Should I become a stake pool operator?

Hey Cardano enthusiasts!

I would love a little help deciding if becoming a stake pool operator is a good idea for me. The technical side is not a problem, as I’m a software developer. I’ve already set up an AWS server and installed a node. However, I’d like to know more about what to expect profitability wise to help me decide whether I should pursue it.

Let’s say I have 10k ADA to stake myself.

Worst case scenario, no one joins the pool. How can I estimate the expected rewards? How does that change if I stake 50k, 100k, 500k?

Now, how do I attract people to the pool? Is it unreasonable to expect others will come on their own? What have your experiences been trying to promote your pool?

These seem like basic questions that probably have been answered many times, but I can’t seem to find solid guidelines. If there are good posts already on these questions, please point me to them!

Thanks!

Hey @nathan_moll

There is a calculator for that : https://testnets.cardano.org/en/cardano/tools/staking-calculator/

Have fun with it :stuck_out_tongue:

Cheers
Fabian

Hey @Zyroxa, thanks for the response!

I’m glad you brought that up because I have played around with the calculator a bit and was unsure what assumptions it made. Perhaps you could help me understand the numbers better?

If I enter 10k ADA as the pledge amount, it says ~200k for the yearly Stake Pool Operation Rewards and ~5.8k for the yearly Delegation Rewards.

Does this assume no one else stakes on my pool? Have you (anyone else?) seen this kind of return for being an operator?

It assumes you attract ~200M in stake. You only make blocks according to your global stake.
With 10K and if no one else join your pool, there is close to 0 chance to make a block.

Ok that makes more sense. Now I can see those details under the advanced options. Thanks!

I’ll have to do some research to understand how to attract people to a pool. If anyone has good resources on this, that’d be much appreciated.

Well, you’re asking the million dollars question here.

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This link doesn’t seem to be active anymore, but a quick google got me to this newer calculator. https://cardano.org/calculator/