Choosing a bid

Two numbers matter: how much stake you need, and how much you pay for it.

How much stake

The plugin runs a copy of the Elector’s election algorithm over the live participant list. The copy is tested against the real Elector compiled from its source, so it elects exactly the same set.

From the live field it computes:

• the minimum stake that still wins a seat;
• the surplus-free stake: the largest stake the Elector counts in full. Above it, max_factor caps your effective stake and the excess is returned unused, but you would still pay for it;
• the surplus-free stake minus tako_margin_bps, because bids that arrive later can lower the minimum elected stake.

The loan is that stake plus the Elector’s 1 Gram confirmation, minus your collateral, kept within your limits and the pool’s.

Tip

Run tako_plan a few hours before the deadline and again near it. The field changes as other validators bid.

How much to pay

The pool funds bids from the highest minPayment / amount down. tako_rate sets your minPayment as a percent of the loan.

• When the pool has more Gram than the bids ask for, every valid bid is funded and the minimum rate is enough.
• When liquidity is short, the lowest rates are cut. tako_market shows every bid of the next election in the order the pool will fund them, so you can see where your bid stands.

minPayment is a floor. In a normal round the pool takes its share of what the loan earned, usually more than the floor. The floor matters when a round earns little: you pay at least that.

Collateral

Collateral is your wallet balance minus tako_keep and fees. More collateral means a smaller loan for the same stake, and its reward is entirely yours.

Timing

Requests are accepted until the decision window opens before the Elector’s deadline: on mainnet about 34 minutes before the elections close (elections_end_before plus a 2,048-second window). After that the round is decided and late requests are refused.