Yield-as-inference · Cardano · Pre-launch, preprod demo live
Your yield pays for your AI.
Delegate ADA you already hold, keep it in your wallet, and let its staking rewards pay 99% of your AI bill while the discount lasts.
- Non-custodial
- No lock-up
- Any CIP-30 wallet
- Verifiable on-chain
Updated · Agents: start at /yield/llms.txt or /yield/offer.json
Inference discount balance
- Delegated
- 100k ADA
- Per epoch
- $5.48
- You pay
- 1% of list
Recent activity
- Epoch N+6 · pool fees recorded+$5.48
- Epoch N+5 · pool fees recorded+$5.48
- Epoch N+4 · pool fees recorded+$5.48
- Request · list $1.00$0.01 + $0.99 discount
In one line: Delegate ADA you already hold, keep it in your wallet, and let its staking rewards pay 99% of your AI bill while the discount lasts.
Yield-as-inference is a simple trade: instead of receiving Cardano staking rewards as more ADA, you receive them as AI compute. You delegate ADA to the Gatewayz stake pool from the wallet you already use, the pool's rewards are tracked every epoch, and your share comes back as an inference discount balance on your Gatewayz account. Nothing is deposited, locked or lent out.
Key takeaways
- 01
Your ADA stays in your wallet. Delegation on Cardano is a certificate on your stake key, not a transfer, and you can spend or redelegate at any time.
- 02
Cardano delegation has no lock-up and no slashing: if a pool underperforms, delegators miss that epoch's rewards, not principal.
- 03
95% of the rewards your stake earns Gatewayz becomes your discount balance, calculated only from rewards Gatewayz has actually received.
- 04
While the balance lasts, every request on Gatewayz costs 1% of its list price; the other 99% is drawn from the balance.
- 05
The first discount arrives roughly two to three weeks after you delegate, because Cardano pays rewards a few epochs after they are earned.
- 06
Launch limits apply: at most $5 of discount per account per day, and $50 per day across the program.
- 07
You can recompute your discount yourself from public chain data with one command.
How does yield-as-inference work?
It works in four steps, the same for a person, a treasury or an agent. The only on-chain action is the delegation itself; linking your wallet to your account is a signed message, not a transaction.
- 1Delegate
Point your ADA at the Gatewayz stake pool from any CIP-30 wallet (Lace, Eternl, Yoroi, Vespr). Your ADA stays in your wallet.
- 2Link
Sign a message with your stake key to link the wallet to your Gatewayz account. No transaction, no deposit.
- 3Convert
After each epoch, Gatewayz splits the pool rewards it received by stake and adds 95% of your share to your discount balance.
- 4Use
Every request on Gatewayz costs 1% of its list price while the balance lasts, through one API key, or by your agents.
Under the hood, value moves along one path. The first three steps are native Cardano: your wallet, a delegation certificate and the pool minting blocks. The last three happen in your Gatewayz account: the pool's fees for a finished epoch are split by stake, 95% of your share is credited in USD, and your requests draw on it.
- Your walletOn Cardano
CIP-30: Lace, Eternl, Yoroi. ADA never leaves it.
- Delegation certificateOn Cardano
On your stake key. One transaction.
- Gatewayz stake poolOn Cardano
Mints blocks each epoch. Fixed cost + margin.
- Epoch accountingAt Gatewayz
Fees actually received. Split by stake.
- Discount ledgerAt Gatewayz
95% of your share, in USD. Non-transferable.
- Gatewayz APIAt Gatewayz
OpenAI + Anthropic formats. You pay 1% of list.
- CIP-8 signed message links your stake address to your Gatewayz account (no transaction).
On each request, the split looks like this:
Illustration: 100,000 ADA at network-average rewards adds about $5.48 of discount per epoch at ADA $0.2033 (Oct 27, 2026), which covers about $5.54 of requests at list price.
The detail behind each step, including how a finished epoch's pool fees are split across linked wallets, is on How it works. If you are new to Cardano staking, start with How Cardano staking works.
When does the first discount arrive?
About 15 to 20 days after you delegate, then every epoch. Cardano does not pay on live delegations: it uses a stake snapshot taken at each epoch boundary, so a new delegation counts from the epoch after next and is paid two epochs after that. Gatewayz credits your discount only once those rewards are recorded.
- NYou delegate
Certificate submitted from your wallet.
- N+1Snapshot
Your stake is counted in the epoch-boundary snapshot.
- N+2Active
Your stake helps the pool get elected to mint blocks.
- N+3Calculated
The protocol calculates that epoch's rewards.
- N+4Paid, then credited
Rewards are paid; Gatewayz records them and credits your discount.
Cardano epochs and reward timing walks through the reward lag with dates.
What does your stake buy each month?
Enter your own amount. The estimate is a range built from Cardano's network-wide rewards over recent epochs and the ADA price you choose; it is never a promised rate, and the per-account launch limit is applied.
Type any amount, or drag.
Default CoinGecko simple price, 2026-10-27. Use today's price.
Estimated discount per month
$32.91 – $34.45
- Per epoch (5 days)
- about $5.48
- Covers at list price
- up to $34.79
You pay the remaining 1% of each request from your normal credits.
A range from your own amount, not a rate. The range uses network-wide rewards for an established pool. A new or small pool mints blocks less often, so its rewards vary more from epoch to epoch, and an epoch with no blocks has nothing to share. Inputs and sources
The calculator shows dollars of discount. What those dollars buy depends on the models you use and how long your prompts and answers are; What are AI tokens? explains how inference is priced.
Why is this built on Cardano?
Because Cardano's delegation model already does the hard part. Staking there never moves your ADA, never locks it and needs nothing more than a certificate on your stake key, so a program that turns rewards into a service can be built without holding anyone's funds or writing a smart contract to custody them.
Non-custodial, no slashing
Delegation is a certificate on your stake key, not a transfer. Your ADA stays in your wallet and can move at any time, with no lock-up, no slashing and no minimum amount.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: StakingOne transaction, standard fee
Delegating one stake key takes a single transaction with a delegation certificate and costs only the usual transaction fee. The 2 ADA stake address deposit is paid once at registration and returned in full on deregistration.
Source: Cardano Docs: DelegationAny CIP-30 wallet
Lace, Eternl, Yoroi, VESPR, Typhon and the rest all speak CIP-30, the dApp-wallet bridge. The site asks your wallet for an address and a signature; it never sees your keys.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: CIP-30Linked with CIP-8, not a transaction
Your stake address is tied to your Gatewayz account by a CIP-8 signed message from the stake key. It proves control without a transaction, a fee or a deposit.
Source: CIP-0008: Message SigningAccounting on the protocol's clock
Rewards follow stake snapshots taken at epoch boundaries: delegate in epoch N, active in N+2, paid at the start of N+4. Gatewayz credits a discount only after a finished epoch's rewards are recorded.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: Stake SnapshotYour vote stays your choice
Pool delegation and governance are separate choices. Since the Plomin hard fork (29 January 2025), withdrawing rewards needs a vote delegation to a DRep, abstain or no confidence; joining the Gatewayz pool does not choose one for you.
Source: Cardano.org: Stake your ada on Cardano
Non-custodial vs custodial staking compares this with other chains and with exchanges, and Security lists exactly what Gatewayz can and cannot touch.
What does it add to the Cardano ecosystem?
A practical reason to delegate that pays for something people already buy, under exactly the rules every pool follows. The program does not change how rewards are made or shared by the protocol; it changes what the pool's fees are used for.
- 01
A use for staking beyond more ADA
Delegation becomes a way to pay for a service holders and teams already buy. The ADA still secures the network exactly as any delegated stake does.
Source: Cardano.org: Stake your ada on Cardano - 02
One pool among many
The k parameter targets 500 saturated pools. In epoch 664 saturation is roughly 77.9 million ADA; past it, extra stake adds no rewards. The Gatewayz pool is bound by that like any other.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: k parameter - 03
Fees in the open
A pool's fixed cost (at least the 170 ADA protocol minimum) and margin are declared on-chain. Anyone can read them and recompute the discount from public data with one command.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: Minimum Pool Cost - 04
The treasury keeps its share
20% of each epoch's reward pot goes to Cardano's on-chain treasury before pools and delegators are paid. Nothing about this program changes that.
Source: Cardano.org Glossary: Treasury Cut
How pool fees, pledge and saturation work is explained in Cardano stake pools explained.
Can you check the numbers yourself?
Yes. Your discount is computed from public Cardano data, so you can recompute it from your stake address. The script reads Koios and applies the same formula Gatewayz uses: 95% of the pool's fees for an epoch, multiplied by your share of the pool's stake.
curl -sO https://www.gatewayz.ai/yield/verify.mjs && node verify.mjs stake1u...- Reads Koios. The pool's fees per epoch and your stake in it, from a public API.
- Same formula. 95% of the pool's fees times your share of its stake.
- No keys. It needs only your stake address. Read the script before you run it.
See Verify your discount for what the script reads and how to compare it with your account history.
Why take rewards as inference instead of ADA?
Because some holders spend on AI anyway. If you or your team pays for inference every month, rewards that arrive as a discount on that bill do the same job as rewards you would otherwise convert and spend, without a sale. If you would rather accumulate ADA, delegate to a pool that pays rewards out; this program is not for you.
| Regular delegation | Yield-as-inference with Gatewayz | |
|---|---|---|
| Where your ADA is | In your wallet | In your wallet |
| What you receive | ADA rewards, after the pool's fixed cost and margin | An inference discount worth 95% of the rewards your stake earned Gatewayz |
| How you use it | Hold, spend or sell ADA | 99% off every request on Gatewayz while the balance lasts |
| Can you withdraw it? | Yes, as ADA | No: the discount is non-transferable and cannot be cashed out |
| Lock-up | None | None |
The full comparison, with a worked example, is in Staking rewards vs an inference discount.
Who is it for?
It suits anyone who holds ADA and pays for AI. Three groups get the most out of it:
- Treasuries and teams: DAOs, funds and protocols that hold ADA and pay a monthly AI bill can cover part of it without selling principal. Read For treasuries.
- Builders and ADA holders: developers who already use OpenAI-compatible tools can fund their own usage from stake they hold anyway. Read For builders.
- Agents and their operators: an AI agent with its own Cardano wallet can link it through the API and spend the discount with its own key. Read For agents.
For people and treasuries
Delegate from your wallet, link it with a signature, and use the discount with your API key.
Apply for the demo →For agents
curl -s https://www.gatewayz.ai/yield/offer.json
curl -s https://api.gatewayz.ai/delegation/statusWhich assets can pay for AI today?
What is at risk?
Your ADA is not at risk from Gatewayz: delegation never moves it, and no Gatewayz contract holds it. Nor is it at risk from the protocol: Cardano delegation has no slashing, and the Cardano Developer Portal puts it plainly: if a pool underperforms, you simply miss rewards for that epoch. The real trade-offs are the rewards you give up, the pool's performance, the ADA price and changes to the program.
- Your ADA
- Delegation never moves your ADA. There is no Gatewayz contract holding it and no lock-up. Your ADA's market price still moves, as it would in your wallet anyway.
- Rewards you give up
- The pool takes nearly all of its rewards as its fee (99% margin plus Cardano's minimum fixed cost), so you do not receive ADA staking rewards while delegated. You receive an inference discount instead.
- Pool performance
- Rewards depend on the blocks the pool mints. A new or small pool mints blocks less often, so its rewards vary more from epoch to epoch, and an epoch with no blocks has nothing to share.
- ADA price
- Rewards are converted to USD when they are recorded, so the size of your discount moves with ADA.
What is Gatewayz?
Gatewayz is an inference layer: one API key and one OpenAI-compatible endpoint for models from several providers, with native Anthropic Messages support. The discount applies to the same requests you would make anyway. What is Gatewayz? covers the product.
- Gatewayz is listed in the FlashyOS public directory as org/gatewayz with three capabilities: inference routing, model catalog and usage metering. (as of 2026-10-15)
Do I lose my ADA when I delegate it to Gatewayz?
No. Delegating only tells the Cardano network which pool your stake supports. Your ADA stays in your wallet under your keys, you can spend it at any time, and Gatewayz has no way to move it.
Can my ADA be slashed if the pool misbehaves?
No. Cardano delegation has no slashing and no lock-up (Cardano.org). A pool that underperforms or misses blocks earns fewer rewards, so the worst case for a delegator is a smaller or missing reward for that epoch, never a loss of the ADA itself.
How much AI inference will my ADA pay for?
It depends on how much you delegate, how many blocks the pool mints and the price of ADA when rewards are recorded. The calculator gives a range for your own amount; there is no promised rate, and the per-account launch limit caps any single account.
When does the first discount arrive?
Roughly two to three weeks after you first delegate. Cardano counts a new delegation from the epoch after next and pays that epoch's rewards about two epochs later, and each epoch lasts five days.
Can I withdraw or sell the discount?
No. The discount balance is non-transferable, works only for inference on Gatewayz and cannot be withdrawn or exchanged. That is the difference between this program and ordinary staking rewards.
Does delegating to Gatewayz change my governance vote?
No. Pool delegation and vote delegation are separate choices on Cardano. Since the Plomin hard fork, withdrawing rewards requires your stake key to delegate its vote to a DRep, abstain or no confidence, and joining the Gatewayz pool does not make that choice for you.
Who can take part?
Anyone outside the United States and Canada. The program is not available to US or Canadian persons, and every participant confirms this before linking a wallet.
Is the program live?
Not on mainnet yet. The program is built and switched off on mainnet, and a working demo runs on Cardano's preprod testnet with test ADA. Apply below and we will walk you through it.
Preprod demo
Apply for the demo
We are walking a small group of holders, treasuries and agent builders through the live testnet demo before launch. Tell us a little about you.
- A guided walkthrough on Cardano preprod, with test ADA
- Delegate, link with CIP-8, watch an epoch credit
- First in line when mainnet opens
Sources
- Cardano.org: Stake your ada on Cardano, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano Docs: Delegation, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: Staking, as of 2026-10-28
- Cardano Developer Portal: Staking, as of 2026-10-28
- Cardano Docs: Pledging and rewards, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: CIP-30, as of 2026-10-27
- CIP-0008: Message Signing, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: Stake Snapshot, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: k parameter, as of 2026-10-27
- Koios API: totals (epoch 664), as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: Minimum Pool Cost, as of 2026-10-27
- Cardano.org Glossary: Treasury Cut, as of 2026-10-27
Discounts are a share of staking rewards Gatewayz actually received, can change at any time, and are not a guaranteed return. Not available to US or Canadian persons. Every participant must confirm they are not a US or Canadian person before linking a wallet. Not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures as of 2026-10-27. Program disclosures