Original Placement:
Today’s guest on the Cardano SPO column is a stake pool operated by a Cardano ambassador from Switzerland who has been active in the community since 2018: Tempus [TMS].
The previous guest was a stake pool operated by Martin and with bare metal servers located in the Czech Republic, EU.
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 your team, where are you based and what are your backgrounds?
We are a team of 2 friends and we got to know each other during our computer science apprenticeship.
While my friend is more into the hardware and network stuff, I’m definitely more interested in the blockchain itself.
We are both living in Switzerland and that’s also where we are operating our stakepool.
What’s the path that led you to Cardano and to become Stake Pool Operators (SPO)?
I was part of the Cardano community for a few years without running a pool myself. After several people from the community told me they wanted to delegate their ADA to my pool and I had to tell them that I wasn’t running a pool yet, I decided to start one a year ago.
One thing that has been on my mind since the beginning of Shelley was that we need to keep our network as decentralised as possible and that involves many layers.
It starts with the development of Cardano and ends with the cloud provider where most of the relays are hosted. This was one of the reasons why we decided to run our own nodes on our private infrastructure. I also wanted to get more involved with the technology and a project like this is perfect for that.
Another reason was that I spent a lot of time in our community, but wasn’t earning anything. With the pool I have the opportunity to spend more time on it and at the same time I help the protocol/network to stay healthy.
Can you tell us about your role as a Cardano Ambassador? What does it involve? Please also share a few words about the Cardano Foundation and what it does for the ecosystem.
As I mentioned earlier, I had already been part of the Cardano community since 2018 and had already experienced a lot. In 2020, I was asked by the Cardano Foundation if I would like to join the ambassador program, which of course I wanted to do.
In the beginning, I mainly translated articles and blogs into German and later I became more and more involved in various social media channels. The 2 most important platforms are the Cardano forum and Telegram, where the crypto community hangs out.
The Cardano Foundation is now doing a very good job under Fred, but that wasn’t always the case. I’m thinking of the time of Michael Parsons, the former president of the Cardano Foundation.
In the meantime, however, the foundation has definitely recovered and is doing an enormous amount of work. Be it with the provision of software, community work, getting involved in politics, talking to companies and much more. What I would like to see, however, is a somewhat “stronger and better functioning” ambassador program.
For those unaware, can you explain what are the BFT keys and how they relate to Cardano’s governance and decentralization? Please also share your thoughts about this affair.
The BFT keys, also known as governance keys, are keys controlled by IOG, CF and Emurgo that are currently still required to make various changes such as parameter updates or withdrawals from the treasury. I wrote an article on this topic which you can read here:
Forum.Cardano.org/t/lets-have-a-discussion-about-the-governance-bft-keys/103886.
The whole topic is and has always been a sensitive issue, as the SEC has been on guard for years. Basically, it should be noted that these BFT keys are a transitional solution and will be replaced with the upcoming CIP-1694.
However, I have always been of the opinion that we should discuss any issues as transparently and openly as possible. Unfortunately, this was misinterpreted by some people and I received a lot of hate on social media at the time because many thought I was spreading unnecessary doubt.
Awesome contribution. Any closing thoughts? Where can people contact you?
Thank you! Yes, we are actually in the process of setting up a Discord server for our delegators and of course everyone else is welcome there too. Since I also provide a lot of support in the forum anyway, we will also offer this in our Discord.
If anyone wants to follow me on X:
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.