# Mint, Burn, and Claim

Staking on Horizon Protocol is straightforward and involves three primary actions: Mint, Burn, and Claim.

### Mint

Minting is the process of creating or borrowing zUSD, a zAsset stablecoin tied to the value of the US Dollar, by staking HZN as collateral. zUSD can be used for trading other zAssets on Horizon Spot and Horizon Futures. (It's worth noting that zUSD is pronounced zee-USD.)

The concept of minting zUSD by staking HZN is akin to taking a mortgage on your home. Just as you can use your home as collateral to borrow money from a bank, minting involves pledging HZN as collateral to "borrow" zUSD. To regain access to your HZN, you'll need to burn or "return" the zUSD. Therefore, zUSD is essentially borrowed money, also referred to as debt.

### Burn

Burning refers to the act of returning or repaying some of the borrowed zUSD during the minting process to maintain a balanced C-Ratio (collateralization ratio).

### Claim

Claiming involves collecting your rewards for providing collateral to the protocol. These rewards are distributed on a weekly basis, every Friday around 15:00 UTC.

{% hint style="info" %}
Please note that all Staking Rewards (in HZN) from your claimed rewards will be escrowed for one year starting from the date you claim them.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
The minimum stake time is 7 days. 

During this period, stakers won’t be able to burn their entire stake, however, they can still utilize the existing tools to burn to the target C-Ratio or choose to self-liquidate if needed. 
{% endhint %}


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