Staking pool project

Zmeel, that is an awesome screenshot. Really neat to see - thanks for posting!

Thanks zmeel, you reminded me I have a nas in my cupboard :joy:

Did you have any issues with getting up and running. This seems like a good way in and we can be prepared for when/ if traffic or system requirements change

@rmgpock: It took me something like 2 weeks :face_with_raised_eyebrow: because I was compiling the wrong (upcoming) version of Daedalus. The building process is quite delicate because you need to have all the right dependencies and building it in a docker container running on a Synology NAS takes a long time.

Have you succeeded on Debian dedicated or vps server?

The node is running in a Docker container with Debian.

Just FYI youā€™re not anybody special, anybody with a credit card and some spare time can set up infinite computing power to run a pool on Amazon or Google cloud.

Shit kid, Iā€™ve already got several systems setup and ready to go, just need the official pool software from IOHK.

correct but not all are as fortunate as you are

Hi all, Iā€™m quite technical (kinda), and Iā€™m interested to test the staking wallet. I expect I will get to hear about it when it happens, but if there is a mailing list to subscribe to I want to be on it :slight_smile:

What are your Synology specs? I have a DS 716+II with Docker installed but Iā€™m not sure it will be enough to participate

@CosmosX: I am running it on a Synology DS415+. Originally, this NAS has 2 Gb RAM but I upgraded the RAM to 8Gb.

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Hi There,

Iā€™d be interested in a staking pool as well. Iā€™m a professional software engineer with experience in backend / devops.

Thanks!

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I think many major stakers for ADA will be companies and organizations that use/hold ADAā€¦ I know I would rather delegate to them than, for example, a Chinese staking outfit.

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It looks like staking beta will start in February based on the live update today from Charles. He said there will be a docker object that will be used to make it easy to run on the various staking nodes.
With that news, I went ahead and grabbed a domain for it, and our dev is working on setting up a high end SSD server with high security/high connectivity for it so that weā€™ll be ready to go right away once the technical details are available.
Looks like things are underway next month so very exciting!

Yes, very exciting update! If I understood well there is going to be a forum in which information is provided on staking and requirements of equipment. I have to feeling that my little Synology DS415+ is not enough to run a staking node :flushed:.

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Yes, sameā€¦ Canā€™t wait for the hardware specs requirements to get released.

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Initial site up and running: http://adapools.io

Our hardware config is about 2x as fast as Amazon Web Service and now just waiting for more details.
I have a feeling that compared to staking pools for Casper (Ethereum new PoS protocol), Cardano staking will be a walk in the park.

@MegaWind are you a VPS provider?

Hi Martin,
Not a VPS provider. Rather, my company sells online globally and as a result we have invested heavily in ultra-high end hardware and configs b/c we needed global reach (and fast global reach as customers donā€™t wait lol).
So we already had excess capacity and resources set aside and available which I have now allocated for the staking pools project.
Thatā€™s also why we have a lot of knowledge in security and defending things like DDoS attacks. We actually had a competitor a few years ago hire some hackers who ran DDoS attacks, backend attacks, etc. against our site to try and slow us down so we have very battle tested setups. They eventually gave up on that, but overall it was a good experience longer term to understand how to really harden servers against eventual attacks and should be good knowledge for the staking pools.

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Is there a better reason to stake in pool as Apposed to by yourself (or does it just become impossible by yourself unless whale with bunch of Ada)

We canā€™t say for sure until we know the terms of staking etc. but in general the advantages of a pool would be:
1 - Perpetually online with high speed connection and constant syncing (this may apply to your individual setup but if you are intermittently offline and/or with a poor connection or low speed computer, then it would negatively affect your staking/rewards)
2 - Smoother payouts and potentially higher compounding/resulting gains. i.e. imagine if you got one coin every six months by yourself, but with five months of nothing along the way,
vs 1/6 of a coin every month due to the pooling effect.
Assuming Ada is trending higher, then partial payouts sooner with monthly gains on those from Ada increasing would result in more end of year net gains from pooling vs not pooling b/c you are compounding monthly gains vs semi-annual.

Obviously there will be pool fees to cover the equipment and connections involved (normal rule is 1%) but at this point we canā€™t say 100% what is better or what is even an option.

My impression from Charles Youtube video was that they were only looking to involve 25 - 100 larger nodes at the start of staking testing in February, in which case it would mean pooling would almost be a necessity initially if you want to start staking as soon as possible.

Edit - hereā€™s the clip about staking in February so you can hear everything directly: https://youtu.be/Kee5g32Ktxw?t=14m36s

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