Hello Cardano World!
My name is Wouter and I run the CAPEX stake pool. I have been a big Cardano enthusiast for many years, and I’m exited to be able to be part of the network by running a stake pool!
A little background on me, I have a PhD in Molecular Biology, but have been working in the development of automated molecular diagnostics solutions for the last decade, leading team in the integration of hardware, software and application.
Originally I’m Dutch, lived in the SF Bay Area for a couple of years, and recently moved to Switzerland, where I’m now running my nodes!
The Cardano network, protocols and mechanisms are very complex, and I have been enjoying the challenge of understanding how it all works by reading the publication and following the forums. I’m going to set up the website of the pool, dedicated explaining the inner workings of this complex system, in as simple a way possible.
Ticker: CAPEX / Pledge : 84k / Fixed Fee : 340 / Flex Fee : 0%
Website: https://www.cardano-pool.eu
Contact me: Telegram: Contact @CAPEX_POOL or the Telegram group: https://t.me/joinchat/GF6zqSw5rBlbQf21
Pool ID: 4042098128e6161d238f01ff474ae4cbe6451c82498b1bd8713d7098
Location: Zug, ZG, Switzerland
Pool infrastructure: A hyper-stable fiber-optic 1Gbps internet connection. The main infrastructure is running on a PromMox VM server, (Ryzen7 3700, 64Gb RAM, 500GB NVME, 2TB SSD). This is where 2 Block Producing Nodes, 2 Relay Nodes, and the Prometheus / Grafana Webserver run. Additionally there are 2 Raspberry Pi 4 (8Gb) relay nodes running Ubuntu Server 20.04. Additionally everything is set up to switch to AWS on a moments notice.
Pool redundancy: 4 Relay nodes are running on 3 different HW devices for redundancy. UPS on Modem and RPi systems, to cover short power losses. A mirror of the BPNode and a relay node are parked in the AWS, and can be started . Monitoring and alerts using Prometheus and Grafana, allowing for direct intervention if anything goes wrong.
Operator experience: 10 years experience in development and integration of Software, troubleshooting of software issues and an extensive knowledge of the Cardano Networks inner workings.
Why should users check out your pool?: The Pool website https://www.cardano-pool.eu will be equipped with extensive, easy of understand information of the complex cardano network. Additionally there will be tools to demonstrate how the changing of the network parameters will influence Return on Stake, and real time outputs of the Grafana pool monitoring. All of this is currently still under development, but will be available to the community soon.