Chapter IX · Alephium

Amber Hollow

Staking with two legs. Root wRATR, rest xALPH in the amber beside it, and a share of each week's pot runs down to you, share for share, second by second.

The wRATR mark: the messenger with the scroll

Below the roots the trunk opens into a hollow, and the hollow holds amber. Ratatoskr carried this word down past the roots themselves, to the place where things are set in amber and kept exactly as they were laid down.

Here wRATR is rooted as it is in the Roots above, and earns the same way. Beside it rests a measure of xALPH, sealed in the amber. The amber earns nothing; it only keeps your place, and gives back what went in, unit for unit.

What follows is the Hollow as it works. The steps are plain. They are meant to be read with a wallet open.

What stays yours #

You can always take your wRATR and your xALPH out, and no one else can move them. That is the pools' central property, and it is a property of the contract, not a promise about it:

  • Unstaking wRATR is never refused. Once nothing is staked, every unit of your xALPH can come out too, in the same transaction. That is the pools' side. Turning xALPH back into ALPH is PowFi's process, with its own terms (see xALPH).
  • Claiming is never blocked. No rule and no pause stands in front of your rewards.
  • Every payout goes to the address it belongs to. No function in the contract lets anyone name where a payout goes. What leaves the pool goes to the address whose own record is being drawn down, in the same step.
  • There is no other door. The contract has no mint, no withdrawal by anyone else, no rescue, no migration and no way to destroy it.

A pause cannot trap anyone. The pools can be closed to new wRATR. While they are, staking and compounding stop; rewards keep running, claiming still works and unstaking still works.

The Hollow at a glance #

Amber Hollow is two staking pools on Alephium, built from one contract. In each you stake wRATR and are paid in wRATR, as in the Roots. Each also holds xALPH beside your stake.

  • wRATR is the leg that earns. Rewards are shared out by staked wRATR and nothing else.
  • xALPH is the leg that admits you. To stake, you rest xALPH beside your wRATR. It earns nothing in the pool and comes back one for one.
  • Unstake either leg instantly. There is no cooldown and no unbonding.
  • Claim your rewards as wRATR, or compound them into your stake.

The page never holds a key and never custodies anything. Every action is a transaction your own wallet signs, and the pool contract keeps the record.

The pools' live figures, including what is staked, what is held in the amber, this week's pot and the rate it implies, are on the Amber Hollow site itself, read from the contracts. This chapter does not repeat them.

amberhollow.enchantedforestdefi.com →

How the two pools differ #

Each pool has one ratio: the xALPH it requires for every wRATR staked. The ratio was set when the pool was deployed and cannot be changed by anyone. The two pools run identical code, and the ratio is what sets them apart: the deeper pool's ratio is exactly twice the shallower one's.

The rule is the same in both: after every action, the xALPH in your record must cover your staked wRATR at that pool's ratio. The Amber Hollow site shows each pool's ratio and works out the xALPH a stake needs.

Each pool is funded separately, and a position in one is separate from a position in the other.

What you need #

wRATR on Alephium #

The pools take only wRATR on Alephium: RATR, wrapped one for one by the Ratatoskr Bridge. Chapter II covers the ways to get RATR, and Chapter VI covers bringing it across.

xALPH #

xALPH is issued by PowFi, not by EnchantedForestDeFi. It is a receipt for staked ALPH: the number you hold never changes, and rewards show up as each xALPH redeeming for more ALPH. PowFi's own documentation explains how xALPH is made and how it turns back into ALPH.

PowFi sets its own wait for turning xALPH back into ALPH; its docs give the current terms. The other way out is to sell the xALPH instead. Taking xALPH out of Amber Hollow is immediate. PowFi's wait applies only to PowFi's step.

What xALPH is, from PowFi →

The pools only hold xALPH and hand it back. They never stake it, never convert it and never call PowFi's contracts, so turning xALPH back into ALPH happens with PowFi, after it has left the pool.

A little ALPH #

Every Alephium transaction pays a little ALPH for gas, and your first stake also places a small ALPH deposit (see The ledger deposit). Chapter VII covers getting ALPH.

A group 0 address #

Alephium splits addresses into groups, and both pools live in group 0. Stake from a group 0 address only (see Group 0 addresses only). Moving tokens between your own addresses is an ordinary Alephium transfer, nothing to do with the bridge.

Holding only wRATR? Chapter VIII covers Yggdrasil Roots, the pool with one leg and no xALPH.

Enter #

  1. Connect an Alephium wallet and approve the connection.
  2. Choose a pool.
  3. Type the wRATR to stake and the xALPH to rest beside it. Both can go in one transaction.
  4. Sign. Your stake, your xALPH and your share of the pool appear on the page.

If the xALPH in your record after the transaction would not cover your stake at the pool's ratio, the transaction is refused and nothing moves. xALPH can also be added on its own, while the pool is open to deposits.

You earn from the moment your stake lands, and only from then: a new stake never shares in rewards that ran before it arrived. Add to your stake at any time; each addition earns from the moment it lands.

How rewards run down #

Each pool is funded each week. Each funding is spread evenly over the period that follows and runs out continuously, by the chain's clock. At every moment it is divided among everyone staked in that pool, by staked wRATR: a stake twice the size earns twice as much.

  • xALPH neither earns nor dilutes. The xALPH in the amber, yours or anyone else's, does not change what any stake earns.
  • Rewards come only from wRATR paid in. The pools cannot mint. Each pays out what it was funded with and nothing more.
  • A top-up mid-period carries the rest along. Whatever had not yet run down is folded into the new period, so nothing is stranded.
  • Each pot streams until its period ends. Rewards accrue while a pot is streaming. Staked wRATR and xALPH are never touched by the stream.
  • Rewards and deposits are kept apart. Rewards are paid only from the funded pot, never from anyone's stake or xALPH, and the contract checks after every payout that it still holds every stake, all the xALPH and every unpaid reward.

What you have earned sits in your record in the pool and stays there, claimable, for as long as you leave it. There is nothing to check in for.

Claim or compound #

Claim #

Claiming sends everything you have earned to your wallet as wRATR, up to the moment the claim lands. Claim whenever you like, whether you are still staked or have already left. The ratio never applies to a claim.

Compound #

Compounding moves everything you have earned into your stake instead, so it earns alongside the rest from then on. No wRATR leaves the pool. It is optional: your rewards accrue every second either way.

Compounding raises your stake, so it follows the same rule as staking: the xALPH in your record must cover the larger stake. If it does not, add xALPH first, or claim instead. Claiming pays out the same rewards.

Leave #

  1. Type the wRATR to take out, the xALPH to take out, or both.
  2. Sign. Both come back to your wallet in the same transaction.

Unstaking is instant. There is no cooldown, no unbonding period and no exit fee.

  • wRATR can always come out. Taking out stake only makes the ratio easier to meet.
  • xALPH comes out as far as the stake left behind allows. The xALPH that stays must still cover the wRATR that stays.
  • To leave entirely, take out all your wRATR and all your xALPH in one transaction.

Rewards earned up to that moment stay in your record and remain claimable after you leave.

The ledger deposit #

Your first stake in a pool opens a record for your address in that pool's ledger. Alephium asks for a small ALPH deposit to open any such record, and the Amber Hollow site shows the amount before you sign. You pay it once per pool, when the record opens.

It is a deposit, not a fee. It comes back to you in the same transaction that closes your record, and the record closes once you have no wRATR staked, no xALPH in the amber and nothing left to claim. If you take everything out while rewards are still owed, the record stays open to hold them; claim, and the rewards and the deposit come home together.

Verify before you trust #

The two official pool contracts are linked in the Amber Hollow site's footer, each with its page on the Alephium explorer. The address your wallet shows on a signing prompt should be one of those two. Neither is ever a deposit address: nothing in Amber Hollow asks you to send coins to an address.

The role that funds the pools can add rewards and close them to new deposits. It has no withdrawal, no rescue and no drain, and no path to anyone's staked wRATR or xALPH.

Carried down 2026-10-04 from the two deployed pool contracts, which run the same code, codeHash 0b77aad66da2416a4a43778fa60d6f5377d4daea7f159187afe58a7a5ca74bc4. This chapter states rules, not snapshots: live values are on the Amber Hollow site, read from the contracts. Measured figures, with their dates, belong in the Reference chapter.