Staking is much more friendly to the environment than mining, that’s why we do not support mining.
Staking is when you lock crypto assets for a set period of time to help support the operation of a blockchain. In return for staking your crypto, you earn staking rewards.
Many blockchains use a proof of stake consensus mechanism. Under this system, network participants who want to support the blockchain by validating new transactions and adding new blocks must “stake” set sums of cryptocurrency.
Staking helps ensure that only legitimate data and transactions are added to a blockchain. Participants trying to earn a chance to validate new transactions offer to lock up sums of cryptocurrency in staking as a form of insurance.
With staking you will not loose your coins, they are just locked for the time of staking. Your coins never leave your crypto wallet.
When staking AVAX you can decide if you would like to delegate of validate your AVAX coins. If you are not sure which method to take, try our “Validating vs. delegating staking calculator“. If you have at least 2000 AVAX to stake, it is always a better way to validate your stake.
You can read more about staking and mining here.