Nominating with Polkadot-JS

Bond Your Tokens

1. Navigate to the "Staking" tab within the "Network" menu on the Polkadot-JS UI.
2. In the "Account actions" subsection (link), click the "+ Nominator" button.
3. Enter a "value bonded" less than your total TNT balance to cover transaction fees (at least 0.01 TNT). Keep a minimum of 0.1 TNT in your account to avoid the reaping threshold.
4. Select a payment destination for rewards, such as "Stash account (increase amount at stake)" to compound your earnings.

Nominate Validators

1. Click "Nominate" on your bonded account.
2. Choose up to 24 validators to nominate. Be cautious, as you may be slashed if your validator misbehaves.
3. Confirm the transaction. Your nominations will become active in the next era (lasting six hours on the Tangle Network).
4. To claim rewards, you or your validator must submit a transaction specifying the validator ID and era index. Rewards are distributed automatically among the top nominators for that era.

Adjust Nominations

To change your nominations, simply update your validator selections using the above methods.

Stop Nominating

Here's a more concise and reorganized version of the section on stopping nominations:

Stopping Nominations and Unbonding Tokens

You can choose to unbond (unstake) your tokens and stop being a nominator at any time. However, there is an unbonding period that serves as a cooldown, during which you won't receive rewards. Your tokens will become transferable again after this period.

Step 1: Stop Nominating (Chill)

1. Navigate to the "Network" > "Staking" > "Accounts" page on the Polkadot-JS UI.
2. Click the "Stop" button next to your account to stop nominating validators.

If you don't see the "Stop" button, you're not currently nominating.

Step 2: Unbond Tokens

• After chilling your account, click the three dots next to it and select "Unbond funds." You will need to wait the unbonding period.

Step 3: Withdraw Unbonded Tokens

Once the unbonding period is over, you can withdraw your unbonded tokens to make them transferable.

• Click "Withdraw Unbonded" in the same menu as before, or click the blue padlock icon next to the "redeemable" balance.

Your transferable balance will increase by the number of unbonded tokens.

Ensure your controller or staking proxy account has enough transferable balance to pay for transaction fees when unbonding. Otherwise, you may encounter an "InsufficientBalance" error. Transfer a small amount if needed to cover fees without dropping below the existential deposit.

Claiming Rewards

To claim pending payouts:

1. Navigate to the "Payouts" tab under "Staking" on the Polkadot-JS UI.
2. Click "Payout all" and select your stash accounts.
3. Sign and submit the transaction to complete the payout process.

Using the Command-Line Interface (CLI)

You can also manage your nominations using the @polkadot/api-cli package:

1. Install the package globally with npm install -g @polkadot/api-cli.
2. Bond tokens: polkadot-js-api --seed "MNEMONIC_PHRASE" tx.staking.bond STASH_ADDRESS NUMBER_OF_TOKENS REWARD_DESTINATION --ws WEBSOCKET_ENDPOINT
3. Nominate validators: polkadot-js-api --seed "MNEMONIC_PHRASE" tx.staking.nominate '["VALIDATOR_ADDRESS_1","VALIDATOR_ADDRESS_2"]' --ws wss:\\rpc.tangle.tools