Hello,
I want to know more about cardano rewards for small pool operators.
Let’s assume i am running cardano stake pool with only 500ADA pledged to it, and i have no other delegators, as per my knowledge i will only receive rewards when new block is minted, so if i run node 24/7 is it possible to mint a block with only 500ada staked to it. And in how much time i will get new block allocation to my pool.
I want to calculate if i can cover my electricity and internet charges.
Thank you.
Eventually you will mint a block with your pledge alone. But it might fell like forever until this happens and you will totally on your own concerning your operating costs. To get one slot per epoch assigned (an average) you’ll currently have to have 1.055.000 Ada staked. So, for example, if you’re okay with one block every two months (60 days = 12 epochs) to cover your costs, technically you would need 80k Ada staked.
Please search this forum for some details. There a quite some threads about this topic. 
This question is explored to a reasonable degree over here.
Hi @KingMaker,
Your odds of finding a block in a certain epoch are about 500/1.000.000 = 0.05%
This means 1/0,05% = 2000 epochs on average to find 1 block 
The easiest way to calculate these odds:
Mnemonic device to help estimate the odds of your stake pool finding blocks (ada4good.com)
Hi,
As per calculator if i stake 1000Ada i can still earn 1 ada per epoch and 55ada per year… is this correct…?
Staking 1000 ada will give you about 5,5% return per year. So yes, that would be about 55 ada a year. A year has 73 epochs (365/5) so on average (there will be fluctuations though) you would get 55/73= about 0,75 ada per epoch.
But remember this is staking your ada at somebody else’s pool. When you have a total stake of 1000 ada in your own pool the chances are not the same. That is what my blog above explains.
In case running a pool is not for you and you should decide to delegate instead (for example because it would be more profitable), there is one metric that is especially important, which “cost per minted block”
So, to cover my cost i need at least 1 block(only counting 340ada per block) per 5 months, for that i need to pledge 50k ada.
Most of the people in my state still don’t know much about crypto currency, and to purchase and stake a good amount of ada is like nearly impossible for people because of fear of pricing for crypto.
For running a stake pool in my state i have to pledge all 50k by myself, because i don’t know anybody in my state know the concept of staking crypto. If they bought any crypto its a big thing in itself 
So, i need to invest 50k * 1.5$ = 75k$ just to cover my cost. Its too much money for me and many other individuals like me.
From the economical perspective, it’d be more correct to compare “running a pool” with “delegating to a pool”. If running a pool only covers your cost, your ROA would be 0. By delegating the same amount you could get 5-6%.
There are various good option for folks like you. I’d naturally recommend an approach where you have a good return for your ADA (ROA) and at the same time do something to “Make the world work better for all”.
On top of what you get elsewhere, you could enjoy monthly extra payments as documented here and here. Some other good options are here.
Sure, I will delegate to your pool in next epoch.
Thank you for the information.
Welcome on board
Hi I’m not technically savy in this but my son has a pool PATPL and he has about 160,000 dollars for pledge (100K ADA) and about 3 million dollars (1,500,000 ADA) delegated to it at todays prices. He gets between 1-2 blocks per Epoch. I don’t see how 500 ada would create enough blocks to pay for itself but I could be wrong. He has a lot of problems getting delegators because the ADA fees come out of the any new delegators and its a big portion when its just a start up. So many other pools like Binance 1pct, have so many people it’s hard to compete as the fees get distributed. But if your lucky, you can get some help from IOHK delegating.
