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Blockchain oracle service Chainlink has announced an upcoming upgrade to its staking mechanism. The upgrade, called Chainlink Staking v0.2, is currently being prepared with a new pool of 45 million LINK tokens. The upgrade focuses on four main components: a new unbonding mechanism, stake slashing, a dynamic rewards system, and a new modular architecture for smoother future upgradability. Unbonding refers to the period after unstaking where coins are locked on the blockchain before being released. Stake slashing occurs when a staker’s coins are taken by the network for not following rules or behaving maliciously. The migration to v0.2 will be launched in three phases, prioritizing v0.1 stakers. Chainlink’s staking feature was launched on the Ethereum mainnet in December 2020 to enhance the network’s security and expand its range of applications. The addition of staking allows Chainlink decentralized oracle networks to scale and serve a broader range of applications in Web3 and traditional Web2 industries.