The crypto and DeFi space has seen the emergence of hundreds of groundbreaking projects. Do Kwon’s Terra is one of the most notable DeFi projects with lots of prospects before its fall.
Despite its popularity and potential, Terra and its native token, Luna, suffered a catastrophic collapse due to volatility. However, Do Kwon didn’t back down in his plan to bring DeFi closer to mainstream adoption.
Shortly after the fall of Luna, Do Kwon announced a recovery plan with the introduction of Terra and Luna Classic (LUNC). Terra Classic is the hard fork of its sister blockchain, Terra. Its native currency is the Luna Classic (LUNC).
Like the LUNA token, Luna Classic gives holders endless opportunities to benefit from Terra’s wide range of DeFi products and investment opportunities, including staking, yield farming, and governance.
In this article, we’ll take a deeper look at the rise of Terra and Luna Classic, how it works and how to stake your LUNC tokens. We will also look at the viability of the new Terra and whether or not investing your money is safe.
What is Luna Classic?
Luna Classic (LUNC) is a multichain asset, the native token of the Terra chain, which was rebranded as Terra Classic. LUNC was launched in May 2022 after the debacle that unfolded when USDT depegged.
Subsequently, the Terra chain was hard forked, and a genesis block was created on a new chain, the Terra Classic. As the native token of Terra Classic, LUNC retains all the properties of LUNA.
This way, it is useful in facilitating the adoption of Terra Classic DeFi products. It is also useful for carrying out economic activities within Terra Classic and decision-making activities. Like LUNA, LUNC is also important in stabilizing the Terra stablecoin, UST.
LUNC: LUNA Reimagined
You might wonder why there were original and hard-forked classic chains. Well, here’s the story. Terra started as a unicorn project with huge potential. In fact, its innovative investment opportunities were alluring, and it has garnered the attention of millions of investors globally.
Terra is a decentralized open-source and permissionless blockchain project and protocol for financial apps and algorithmic stablecoins. It began with Do Kwon and Daniel Shin’s vision for a decentralized payment platform.
The duo co-founded Terraform Labs – and a few months into launch, LUNA became one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Thanks to its much-needed use cases.
However, in early May 2022, Terra’s main stablecoin, UST, lost its peg against the US Dollar after a massive sell-off. This happened after an institution borrowed about 100,000 BTC from the Gemini exchange and swapped it for UST.
While an agreement for a discount was in place with Do Kwon to lower UST’s liquidity reserve, the institution dumped all the UST. Unfortunately, all of UST’s remaining reserve was always in LUNA. This whole debacle caused widespread panic and massive dumping of LUNA.
At the peak of the drama, LUNA fell by more than 99.99% from $102 to $0.00001. After the fall, Do Kwon came up with a recovery plan basically to hard-fork the parent chain. Validators agreed to the plan, and Terra 2.0 was launched afterward.
The original Terra chain became Terra Classic with its native currency – LUNC. As mentioned earlier, tokens are important in their chain, especially for stabilizing the price of algorithmic stablecoins that Terra offers.
This is achieved via a special deflationary and inflationary mechanism. If there is a deflection in UST, the algorithm burns excess UST or mints LUNC to keep volatility in check.
As part of the recovery plan, there was an airdrop for LUNA holders with at least 10,000 LUNA before the fall. About 30% will be unlocked at once, while the remaining 70% will be unlocked steadily over the next two years. This will prevent massive sell-off again.
How do the Terra and Terra Classic Work?
Terra 2.0 operates on the Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism like its parent chain. Like a typical PoS chain, validators maintain the network and engage in decision-making activities and consensus. These validators earn their reward from gas fees from transactions and a 7% yearly inflation rate.
Delegation is also possible with Terra 2.0. Like in Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS), anyone can delegate LUNA 2.0 to their favorite validators by staking their token.
This way, they can earn a small percentage of their validator’s commission. Meanwhile, delegators’ reward varies. It all depends on the voting power of their validator. The more the voting power, the more the reward.
There are 2 popular ways to stake LUNA Classic:
Method 1: Steps to Stake LUNA Classic on Binance
If you’d like to earn by staking your tokens to a validator, you can delegate your tokens on Terra Station. You can also stake your tokens for yield reward on the Binance exchange.
To stake your LUNC tokens on Binance, log in or register an account. Once you’re in, buy LUNC with any preferred payment method. Then subscribe to any available staking plan.
However, if you prefer Terra Station, buy LUNC on Binance and transfer it to your Terra Station wallet. In your Terra Station, choose a preferred validator and stake your LUNC tokens.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to stake LUNC on Binance:
- Log in or sign up to Binance
- Buy LUNC
- Choose any LUNC Staking Subscription
- Enter the amount and stake LUNC
1. Login or sign up to Binance
The first step to staking LUNC is finding a LUNC-staking supporting platform. You can start with a centralized exchange like Binance.
To use Binance, go to www.binance.com on your web browser. Click on LOG IN in the top right corner of the homepage to access your existing account.
If you’re a new user, click REGISTER to sign up for a new account. On the sign-up page, submit your email and enter a preferred unique password.
To complete the registration, ensure you verify your email address with the six-digit verification code sent to your email.
Once you’ve completed registration, log in to your Binance account and complete the KYC process. You can do this by going to your ACCOUNT SETTINGS.
In the verification section, submit a clear copy of your government-issued ID card. This can be your passport, driver’s license, or national identity card.
2. Buy LUNC
After accessing your account, click on BUY CRYPTO from the top navigation bar. Select the preferred payment method between credit card and bank transfer.
In the BUY CRYPTO section, select LUNC as the coin you want to buy. Input the amount and tap BUY LUNC.
On the next page, input your payment details and click on CONTINUE. Complete 2FA verification to approve the transaction.
3. Choose any LUNC Staking Subscription
After completing the transaction, the equivalent of LUNC will appear in your Spot Wallet.
To look for a staking program, click on EARN > BINANCE EARN from the top navigation of your home screen.
In Binance Earn, look for any LUNC staking program. You can use the search filter to make things easier.
In the results, click SUBSCRIBE in front of any available staking program for LUNC.
4. Enter the amount and stake LUNC
A new staking page tagged SUBSCRIBE LUNC will pop up. Here, you can set the parameters for your staking.
Enter the amount of LUNC you want to stake. Ensure you review the staking contract. Finally, read and agree to Binance Savings Service Agreement – then click CONFIRM.
As simple as that!! You have staked LUNC tokens to Binance. However, you can use Terra Station if you’re uncomfortable with Binance.
To stake LUNC on Terra Station, you need to set up your wallet first. Then fund it with LUNC from any centralized exchange like Binance.
Method 2: Steps to stake LUNC on Terra Station wallet
- Download the Terra Station wallet
- Setup Terra Station wallet
- Buy LUNC on Binance
- Copy your Terra Station deposit address
- Transfer LUNC to Terra Station wallet
- Choose a delegator
- Input the amount and stake LUNC
1. Download the Terra Station wallet
Terra Station wallet is a web-based Terra wallet available as a Chrome web browser extension or on mobile devices.
To set up your Terra Station wallet, go to the Google Chrome Extension store at chrome.google.com/webstore.
On the home screen, search for TERRA STATION wallet from the search bar and click on ADD TO DOWNLOAD to install the extension in your browser.
Once the download is complete, go to your browser’s navigation bar and double-click on the Terra Station extension to begin setup.
2. Setup Terra Station wallet
Terra Station wallet works like every other crypto wallet. If you’re a new user, click on NEW WALLET to create a new Terra Station wallet on the home screen.
You can also click on IMPORT WALLET or RECOVER WALLET if you’re an existing user. This way, you can keep using the wallet with the 24 words mnemonic phrase you generated.
To set up a new wallet, input your preferred wallet name and a strong password. Finally, copy and save the 24-word mnemonic phrase. This will enable you to effectively back up and restore your wallet in case of loss.
Continue by clicking on SUBMIT. On the next page, verify your mnemonic phrases and tap CONTINUE.
3. Buy LUNC on Binance
After setting up your Terra Station wallet, it’s time to fund it with LUNC. You can buy the coins on Binance and transfer them to your wallet.
If you’re a new user, you must sign up for a Binance account as indicated in the first step. Once you’re in, click on BUY CRYPTO from the top navigation bar and choose your preferred payment method.
Input the amount of LUNC you’d like to purchase. Continue the transaction by providing payment details. Ensure you double-check the details before clicking on BUY LUNC.
Once you complete the 2FA verification, the transaction will be executed.
4. Copy your Terra Station deposit address
Go back to your Terra Station wallet and log in with the password. From the home screen, click on the COPY icon in front of your Terra deposit address to copy the address. You can find your address in the top tab of the wallet.
5. Transfer LUNC to Terra Station wallet
Once you’ve copied the address, go back to your Binance account and click on WALLET > FIAT & SPOT to transfer LUNC from your wallet.
In your Spot Wallet, click on WITHDRAW in front of LUNC. Paste your deposit address on the withdrawal page in the ADDRESS box.
Choose NETWORK as TERRA CLASSIC. Finally, select the amount of LUNC you want to withdraw and confirm withdrawal by completing 2FA verifications.
6. Choose a delegator
Withdrawals take less than or up to 5 minutes. Once the LUNC has been deposited in your Terra Station wallet, go to station.terra.money on your web browser.
On the homepage, click on CONNECT to link your Terra Station wallet. Sign and approve the connection in the prompt that pops up in your wallet.
Once you’re connected, click on STAKE from the left sidebar. There are 130 active validators you can delegate your token to.
Explore the list or use the search bar to look for your favorite validator. You will see the commission details of every validator under their VALIDATOR DETAILS page.
7. Input the amount and stake LUNC
Scroll down, click on DELEGATE, and input the amount of LUNC you want to delegate. Submit the transaction and approve the transaction.
That’s all. You’ve successfully delegated your LUNC tokens to a validator.
Should You Stake LUNC?
Is LUNC staking profitable? Should you buy and stake LUNC tokens? These questions are ultimately your choice. Terra was a growing powerhouse, a huge DeFi ecosystem. In fact, it overtook the BNB Chain and became the second-largest DeFi protocol by Total Value Locked (TVL).
However, its failure during the de-pegging raised a lot of concern. Several investors lose trust and interest in the project right away. It also raised questions about the viability of many crypto projects.
Nonetheless, the recovery plan seems to be working fine. Yet, is this enough? It is important to have perfect risk management and set realistic goals. Therefore, following your trading rules before investing in any crypto asset is always advisable.
Conclusion
There’s no doubt that Terra has lost many good investors after the de-pegging. Traders’ confidence in the project has shaken, and people are skeptical about a comeback.
Fortunately, Terra and Terra Classic have been doing excellently since the fork. With newer development, the protocol is making the news again, especially when Binance announced a tax burn for LUNC on all transactions.
If you’d like to be a part of Terra and Terra Classic, staking and delegating your tokens is a great starting point. You can also enjoy more earning opportunities with Terra. However, ensure you map out and implement sound risk management.
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