Crypto storage platform BitGo on Thursday added staking services to its platform for two digital currencies - Algorand and Dash.
With this development, token holders can earn up anywhere between 7 and 13 percent of annual returns.
Commenting on the development, Ben Chan, chief technology officer at BitGo, said: “In order to be a great custodian, we need to provide our clients with the ability to use their assets in custody. Staking provides our clients with returns on their investments without ever moving their assets out of custody.”
A deal to add staking
The new service was added with the acquisition of Hedge, a startup working on the scalable and programmatic deployment of staking infrastructure. However, neither of the companies disclosed the terms of the deal.
The crypto company already integrated Hedge’s automated secure deployments, scalable and redundant processes, and the use of hardware security modules (HSMs) and secure cryptographic enclaves.
“Our acquisition of Hedge builds on the Blockchain and staking expertise within our engineering platform to deliver an automated, end-to-end staking service,” Chan added.
Alternative to PoW
Proof of stake (Pos) is getting attention in the crypto world, as many major projects are now moving to the protocol. Unlike proof of work (PoW), this consensus mechanism rewards token holders with a percentage of yields, based on the length and amount of the stored digital asset.
Ethereum is expected to move to the new consensus mechanism next year. Meanwhile, major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase recently launched staking services for a number of digital assets stored on their storage platforms.
“Dash support in BitGo Staking builds on this relationship and provides additional ways to derive value from Dash in a safe and secure environment,” said Ryan Taylor, CEO of Dash Core Group.
“By providing custodianship services with multi-sig security as well as new staking opportunities, the BitGo partnership adds even more opportunities to participate in the Algorand ecosystem,” W. Sean Ford, COO of Algorand, added.
