Hello everyone,
Thank you again for the thoughtful and constructive feedback. We recognise that reducing the unstaking period from four days to twelve hours is a major change, and we’re carefully considering its implications. The goal is to make staking more accessible to newcomers and delegators who are cautious about long-term commitments and prefer to remain liquid, even though many already delegate for extended periods and could opt to stake instead.
From a protocol design perspective, the unstaking period combines a consensus delay and a slashing window. With Tenderbake’s two-block finality (~16 seconds) and the two-cycle slashing period (~8 hours with 4-hour cycles), a 12-hour delay still provides a meaningful buffer for network security, while greatly improving flexibility for users. This is also designed to accommodate bakers’ operational needs, including maintenance windows and incident resolution timeframes. That said, we remain open to considering an intermediate step (e.g. 24 hours), if the community feels a more gradual transition would be preferable.
To ensure this change meets its goals, education and communication will be essential. Awareness of staking’s benefits is not yet widespread, and many tez holders continue to delegate. We plan to accompany the rollout with clear educational materials explaining:
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how security and slashing guarantees are maintained, and
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how the shorter unstaking period brings staking closer to delegation in flexibility while preserving its economic role in securing the network.
The objective is not to replace delegation, which remains an important and legitimate option, but to encourage broader participation by making staking more approachable and by helping tez holders choose the mode that best fits their needs.
We also heard concerns about UX complexity, especially around delegation reward distribution. These are being actively addressed:
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The Octez delegation calculation tool is being updated to provide finer-grained tracking across multiple cycles, with detailed per-cycle logs for better transparency.
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TezPay, mentioned in previous comments, continues to evolve as a solution for off-chain reward distribution, giving delegators who prefer frequent payouts a simple way to continue receiving them.
These improvements aim to simplify management for both bakers and delegators, and ensure that the ecosystem offers clear, reliable tools regardless of how participants choose to engage.
In summary, our goal is to strike the right balance between security and flexibility. We see value in the liquidity benefits of a shorter unstaking period, but we also hear the desire to preserve the behavioral incentives that long windows create. We’ll continue gathering feedback, refining the approach, and working with the community to ensure any change is well understood, well supported, and accompanied by the right tools and educational efforts.
We warmly welcome your continued input on these points.
