FAQ

The best way to describe ourselves is “Ecosystem as a Service.” We are a team of entrepreneurs and builders creating analytics, tooling, and staking infrastructure for nascent ecosystems. We’ve been around for almost two years. To learn more about our various projects and our founders, please visit thunderhead.xyz Within Subsquid, we are solving the problems of illiquidity, immovability, and accessibility with SQD staking. Our goal in stSQD is to remove the barrier to entry for participation with SQD and to bolster the security and performance of the Subsquid network.

Subsquid is the Web3 Data Layer for dApps, it ingests and stores petabytes of raw blockchain data unlocking indexing and data access at a speed, scale, and price never before possible. please visit sqd.dev

A holder of SQD who wants to participate in the security of the protocol can stake their SQD to receive an equal amount of stSQD in return. The stSQD will automatically increase in number in your wallet as protocol rewards minus a fixed operating fee accrue to the underlying validators. At any time, you may transfer or participate in DeFi with your stSQD token. Users can unstake their stSQD at any time, and once the protocol unbonding period has passed, may claim an equal amount of SQD in return.

If you do not have any SQD, you can purchase some via DEX. After acquiring SQD, head to stakedsqd.fi/stake Connect your wallet, enter the amount of SQD you would like to stake, approve the amount and then submit the stake transaction. We’ve done our best to make it as easy as possible, but if you need help or have suggestions, feel free to reach out and we’ll do our best to help. You can contact us via email, or come directly to our discord channel where you can submit a support ticket.

There are always risks associated with any blockchain endeavor and we do our very best to mitigate risk. We adhere to a few principles:

1. We open-source and continually review and optimize our code.
2. We hired a security firm to audit our code
3. We provide proof of reserves and full transparency.
4. We have internal controls for data and key management
5. We manage all of our infrastructure fully in house (nothing is outsourced)
6. We are in constant communication with the Subsquid team as it relates to any security releases, bugs or enhancements.

Yes we do.

There are a few potential risks when staking SQD.

• Smart Contract Security - There is a risk that stSQD contains a smart contract vulnerability. However, the code is open-sourced, audited and covered by a bug bounty program. While we do our best, we cannot guarantee that there is no risk.
• Slashing Risk - The Subsquid blockchain slashes the stake of validators that go offline or act maliciously. Although we have automated deployment tools, bespoke monitoring systems, and a multi region/datacenter redundancy setup, there is still the risk that these precautions fail and the protocol slashes the underlying validators.
• stSQD discount risk - Due to the inherent nature of liquid staking, liquid staking representative tokens can trade at a discount due to the underlying asset being staked and thus illiquid. It is possible that the SQD/stSQD price could decline significantly due to market conditions. This is not a significant problem though since users can redeem their stSQD for SQD via an unstake.
• Custody Risk - Thunderhead maintains custody of the underlying SQD. We have internal controls, dedicated key management software and employ encrypted disks among a variety of other measures. Although extremely unlikely due to the precautions we put in place, ultimately stSQD is not trustless and it is possible that the underlying SQD becomes lost to theft or exploit. Thunderhead is also a U.S registered LLC and the entire team is “doxxed.”

StakedSQD is non-custodial. All validators have their withdrawal address bound to the StakedSQD smart contracts. SQD can only go back to users who unstake, or to approved validators. A governance multi-sig can perform contract upgrades and operations, but StakedSQD holders have an opportunity to veto these operations before they're executed.

1 SQD is the minimum and users can stake any amount of SQD they would like!

Everything is on-chain and we highly recommend you utilize a third party tool to track your stSQD address and use the chain to track all of your transactions.

You will need to work with your accounting professional on your taxes.

Yes. You can transfer your stSQD to any ERC-20 support wallet. Please understand that we have zero capability to access your wallet, or any wallet you send funds to. We do not and cannot help you with an incorrect transfer nor any retrieval of funds.

We have a very active community on both Telegram and Discord. Please come join us, we’d love to have you.

If a user would like to unstake their stSQD and receive SQD, they have two options. First, they can sell their stSQD for SQD in the curve pool. This process happens instantly, but the user could possibly receive less SQD than stSQD sold. Alternatively, users can unstake their stSQD. This process first involves burning stSQD to enter the redemption queue. After a certain period of time, the underlying SQD will become claimable (time period TBD). We are currently building an aggregator to optimize this process for users.

Thunderhead charges a percentage of the protocol rewards (TBD). The rest of the protocol rewards go to stSQD stakers.

The protocol rewards generated from the underlying validators minus a fee go to the stakers.

Thunderhead stakes the SQD onto validators to serve the network and earn protocol rewards. The SQD are never used for extraneous activities. You can observe this with our proof of reserves.

Staking is the act of locking a crypto asset within a protocol in order to receive the privilege of doing a certain behavior, such as validating. In return for performing this behavior, the protocol rewards the staker. The stake also serves as a form of collateral to disincentivize malignant behavior.

Traditionally, while funds are staked they are not transferable or instantly redeemable. First, one would have to unstake them and wait for a certain period of time before they could transfer or sell their crypto assets. Liquid staking is the act of creating a token that represents staked funds which allows users to circumvent this unstaking process to be able to sell or transfer a representation of their staked assets at any time.

Liquid staking allows users to transfer their stake at any time. Users can also participate in DeFi to earn extra rewards on top of the protocol rewards.

Here are a few links. Please do your research, ask questions in our community and only participate once you feel 100% comfortable with stSQD.

• What is Liquid Staking & How Does It Work? (moralis.io)