Lace Mainnet - FAQs

Getting started

What is Lace?

Lace 1.0 is a light wallet platform built on Cardano. Its first release includes a light wallet, an NFT viewer, an easy staking feature, and a decentralized app (DApp) connector. Unlike full-node wallets, light wallets do not synchronize the full copy of the blockchain. Lace is all about ease, allowing you to manage your digital assets and interact with Web3 without all the complexities of a full-node wallet. Lace 1.0 lets you:

• Send and receive ADA and Cardano native tokens
• Stake your ADA and receive rewards for participating in the network
• Connect to and use DApps
• Store, send, receive, and view your NFTs
• Connect with a Ledger hardware wallet for added security
• View your transaction history

How do I install Lace?

Lace 1.0 is available as an extension in the Google Web Store. You can add Lace 1.0 to your Google Chrome browser. 

Can I create multiple wallets in Lace?

No, you can’t create multiple wallets in Lace. But the team is working on it. Stay tuned!

Restore a multi-address wallet in Lace?

Lace only supports single-address wallets for now. Some assets may not be visible in Lace Mainnet 1.0.0 if you restore a multi-address wallet from another app. But your funds aren’t lost. Create a new Lace wallet and send assets there for full balance visibility. Lace only tracks assets on your first address. We are working on multi-address support in future versions. 

What is my private key?

A private key is a long sequence of digits and letters that uniquely verify ownership of your digital assets. Private keys should only ever be shared with the key's generator or parties authorized to decrypt the data.

What is my secret recovery phrase?

Because the password can be hard to remember, Lace gives you a secret recovery phrase (also known as a mnemonic or a recovery phrase) of 24 words instead, which you set up when you first create your wallet. Typically, the longer the word sequence, the less likely someone will be able to guess your secret recovery phrase. You use the secret recovery phrase to recover your wallet and access your assets, so make sure you store it securely.

You will receive your secret recovery phrase when you first create your wallet. Make sure you keep it in a safe place, preferably in a tangible (offline) way. If you lose your secret recovery phrase, there is no way to recover it and access your digital assets. The IOG development team behind the wallet doesn’t know your secret recovery phrase and there’s nothing that can be done to help you in the event of its loss.

What happens if I forget my wallet password?

If you forget your password, you can only recover your wallet by using your secret recovery phrase. So make sure you always store your secret recovery phrase securely offline – write it down and keep it in a secure location.

What happens if I lose my secret recovery phrase?

If you lose your secret recovery phrase, you lose access to your wallet and your digital assets. That’s why it’s so important that you store it somewhere safe.

Is there a way to recover my wallet if I lose my secret recovery phrase?

No. There’s really no way to recover your wallet if you lose your secret recovery phrase. This is fundamental to how the blockchain works. You and only you are the owner of your secret recovery phrase and that is why losing your secret recovery phrase means losing access to your digital assets. That’s why it’s of critical importance that you save your secret recovery phrase in a safe place.

How do I add ADA to Lace?

You first need to purchase ADA from an exchange and send it to your wallet address – you can find your wallet address by clicking the Receive button.

Can I send ADA from Lace to other wallets?

You can send ADA to any Cardano-compatible wallet. Lace includes safeguards to prevent you from sending digital assets to wallets that don’t support Cardano, but it's always a good idea to triple-check the address you are sending your digital assets to, before you make any transaction. A good rule of thumb is that all Cardano addresses start with ‘addr1__’.

 

Got a question you can’t see here? Join our #Lace-community Discord channel to get answers from the community and the Lace team at Input Output Global.

 

Transactions and transfers

How do I send and receive digital assets?

To send ADA, you need the recipient’s Cardano address. Add the address and the amount you want to transfer to the recipient in the ‘Send’ tab of your wallet.

To receive ADA, copy your ‘Receive address’ to the clipboard from the ‘Receive’ tab. Next, share it with the person who is going to send you ADA (or other Cardano native assets) or use it yourself to send ADA from another wallet or exchange.

What is my public address?

Your public address is a unique identifier that serves as a virtual location for your digital assets. You can think of it like a postcode or a zip code.

Does Lace have fees?

Any blockchain network, including Cardano, charges transaction fees (ie, for sending ADA, delegating ADA to a stake pool, or withdrawing rewards). The fee amount depends on the size of the transaction.

These fees cover resources like electricity and computing power. They also enhance the security of the network and protect the Cardano network against attacks.

Got a question you can’t see here? Join our #Lace-community Discord channel to get answers from the community and the Lace team at Input Output Global.

 

Staking

What are staking and delegation?

Cardano was one of the first blockchains to support ‘staking’, however on Cardano, the process differs slightly from other chains. Cardano was designed to (1) always let users have access to their digital assets, and (2) let more advanced users run stake pools. Users with a less technical background can still receive rewards for actively taking part in the network through staking. 

On Cardano, you ‘delegate the block production rights’ associated with your stake rather than the ADA itself. This way, your ADA never leaves your wallet, it's never locked, and the stake pool operator (the expert user) mints blocks on your behalf. This allows you to safely select a stake pool that works best for you, without having to worry about the security of your digital assets.

How do I stake my ADA?

Most Cardano-enabled wallets have a staking feature. Depending on the wallet you use, you may or may not be able to choose where to delegate your stake. In Lace, you can choose the stake pool that you want to delegate to. 

After delegating your stake, you post a delegation certificate – containing your stake key and stake pool identifier – on-chain to publish your staking/delegation choice. This choice roughly states “I declare that the block production rights associated with the digital assets in this public address are delegated to this stake pool”.

I added more ADA to my wallet. Do I need to stake again?

After delegating ADA to a chosen stake pool, you don't have to do anything. Newly added ADA or assets will be automatically staked with the chosen pool. Re-delegation only happens when you want to change your original choice of stake pool for another.

Which stake pool should I choose?

You can choose a stake pool based on a number of factors. The amount of assets you can receive as a reward for participating in validating the network is influenced by several parameters – operating cost, operating margin, and pledge. You’ll need to research each pool to make your decision – just hit the staking tab on your wallet to view the pools.

• Rewards on asset means the amount of ADA in each new block that will be automatically distributed to the stakeholder by the network.
• Operating cost is the total ADA charged by the stake pool operator to cover the cost of running the stake pool. The cost per epoch is calculated from the total ADA rewarded to a stake pool, before the operator takes their profit margin.
• Operating margin is the percentage that the stake pool operator takes for minting blocks on behalf of the delegator. This is on top of the operating costs for the stake pool. This is a variable defined in the formal specification to allow stake pool operators to compete on the best operator price for the delegators.
• Saturation refers to the amount of ADA delegated to a stake pool in relation to its maximum possible size. Cardano automatically limits the maximum size of a stake pool in order to promote decentralization. If everybody delegated their funds to the same pool, one pool could own 51% of all the stake and take over the network. That’s why if you delegate to a pool over the maximum size, that pool only receives the same rewards as for its maximum capacity, so you would receive less rewards than if you’d chosen another pool. 
• Rewards on stake: this is a little more complicated. Let’s say a stake pool holds 1% of all the stake in the system, then this stake pool is expected to mint roughly 1% of all the blocks in one epoch. If you hold 10% of the stake in this stake pool, then you should receive 10% of rewards, or 0.01% of all the rewards in this epoch - cost + margin.

You can see the staking process visualized here.

Can I delegate to multiple pools?

Delegating to multiple pools is not currently possible. The Lace team is hard at work to make this a reality.

How do I receive my staking rewards?

Your rewards are automatically distributed to your rewards address at the end of every delegation cycle. Read more about delegation cycles here: The delegation cycle.

Got a question you can’t see here? Join our #Lace-community Discord channel to get answers from the community and the Lace team at Input Output Global.

 

NFTs

What is an NFT?

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are tokens that may serve as evidence of ownership of virtual (or even physical) assets. The specific rights that attach to NFTs vary. NFTs are currently most widely used as evidence of ownership of digital art. 

How do I buy an NFT?

NFTs can either be purchased directly from the creator’s website during their minting phase or on a secondary marketplace such as jpg.store, artano.io, cnft.io, and more. Make sure you have ADA in your wallet, connect your wallet to the DApp, find the NFT you want to buy, and click to purchase. The Lace extension will pop up and ask you to enter your password to process the purchase. Once the transaction is completed, the NFT will be transferred to your wallet.

How do I view my NFTs?

Head to the NFTs tab in the Lace extension to view your NFTs. 

Got a question you can’t see here? Join our #Lace-community Discord channel to get answers from the community and the Lace team at Input Output Global.