Updated stake pool setup
Ten days ago we retired our stake pool SATURN to focus on just one stake pool JUNO. Since this decision we kept our existing infrastructure intact.
Due to lack of interest of investors to stake with smaller pools and bad luck in epoch 215 we decided to scale down. By scaling down we can safe some on cloud hosting costs.
Does scaling down mean that we compromise on our stake pool infrastructure? No we didn’t, in our opinion we a first class stake pool setup that is more robust then most of the top 100 stake pools. But please convince yourself of this.
To summarize:
- 4 public relay nodes in three different geo-graphically located data centers to provide redundancy.
- A hidden relay node that ensures that our pool node is always connected to the network. In case someone is planning for a denial of service attack on our public relay nodes we are still able to produce blocks.
- One pool node (ticker A4PEU pool name JUNO) with a hot standby in two different geo-graphically located data centers. In case of a problem in one data center we can switch quickly over to the other one so we are not missing out on block production.
Next to the above we have severe security measures implemented to keep our personal pledge and stake safe.
Long term commitment
We are thinking long term, this is the only reason for the above mentioned infrastructure setup.
It would have been very easy for us to spin up just one stake pool with limited pledge and one or two relays. We decided against this. Our reasoning: we wanted to provide our delegators with a stake pool service level where they don’t have to worry. Next to this we want to contribute to the overall security of the Cardano network.
Lottery first class ticket required
The Ourobouros Proof of Stake protocol is working on basis of a lottery. A stake pool with a lot of stake gets a ticket with a high chance (first class ticket) to produce one or multiple blocks during an epoch.
The majority of the delegated stake is concentrated in large stake pools. These pools are earning the majority of the rewards since they get blocks assigned.
This made many of these pool owners decide to spin up even more stake pools with little or no pledge and very low margins just to receive the fixed costs per epoch.
Many delegators are not aware of this when they choosing for these stake pools because of their low fees.
These delegators are ruling out smaller stake pools to produce blocks and they are indirectly undermining the security of the Cardano network.
For delegators it would be better to spread their stake over smaller stake pools, this would contribute to the decentralization and security of the network.
Since the Ourobouros block assignment lottery is developed so that blocks are spread evenly over time to equally staked pools. This should bring the delegator similar or even better rewards than delegating their stake to a large pool.
Beside the system was never designed to make a few stake pool operators filthy rich from the stake pool margin and pledge.
By delegating your stake to smaller pools like ours, these stake pools can also reach the level of that first class ticket. This would support a better decentralization and security of the network
Goal
Our goal is to reach a minimum stake of 10 million ADA . With this goal reached, we can produce blocks every epoch (a first class lottery ticket is required for this) and are not dependent anymore on randomness of the lottery.
We need your help to reach this minimum stake target of 10 million ADA, please delegate your stake with A4PEU.