The Difference Between Staking and Investing

[error08]

both are profitable but it depends on your capital. Staking just provide small yearly interest like in a traditional banks

Profit doesn't depend on capital.

Staking does not mean profit, the coin your staking may increase by number but that doesn't mean profit. Investment, on the other hand, is different it requires broader knowledge, skills (a bit), and analysis.

but investing give much higher percentage of profit in just a short period of time but it depends on how much, what or where did you invest.

Maybe you're referring to trading not investing? there's no "short period of time" in investment, there is a short-term investment, but "short period of time"? maybe it's day trading or so.

Divide it into 3 subjects, investing, staking, and trading > depends on the way it is and time frame.
However, it's safe to say all of it requires someone to spend capital in the hope to gain profit, that's why many people consider all of it as part of investment but in different ways/methods to achieve the goal.

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[yhiaali3]

Thank you for this comparison between investing and Staking, I wrote a topic a while ago here and asked members which is the best investment or Staking? I have had a lot of good answers and I have a good knowledge of the difference between them.
It can said that investment and Staking have both positive and negative aspects, and this differs from one person to another, so each person can choose which is better for him, investing or Staking.

[fullhdpixel]

The end goal is the same to get profit, staking needs to invest a certain amount of funds as well to buy coins/tokens that will be staked.
If investing ins Altcoin, then both of them are very risky, even though staking can make a coin increase but if the price down then the increase in the coin is meaningless because it becomes a loss.

indeed that is the goal but you must know that investing and staking still have differences, even the profit you can get can be more from investing than staking, because staking depends on the existing token capital after that the staking organizer will only give a few percent, while when investing in coins that have the potential to be like bitcoin, you can get more profit because there is no limit to the profits that can be obtained.

Nicely mentioned but I would like to add a point that staking is meant to get regular income while investing means you are not going to earn profit regularly but you are going to have a better chance of having overall profit. It is similar to gambling - Lottery vs Dice. You get big profits in lottery while you get small wins in games like dice.

I believe if you need recurring profits then one should chose staking because it would give you coins every time you stake and invest if you have extra funds which you can risk losing but looking to get big profits, people who invested in BTC initially took a big risk and now it is paying off big time.

[Kez1817]

both are profitable but it depends on your capital. Staking just provide small yearly interest like in a traditional banks

Profit doesn't depend on capital.

Eh, I don't know about that.  I think what OP means is that an investment of $50 in some PoS coin is going to earn you fewer total coins than if you'd invested $50,000.  Therefore I think that total profit might indeed depend on how much money you've sunk into a particular coin--if that's your definition of "capital" anyway.

As far as that statement above saying that staking is like having a bank account, I'd disagree with that.  Yes, the "interest" part of it is just like a savings account, but there's also the potential for capital gains, and that's something missing entirely from savings accounts.  To me, it's like buying a stock that pays a dividend vs. one that doesn't.

Also, as far as OP's question goes: Staking is a form of investment.  They're not different things.

You got it sir, if what I mean about the profit depends on the capital. Sorry if I didn't elaborate it very well. Anyway thank you and to all who added more knowledge about this topic.I really appreciate everyone giving more explanation and to better understand my topic.

[SirLancelot]

It's easy to tell the difference, before I would suggest staking and investing, instead of choosing one, choose both!,
because Staking will give you coins for a certain period, making your investment increase, this is good for investors.
Staking is now favored by many traders and investors, especially with this program we don't have to worry about a reduced portfolio.

Staking can be tricky though because with staking comes minor dumps and it is hard to maintain the price of the token. There must be a good reason to believe that the coin will have use case and will grow in future because POS is good and saves al the power we waste in POW but it comes at the cost of the logic "rich gets richer".

I personally don't like staking as much as I do investing and by investing a lot of people believe we must invest for years and decades which is not true. You can invest in a coin for few months and when the value of the coins reaches a significant number you can always sell them.

[bitgolden]

Staking doesn't exclude investing that is the problem with people who try to calculate their own income from only staking and not from the investing part.

If you buy 32 eth and make profit from staking (soon coming) that doesn't mean that the only money you make will be from staking, the price of ETH could still go up, and I believe it could go up even more because right now people are mining it with their rigs and they have a cost of doing it which means they sell some of their ETH in order to cover the costs whereas staking has almost no cost at all which means they could just hold it which could increase the price a lot more. So, as you can see staking doesn't mean no investment, it is still investing and that is the biggest difference, at least you get to stake on top of your stakes.

[Peanutswar]

Still one of the best for me is having an investment and staking.

In investment, there is a higher risk to your asset that may decrease or increase and by that, you need to keep an eye to prevent losing your asset. In that case, this requires you to keep knowledgeable about different things related to your investment so at the same time you are learning and earning with the use of your capabilities.

Having staking too is one and a good idea because you are saying your money and preventing this may lose it looks like emergency funds you could use any time.

Always having this both kinds of earning and storing of funds may help you.

[Yatsan]

At the end, both are profitable but it depends on your capital. Staking just provide small yearly interest like in a traditional banks but investing give much higher percentage of profit in just a short period of time but it depends on how much, what or where did you invest. You can also choose both if you want to earn more. Everything is up to you, if what you prefer to do to earn.

Your fate on crypto industry does not specifically dependent on the range or amount of your capital you are starting with. Yes, having a decent capital is a must have and an important thing to have but still skill and being able to manage your funds is a need so prior knowledge is the main key you do also need to have to be able to manage dealing with the market to earn profit.

Instead of choosing one side, you better have both if you can for those are both profitable and a lot more efficient having both at the same time instead of choosing only one between staking and investing.

[wiss19]

Both, anyone that you think is going to work, you should just do that and know if you’re going to benefit.
I have not tried this staking of a thing before, but the way I thought that it worked before was that when you stake your coins, you’re still going to be making profit if the token or coin you’re staking is increasing in value , alongside that you will also be getting the normal rewards maybe for confirming transactions and things like that. Then as for investment you invest and wait for the profit right?

Or am I missing something on that staking part? Investment is a better option for me depending on what kind of investment.

[electronicash]

Both, anyone that you think is going to work, you should just do that and know if you’re going to benefit.
I have not tried this staking of a thing before, but the way I thought that it worked before was that when you stake your coins, you’re still going to be making profit if the token or coin you’re staking is increasing in value , alongside that you will also be getting the normal rewards maybe for confirming transactions and things like that. Then as for investment you invest and wait for the profit right?

Or am I missing something on that staking part? Investment is a better option for me depending on what kind of investment.

its the same thing since it just keep you waiting.  i suppose you already know coins that are for staking like DASH. sadly, it will only matter for some of us when the token already have a high value such as DASH.  but when the token is just cents like ADA, it will just be disregarded. this is true actually. right now you may not even look at ADA as good token to keep because its growth is slow and its was the situation of NEO too when it was starting.

isn't investing just like Staking as its like hodling for a long time and wait for ATH?

[Dragonfund]

It's easy to tell the difference, before I would suggest staking and investing, instead of choosing one, choose both!,
because Staking will give you coins for a certain period, making your investment increase, this is good for investors.
Staking is now favored by many traders and investors, especially with this program we don't have to worry about a reduced portfolio.

Staking isn't just how they used to be in the past. Unlike now, then you can just stake your bought tokens on any accredited platforms and wait for it to mature with profits but usually they are relatively small in ROI but the recent hype in DeFi has change the game. You hardly see a project that usually done the traditional system but providing them in ratio of 1:1 in form of liquidity and Yield farming, though the rewards are astonishung.
I'm not just cool with staking, there are situations you stake your tokens and they are required to be locked for a time frame before one can have access to them. I really love the Idea of holding my tokens to myself.

[AmoreJaz]

It's easy to tell the difference, before I would suggest staking and investing, instead of choosing one, choose both!,
because Staking will give you coins for a certain period, making your investment increase, this is good for investors.
Staking is now favored by many traders and investors, especially with this program we don't have to worry about a reduced portfolio.

Staking isn't juts how they used to be in the past. Unlike now, then you can just stake your bought tokens on any accredited platforms and wait for it to mature with profits but usually they are relatively small in ROI but the recent hype in DeFi has change the game. You hardly see a project that usually done the traditional system but providing them in ratio of 1:1 in form of liquidity and Yield farming, though the rewards are astonishung.
I'm not just cool with staking, there are situations you stake your tokens and they are required to be locked for a time frame before one can have access to them. I really love the Idea of holding my tokens to myself.

staking will only be profitable if the coin or token that you selected has real value in the market. because if youre staking those coins, and there's actually no use case for that coin, then dont expect that they will be worth something.
 it is only true for few coins or tokens. and remember, check also if the value is driven by hype surrounding it, because with hollow foundation, their failure is imminent!
investing on the other hand, is also the same. depends on what coin you are buying. better buy a coin with working platform rather than those seemingly promising plans but never got into execution.

[Eco_111]

Investing is more effective than staking coins, you can decide to take profit when market grows better while holding your coins in your wallet or you can even trade too but staking is limited, you can't do anything with your token since it's locked away in the staking address till the period is over. 

[Lorence.xD]

Investing is more effective than staking coins, you can decide to take profit when market grows better while holding your coins in your wallet or you can even trade too but staking is limited, you can't do anything with your token since it's locked away in the staking address till the period is over. 

Investing takes a long time too, the key difference for me is that, there is a trickle of profit for investment from time to time. Staking is like a time deposit on the other hand, the benefit will only be once but it will be big depending on the performance of the product you are staking.

[KaratX]

Staking is waiting game, the staking period have to be over before you get paid and there are few risks in this,

1. If the coin staked surge higher you can't sell
2. Stake coins can dump in value and that will affect your Staking reward

This is why I think investment is better, you can trade and make more quantities of the coin or take advantage of market surge, buy low and sell high, get more coins or Profit in the process

[bittick]

Investing are more effective compare to staking especially if you have a good trading skills and know when to buy and sell while staking is just fully depending on how the network work and you are stuck into one project only which can be more risky. You don't need a huge capital just to be more profitable, you need to learn and more experience about the market and you can increase that capital thru your earnings over time, choose wisely always.

But by staking you can stake & invest at the same time so you get double the profit. Investing in crypto you just let the money sitting there waiting for the price increase opportunity meanwhile by staking your money earns money for you and bonus if the price happens to be increasing aswell.
I'd say if I can do both I'd prefer doing both. It also reduces risk of losing when the price gets dumped as well since the coin you owns increases.

[Ucy]

While;
Staking is the process of actively participating in transaction validation (similar to mining) on a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. On these blockchains, anyone with a minimum-required balance of a specific cryptocurrency can validate transactions and earn Staking rewards.
Staking involves holding funds in a cryptocurrency wallet to support the security and operations of a blockchain network. Simply put, staking is the act of locking cryptocurrencies to receive rewards. In most cases, you'll be able to stake your coins directly from your crypto wallet, such as Trust Wallet.

I think staking is still part of Investing/investment.

Anyway, better to call the first "Staking" Proof of Stake consensus mechanism to avoid future confusion. There are multiple ways people Stake coins/things without participating in consensus, like with your second definition of Staking.
Staking in PoS is used for limiting participation in Network consensus to only "stakeholders" or coinholders... some or alot of the PoS crypto Networks make participating in Network Consensus strictly for people with lots of coins...
The second Staking is actually better in a Crypto Network because it's not tied to consensus.

[mu_enrico]

I will offer a different view (as always). In general terms, these words both fundamentally the same since you are risking (or staking) something to get profits.
However, in the crypto space, staking is one of many ways of investing your money (a subset of investment). You invest your fiat money by buying the coins and then lock it for some period of time, with the hope of getting profits.

[deisik]

I will offer a different view (as always). In general terms, these words both fundamentally the same since you are risking (or staking) something to get profits

In gambling you are also staking, quite literally staking your money

But does it mean that they are the same? I guess that would be an instance of overgeneralization, i.e. drawing too broad conclusions, broader than required by the context. Indeed, there are risks involved in both gambling and staking (the latter as it is understood in this thread), but then we could say that virtually any activity entails certain risks. But does it make gambling and staking the same for any practical purpose?

[mu_enrico]

But does it make gambling and staking the same for any practical purpose?

Well, these words are too general and can be used in different contexts/circumstances anyway. So what about HYIP, holding altcoins, setup masternodes, etc.? Are these a form of gambling or investment?

If you ask me about how to draw the line between investing and gambling:
The difference between the term "staking" in gambling vs investing has to do with the expected value (EV). In gambling, especially in chance games, players will get a sure negative expected value (-EV) if they decide to stake their money. It's not investing but more like spending. Conversely, if investors decide to stake their money on the house bankroll side (+EV), it's an investment.

Investing is when you expect some profits, i.e., positive expected value (+EV) over some risk level.