I was curious about what you all think concerning your block rewards going partially to delegation. Do you prefer to only use them to increase your pledge amounts or have you considered or even done large enough delegation to get smaller pools functioning?
I’m asking because I’m looking for some ways to get a large delegator to help me.
I’m not sure if that’s asking a lot. Still, if that’s not the right way for me to get delegators, I prefer to see if there is a consensus among some of you that using your block rewards is either better for growing your pool pledge or for delegating to other pools.
I know there are groups like CSPA, which seem to believe that growing and delegating are needed to make this thing work but at the same time, It would be nice to hear from other groups or individuals about the subject.
I’ve heard marketing your pool is the tried and true way (working on it⛳) and I’m looking into becoming a member of the CSPA.
Cardano SPA – About Us
Who Are the members?
Cardano Single Pool Alliance is a loosely connected group of separate stake pool operators who have all vowed to run a single stake pool for the sole purpose of providing the Cardano ecosystem with True Decentralization. Each member has unselfishly decided to forego the potential profit of running a stake pool in the hope of making Cardano one of the most resilient blockchain against any colluding or coordinated malicious attack from national governments, hackers, or the creator of the protocol. Each member strives to make his/her single pool profitable. However, when a respective stake pool reaches saturation, its stake pool’s operator channels help another SPA pool to reach saturation. An egalitarian decentralization of stake pools directly strengthens the resiliency of the Cardano network.
I’m looking into this part myself. From what I can tell, if your mission aligns with the group’s, then most likely yes.
Thanks for that info, Tom. As I was reading your post, I understood that there are some serious but necessary implications for running a stake pool today. I need to look over your math and learn how your formulas work to help with my accounting.
As an operator with a low stake, you need to be able to know that your operational costs may exceed your operator rewards but if you can handle the work, it can pay off.
I think another thing to talk about is how long you are willing to stay in as an SPO. This idea will involve the question is there an absolute moment I will need to retire my pool?
My answer to that looks a lot like your beginning post. It involves me practicing some accounting and making a working set of books to keep track of the value versus the debt of my stake pool operating.
Thankfully, I’m in school, and guess what, the one class I thought was going to be useless (Accounting Principals 117) is starting to give me some insights into our question. Which is better operating a stake pool or delegating to one? I have to say the more investment you have in operating your stake pool the easier it is to continue and keep investing, to a point ie. too much debt is bad.