Coming changes will allow members of a Polkadot nomination pool to participate in any referendum on Polkadot OpenGov. Soon, you can stake as low as 1 DOT and be part of any decision concerning the network's future.


To carry out this change, a state migration must occur. However, it is probable that you won’t have to do anything regarding this "migration," so this article is just for your information.


⚠️ ATTENTION

If one of your accounts is both a member of a nomination pool and staking solo ("dual-staking"), you need to stop one of these activities to avoid future issues.

For more information, please refer to the Troubleshooting section.


This article describes the changes in nomination pool staking, and provides advice to the few users who might need to take action.


For a more technical explanation of the process, visit the links below:


TABLE OF CONTENTS

Current status


Polkadot's staking system stipulates that only the top 22,500 nominators by stake are eligible to receive staking rewards. This creates a dynamic minimum stake set by the 22,500th nominator that any staker must exceed to earn rewards. Alternatively, you can join a nomination pool with as little as 1 DOT and receive equivalent rewards as if you were staking solo.


One of the differences between staking solo and joining a nomination pool is that, if you stake solo, funds are locked in your stash account. However, when you join a nomination pool, your funds are transferred and locked in a system account representing the pool, allowing it to act as a single nominator. Unfortunately, by losing direct ownership of the funds, the pool member also loses the ability to use these locked funds in Polkadot OpenGov.

Future status


Because the future of the protocol and the management of the Polkadot Treasury are in the hands of token holders, members of nomination pools should have the right to vote on Polkadot OpenGov. That's why Polkadot core developers have designed a new strategy to maintain the benefits of nomination pools (e.g., allowing staking with as little as 1 DOT) while enabling pool members to participate in Polkadot OpenGov.


This new strategy involves transforming the nomination pool into a special staking account that receives staking delegations from its members. Just like governance delegations, these delegated funds remain in the member's account. This allows nomination pool members to use the funds marked as delegated for other activities, such as participating in Polkadot OpenGov.


New members of nomination pools won’t need to take any special actions. Current pool members will undergo a permissionless migration process where funds sent to the nomination pool will be transferred back to their accounts, locked, and then delegated to the same pool. The only exception is for accounts that are both nominating and part of a nomination pool; these accounts will need to take additional steps.

Migration


In most cases, current nomination pool members won’t need to take any action. The extrinsic that requests the migration to the new system is permissionless, meaning anyone can initiate it from any account. When the time comes, an automatic script will run to migrate all nomination pool members to the new system. No action will be required from you.


The only exception to the automatic migration will be accounts that are "dual-staking"—meaning they are both members of a nomination pool and staking solo at the same time. If you are in this situation, please read the following section and follow the steps that apply to your case.

Troubleshooting


The new strategy for nomination pools does not allow a single account to both stake solo and be a member of a nomination pool ("dual-staking"). If you encounter any issues managing your pool membership or you want to avoid potential problems in the future, please follow one of the solutions below based on your situation.


Unstake nominating funds and benefit from the automatic migration


If you are dual-staking and the migration has not been completed yet, you can benefit from the automatic migration by following the steps below as soon as possible:


1. Go to the Staking Dashboard and connect your account (Staking Dashboard: How to Connect Your Account).

2. Initiate the unbonding of the funds that are staking solo (Staking Dashboard: How to Unbond Your Tokens).


2. After the unbonding period ends (7 days in Kusama, 28 days in Polkadot), withdraw the unbonded funds.


3 (optional). Join the nomination pool with the transferable funds.


4. Wait until the funds from the nomination pool are migrated to the new system.


Leave the nomination pool


If you prefer not to unstake your solo staked funds (e.g., due to a larger amount nominating, you are a validator, etc.), you can opt to leave the pool and withdraw your funds before the migration to avoid potential issues. Follow the steps below to do so:


1. Go to the Staking Dashboard and connect your account.
(Staking Dashboard: How to Connect Your Account)


2. Go to the "Pool" tab.


3. Click "Leave" (Staking Dashboard: How to Unbond from a Nomination Pool)


4. Wait until the unbonding period ends (7 days in Kusama, 28 days in Polkadot) and withdraw the unbonded funds.


5 (Optional). Bond those extra funds to your nominating funds.


‼️ IMPORTANT

If you are the creator of a nomination pool on Polkadot and you're engaging in "dual staking," it’s not recommended to initiate the pool's destruction due to the unbonding period and the upcoming migration.

Although you may temporarily lose the ability to participate in Polkadot OpenGov with the funds in the nomination pool, it's best to wait until both types of staking are fully compatible.


Migrate after the automatic migration is completed



⚠️ ATTENTION

The option to manually migrate is not yet available on Polkadot or Kusama; it will become possible after the migration is complete.



If you continue dual-staking after the migration, you won’t be able to issue any extrinsics related to nomination pools. Please follow these steps:


1. Go to the Staking Dashboard and connect your account (Staking Dashboard: How to Connect Your Account)


2. Initiate the unbonding of the funds that are staking solo (Staking Dashboard: How to Unbond Your Tokens)


3. After the unbonding period ends (7 days on Kusama, 28 days on Polkadot), withdraw the unbonded funds.


4. Manually run the migration on your account by issuing the extrinsic "nominationPools.migrateDelegation(memberAccount)" from the extrinsic tab in Polkadot-JS UI.