Dodgy stake pool operator tactics

Hi,

I’ve noticed a lot of stake pools have changed their pledge from millions to mere thousands over the past couple of days. Of course with this initial pledge promise they have raked in millions of stakes of users who might not have realized what has happened.

Now I understand, that at this stage, pledge is not as a significant factor as some pool operators might make you believe, but I do feel this tactic should be “flagged” in so way to reduce the pool operators rewards. Or at least in Daedalus we should get some notification about the a significant pledge change.

Any Thoughts?

1 Like

It’s both good and bad since people who are able but do not have the funds can get a chance to prove themselves off the “top chart”, probably by taking a short-term loan right when the network launches or something. But it is also a bit of an underhanded tactic to make someone believe something that isn’t true (your pledge amount) for your own benefit.

Sure I would understand if it’s a small difference but not from millions to a thousand, if they start dishonest like that you don’t know what other tricks would be up their sleeves

I agree. I have seen some pools legitimately playing with pledge to see how it impacts their ranking (although rankings appear to be random at this stage), but there have been many that have employed the “look at my pool, stake with me because I have millions in pledge”. Delegators will see through these types of disingenuous tactics over the longer term.

1 Like

As a newbie, it’s things like this that make me want to adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach. (The fact that I can’t even withdraw from Binance is another matter!!??)

But now, I’m starting to think it’s not such a bad thing… I’ll be able to withdraw eventually - hopefully sometime this week according to Charles’ Surprise AMA :thinking:

And maybe by the time I can get my ADA off Binance, the stakepool rankings maybe somewhat more accurate - so I can make a more informed choice?

Yeah makes sense, now in fairness the amount of “pledge” doesn’t have as much of an impact as some claim. So pick a pool that is reliable, active and reachable with good infrastructure.

Like CNT Pool for example :slight_smile:

Relax. You’ll have plenty of time to decide. And yes, after a few epochs things will be more clear as the real stats start flowing in.

I think you are misunderstanding. They aren’t taking out a loan, they can set the pledge amount to whatever they want when they register for the stake pool. They only have to have the actual amount in the pool at the end of the epoch (or do they have to have it during the epoch it produces rewards? Unclear to me). If people aren’t paying attention they can delegate to the pool based on that pledge value.

Pledge has a direct and indirect impact. Just because the protocol doesn’t reward pledge much doesn’t mean I can’t use it as an indicator of commitment.

1 Like

Well there no misunderstanding in regards to the tactics. It’s shady AF

If I say to you, I have this great business opportunity and I’ve invested 2 million. Then right before the investment gets locked in I change my investment to 1000. Then everyone who jumped aboard this investment based on the opportunity will feel screwed over.

I think IOHK must build in a delay off one or two epochs on the pledge and tax setting adjustment of a pool. This way a pool can change it but takes some time to get active so the delegators can review the new settings.

Regards, MICRO pool :slight_smile:

@theh1982
@RichieCee
I am watching now as the Daedalus update is finalized. I believe there were some glitches and many things are getting cleaned up. You’re right, we’re going to see changes occur just now, and yet soon it’ll be a much clearer picture of the real operators and their ranking, their pledges, fees, etc. [There were a couple little bits of info about this]
It was such a huge undertaking - that in my head - I figured by mid-end August we will be good to go on most fronts and to just watch what happens during the interim
Does this help at all? Hope overall your day is going well. :v:t4: :blush:

New Note: there are now a couple vids uploaded under General Discussion regarding updates/timelines

1 Like