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Today’s guest on the Cardano SPO column is a stake pool from the UK that helps delegators collect a myriad of other tokens on top of the ADA rewards through FISOs other distribution mechanisms: FLUID pool [FLUID].
The previous guest was a stake pool operated by Martin from Varna, Bulgaria where he is currently an officer with the rank of Lieutenant.
This column is where I invite Stake Pool Operators (SPO) to share their stories and vision as a way to connect with and learn about the Cardano Community.
Hi, thanks for your time. Tell us something about yourself, where are you based and what are your backgrounds?
I run a small web development agency out of the UK. We have always been interested in the technical end of development, and have had most success building SaaS offerings for clients.
The more innovative the brief, the more we are drawn to a project. As an example in 2015 we built a number plate recognition ticketing system for the Rugby World Cup which used Android devices as gatekeepers on the Car Parks to allow attendees rapid access to the games.
This was a lot of fun and a really successful combination of hardware and software technologies.
What’s the path that led you to Cardano and to become a Stake Pool Operator (SPO)?
After hearing about blockchain utility beyond cryptocurrencies, I started to investigate in 2020. Like many in the space, this led me to Charles Hoskinson’s legendary whiteboard video from 2017, and from then on I was hooked.
I started spending time learning how blockchain could solve many of the ills of the current Web and beyond, and decided to get involved. Stake pool operation was a natural fit for me as we’ve always managed dedicated servers for our clients.
By staking with [FLUID] people can earn additional tokens on top of the ADA. How’s that possible? And what can you tell us about these projects?
On Cardano there is an innovative way for development teams to raise awareness of their projects by distributing their tokens in what has come to be known as a Fair Initial Stake Pool Offering (FISO). Projects will allocate a portion of their initial supply of tokens as a bonus reward for delegators to a small selection of community Stake Pools.
- This gives the Stake Pool Operators an opportunity to attract new delegators because the bonus reward differentiates them from other pools.
- Existing and new delegators to these pools get to collect a potentially valuable token in addition to their usual ADA rewards.
- The team launching their project gets to support decentralisation of the network while placing their tokens in the hands of grateful delegators and they also avoid the hassle and expense of running their own pool(s).
FLUID Pool is currently participating in the Coinecta FISO. The team behind Coinecta are innovative builders that started in the Ergo ecosystem. They are bringing their token launchpad technologies to Cardano with the aspiration of helping other blockchain projects with their token launches.
The $CNCT token has had a very successful launch, currently sitting at 8x the initial price set at their December 1st launch, so they are obviously doing something right!
What are you most looking forward to with Cardano? Any particular projects or functionalities?
In the very near future, I am excited about the upcoming AXO Trade platform which is launching in January. The team has been quietly building what looks to be the most powerful trading platform to date. This will be a fully decentralised exchange bringing tools currently only seen in centralised platforms to the world of DeFi.
We can only expect to be the new financial operating system for the world if we offer improvements over the current system in almost every way. Better user experiences and more powerful features are vital to this vision.
Longer term, I’m really inspired by the Empowa project who aim to bring home ownership to 1 million African families by 2030. I believe that the more humans we can lift out of poverty through initiatives like this, the healthier and happier our world has the chance to be.
Awesome. Any closing remarks? Where can people get in touch?
It’s a pleasure to share my journey with you, and I’m so grateful I dived into the Cardano community in early 2021. I have met and formed strong friendships with some of the deepest thinkers and brightest minds around in this space, and I look forward to growing the ways I can contribute.
I’m active in Project Catalyst, Swarm and Gimbalabs, and hold a live Cardano Q&A session each Friday for my delegator community, but all are welcome, Cardano curious and veterans alike.
All my links can be found here.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the people interviewed are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOG. Moreover, this content is for educational purposes, it doesn’t constitute financial advice.