainlink stated in the announcement that the staking mechanism will improve the operational efficiencies of its oracle network and blockchain.
At the same time, it will reward all LINK investors. The crypto also revealed the four major long-term goals it hopes to achieve with its staking mechanism. This entails:
- Increasing the Crypto economic Security and User Assurances of Chainlink Services
- Enabling Greater Community Participation in the chainlink Network
- Generating Sustainable Rewards for Long-Term Users
- Empowering Node Operators to Acces Higher Value Jobs Through Staking.
Details Of Chainlink Staking
Chainlink stated that its staking mechanism will evolve as its Oracle network expands. The first step is to lay a simple and secure foundation for staking. Later, it will broaden its scope based on the feedback received.
Chainlink’s staking mechanism will be implemented like its Price Feeds functionality. This will allow for the early identification of risks and opportunities before scaling up.
The Chainlink Staking initial version v0.1 release is scheduled for later this year. According to the announcement:
- The initial v0.1 release of Chainlink staking is focused on introducing a reputation framework and alerting system.
- The initial staking pool in v0.1 will be capped in size. It will have a distinct allotment to community members, node operators, and the coordinator of oracle networks. As Chainlink notes: “The pool will start with an aggregate size of 25M LINK tokens, with the planned goal of scaling to a pool size of 75M LINK tokens in the months after launch, based on demand”.
- In v0.1, it’s expected that native token emissions directed to stakes will target a base level of annualized staking rewards of up to 5%.
The LINK price has risen by more than 12% in the last 24 hours and is now trading at $8.46. This year’s market correction has included Chainlink’s native cryptocurrency LINK.
However, it appears that whales have benefited from this correction! Chainlink whales have added a significant amount of LINK in the last five weeks. Santiment, an on-chain data provider, reports:
“Chainlink has pumped +9% in the past 2 hours, and accumulating whales are capitalizing. After dumping began on March 30th, they began accumulating again after prices dropped in early May. They hold 25%+ of the supply for the 1st time since November.”