I don't have time for a proper post on this tonight, as I feel like I need to do more research to organize my thoughts on it well enough to give it the attention it deserves, but I don't want to leave you hanging, so I'll speak a little on my personal experience with it and hope that gives you some direction until I get a proper post out.

With the exception of a Coinbase tutorial (maybe two) all my experience with staking has been through HIVE, but I the array of staking uses I've discovered here have been informative.

I can speak on staking semi-intelligently only in two regards...

Staking for Resource Credits (RC) (on Hive)

I'm sure you as a member, understand the concept of RC, but for newcomers sake I'll briefly touch on it.

Agreeing to lock up funds (Resources) to help power/pay for the HIVE blockchain (network) grants the staker the right to transact on (use) the blockchain. You can use RC to post content (including blogs or dapps-decentralized applications), or upvote or use someone else's content or dapps), for example. When you've used all the Resources you're entitled to you can no longer transact on the chain. You must wait for your RC to recharge, which it automatically does gradually, or stake more resources to claim a more access to the chain. Staked assets (in this case Hive) can be fully reclaimed by "Powering Down", a process that gradually releases funds back to the staking account.

Staking tokens that run on top of the HIVE blockchain.

This is similar to the staking process I went through when I did the Coinbase tutorial on COMP, I believe, maybe COSMOS. Basically, the same as staking on HIVE, but instead of locking your funds and giving you renewable resource credits, you get regular payouts in the token you've staked.

Early on, when I'd throw some bs post out, and tag it with whatever was paying out for it at the time, I'd just glance to see if I had gotten anything I could sell and move on after seeing I earned a fraction of a token that's worth a fraction of a cent.

One day I noticed I could stake some of them so, thinking there was probably some kind of benefit to it, similar to hive/RC, I just went through and started staking everything that could be staked and completely forgot about it. Jump ahead a few months and one of the tokens I staked, and have been getting dividends on was LEO, which worked it's way $.25, before steadily climbing to over $.50 over the past couple of weeks. That's one of several. I also had similar experiences with PAL and STEM, and maybe a few others that are still under my radar.

So, to wrap it up, if you have a few dollars to throw at it, Coinbase is an easy place to start, as at the end of the tutorial they give you an option to buy more of the coin/token. It's a streamlined process and experience.

*Quick note. I feel like I'm mentioning Coinbase a lot and I'd like to add a note. I encourage everyone to look into other exchanges for several reasons, but I'll likely default to Coinbase because it was where I first bought bitcoin and it has a familiar traditional banking feel. The fees are usually a little higher than other exchanges, but my experience with other exchanges has ranged from choppy to fine, so I recommend finding the one that works for you then get familiar with more.

If you don't really have resources to spend I'd recommend tossing $5 or $10 in HIVE and playing with some of the tokens on https://hive-engine.com/, as many are as low as $.00001, so just a few dollars can go a long way. Keep in mind, however, this should be considered more of an exercise to get familiar with the environment and get comfortable buying and selling. Expect to lose the few dollars you throw at extra cheap tokens on hive engine. If you want a confidence booster, research what has shown the most growth and stability for the past six months or year and get one or two of them to hold and watch.

That's all for now. I hope this has been helpful! Questions are welcome!