FAQs

What is Rare Protocol?

Rare Protocol is an onchain network designed to power the web3 creator economy. The protocol consists of open source smart contracts for the creation and exchange of NFTs, as well as an erc-20 staking token ($RARE) that facilitates decentralized curation, reputation, and discovery.

Why would I want to stake $RARE?

Staking provides a way to signal onchain support for an individual. By staking RARE, you generate curation data that can boost reputation across marketplaces, aggregators, or individuals. Additionally, you can earn RARE rewards as compensation for your participation in the network.

What are Community Pools?

Community Pools are smart contracts in which a RARE holder locks up tokens to signal support for an NFT seller, in return for rewards from future sales. The makeup of a Community Pool is based upon how many users have staked RARE, and how much. Payouts to pool members are based on sales by the seller.

Each Community Pool is tied to an Ethereum address. Only one pool can be opened per ETH address.

Read more in the Rarity [Community] Pools section of the whitepaper.

What are Curated Lists and Curated Feeds?

A Curated List shows all the pools an individual has staked on. They provide a full overview of someone’s staking activity, making them excellent discovery tools to browse.

Curated Feeds visually represent the artwork pertaining to the pools on one’s Curated List, adding an additional level of discovery when browsing Curated Lists. They pull and display artworks from all the pools one has staked on.

Read more in the Curation & Discovery section of the whitepaper.

What are $RARE rewards?

$RARE rewards are perks for staking in one’s community pool. They are claimable in the form of $RARE, and are available to eligible stakers on a periodic, end-of-round basis.

When someone makes a sale on a compatible marketplace*, and a community pool exists for their ETH address, a portion of the sale is distributed to their pool.

*Currently, the rewards system is compatible with SuperRare; 1% of the sale fees normally distributed to the RareDAO goes directly to the corresponding pool instead.

Read more in the Specification section of the whitepaper.

What determines the size of my rewards?

Rewards are proportional to one’s percentage of a pool, which is measured by xRARE.

When you stake, you temporarily lock $RARE in the pool’s address, and receive a pool-specific token (xRARE) in return, representing your percentage of the pool.

The more you stake in a pool, the more xRARE you hold to represent your increased percentage of the pool; the higher the percentage, the bigger the rewards.

For details about how rewards, synthetic tokens, and pools operate, please read the Specification section of the whitepaper.

How is my percentage of a pool calculated?

xRARE is distributed along a bonding curve, which gently favors xRARE payout to earlier stakers in a pool. This creates an incentive for staking in up-and-coming pools, creating new signals of discovery and curation data as you go.

For details about how rewards, synthetic tokens, and pools operate, please read the Specification section of the whitepaper.

What are rounds and how do they work?

Rounds are 7 day periods of time used to track activity and award eligibility in a given community pool.

They are not active until staking activity in the pool triggers a 7 day countdown. When the countdown ends, claimable rewards that accrued in that round become available to eligible stakers.

Read more in the Rounds and Snapshots section of the whitepaper.

What are reward swaps?

Because rewards are only claimable as $RARE, ETH and ERC-20 tokens that are forwarded to a community pool must be swapped for $RARE before they can be claimed.

This is done through the Reward Swap, found on each pool page. Here, you can trade in $RARE for ETH in order to make rewards claimable for all eligible stakers. As an incentive for performing this transaction, reward swappers receive a 10% bonus on the ETH they receive from the swap!

Read more in the Reward Accumulator section of the whitepaper.

How do I get $RARE?

Learn how to buy $RARE from a trusted protocol here. ⚠️ If you believe you are interacting with RARE, please triple-check the contract address to confirm it is, indeed, RARE. Always be cautious of malicious actors looking to take advantage of the $RARE ticker symbol.

🔷 Official RARE token contract address: 0xba5BDe662c17e2aDFF1075610382B9B691296350

I am an artist or collector who uses multiple wallet addresses. Can they all be tied to a single pool?

Not currently, but we think this is is an important use case to solve for in the near term. If this feature is important to you, please provide this feedback, along with any other notes, here!

I have a question that's not covered here

Please join the Rare Protocol Discord for further support and community chat. If your question concerns reporting a bug you're experiencing on rare.xyz, you can report it using the Rare.xyz Support Form.

I'd like to report a bug on Rare Protocol

Please report your bug directly to Rare Protocol Support by using this form. We'll follow up promptly!