You can think of staking as entering a lottery every block to win the block reward. Therefore, there is no guaranteed reward at a specific time. The “expected time” shown in the staking wallet is a calculation based on your probability of winning the lottery (i.e. your staking weight compared to the overall network staking weight). For example, if your estimated time to win a reward is 16 days, you can think of it as a 1 in 16 chance of winning a block each day. Or a 1 in 10,800 chance of winning any individual block (calculation: average block time is 128 seconds. In 24hrs there’s 24 x 60 x 60 = 86,400 seconds, divided by 128 = 675 blocks, and multiply by 16 to get the probability of winning any single block). Sometimes it may take up to 5 or 6 times longer than your estimated time to win a block, sometimes you may receive 5 or 6 rewards in the estimated time to receive one. This is the nature of mathematical probability. If this does not meet your expectations, we recommend staking on pool-x.io, where you will receive guaranteed regular payouts.

If you have enough HYDRA, it is better to stake yourself. Expected mining times as of now:

3,000 HYDRA —> 1 block per day 1,500 HYDRA —> 1 block every 2 days 1,000 HYDRA —> 1 block every 3 days 400 HYDRA —> 1 block per week 200 HYDRA —> 1 block every 2 weeks

One block right now gives you roughly 16.25 HYDRA. Please note that staking yourself introduces the factor of luck. So depending on your luck, certain blocks can take longer or shorter to be mined compared to the expected time. But over multiple blocks the average should come close to the estimated time

What is the advantage? You keep 100% of the rewards and don’t pay a commission to Kucoin. Especially recommended for long-term stakers who can even out the luck factor over multiple blocks. And also recommended for anyone staking more than 1,000 HYDRA.