The time is coming quickly when we as Cardano investors need to select a stake pool to delegate our ADA. Now is the time to evaluate which stake pool or pools we will delegate to.
Just how can you select the right stake pool? There are already hundreds of stake pools on the Haskell Testnet! The answer is, you need to evaluate them and make a decision. It’s not an easy task, but we’ve prepared a video for you that can help.
In this youtube video, we review three ways you can evaluate a stake pool before making a decision to delegate your ADA.
First, you want to pick a stake pool that is producing blocks. That is a key metric for earning rewards. There are many pool operators practicing their chops on the Shelley Testnet. So why not start there?
The Daedalus STN v3 (Shelley Testnet Version 3) has a ranked list of stake pool operators. This wallet has built in functionality that gives you access to information. How many blocks have they produced? How much ADA per epoch do they plan on charging to run their stake pool? How much of their own ADA will they pledge when the mainnet is released? Are the over-saturated? In other words, do they have a too high percentage of pledge and delegation? When the Shelley mainnet is released, over-saturated pools will actually earn less rewards per epoch.
You can also visit pooltool.io, which is an excellent resource to see stake pool performance. What can you find there? Not only can you see how many blocks they’re producing, but the last column, labeled “Actions” shows stake pool details like how many block were minted in the most recent epoch? How many delegators do the have staking to their stake pool? This gives you an idea of how competent the operator(s) behind the stake pool are.
Second, does the stake pool have a social media presence? If they don’t, how will you get information on how your investment is performing? A stake pool that engages with their delegators and keeps them informed is valuable to the community. Not only are delegators kept apprised of performance, uptime, and rewards percentage, but they also can keep up with the latest news and developments. Social media channels that serve this purpose are Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, and others. Not all have to be used, but make sure you delegate with a stake pool that is willing to engage with you and keep you well-informed.
Finally, try to find out more about the team behind the stake pool. Can you contact them personally? Do they have the skills and expertise to competently run a competitive stake pool? What equipment and infrastructure have they invested in? Is the pool run on a laptop connected by a local consumer ISP? Or, do they run the pool on bare metal servers at a data center that guarantees 99.9% uptime? These are important questions to ask. So ask them! Your investment is important. Take the time to choose a stake pool wisely.