The purpose of this pool is to raise money to support Julian Assange’s fight for freedom and for his life. The proceeds from fixed fees, pool margin and the rewards coming from the pledge are donated in full to Julian’s cause via Wau Holland Foundation, a German non-profit organisation.
Delegators receive their rewards like with any other pool. Only the fixed fees (340 ADA) and margin (1%) are donated.
The pool is up since epoch 252, is generating blocks and the first payment has already been completed. The Wau Holland Foundation has kindly set up a website so anyone can verify that payments are not only promised but also actually made. The string at the end of the last line is the pool ID.
Why?
Since I support this cause anyway, I thought I can as well do it via a stake pool. If others delegate with the pool we can raise more funds together.
How?
Many pools donate part of their profits to various charities, which is of course generally a good thing. However, I had at least two questions regarding this approach which I wanted to have answered before announcing the pool publicly:
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Which part of the proceeds should go to charity so it would be clear that the donations are not simply a marketing tactic?
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How can I prove that payments are actually made?
My answer to question 1 is to donate 100% so there is no doubt as to who benefits most from a delegation. Question 2 was more difficult to answer. Posting bank statements is out of question because of privacy concerns and because they are easily falsifiable. Donating in crypto is also not as easy as it sounds. While a transaction can be verified on the blockchain, the identity of the receiver usually cannot.
My solution was thus to work with the receiver of the funds. The people at Wau Holland Foundation set up a web page under their own domain with the necessary payment information: When, how much, what for and by whom (pool ID). This can be verified by anyone.
What’s next?
This is an experiment. Of course I would like to see the pool grow, so please consider delegating to it. If and when the pool grows, there are further questions to answer.
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How to best set the fees for a fully charitable pool? Currently the fees are 340 ADA / 1% because that seems to be within the market, but it is not necessarily the best choice.
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What to do when Julian is released from prison? Of course the delegators could simply leave the pool, but wouldn’t it be better to create a DAO and have delegators decide about the pool’s mission? I don’t (yet) have an answer to this one either.
Call to action
I’m not good at social media and the pool doesn’t even have a web site. If you support the cause and people listen to you, feel free to spread the word. If you feel like creating a website for the pool, I’d appreciate that, too. I would then take care of the hosting. For now, the URL redirects to cardanoscan.