Wannabe stake pool operator

Staking & Delegation Operate a Stake Pool
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Hello Cardano fellow,

I’m planning to setup a stake pool. However I have noticed that there is a lot of stake pools which has a controlled stake of 0 ADA on the testnet. So I’m curious whether it’s profitable at all to run a stake pool with less than for example: 50K ADA.
So I have decided to delegate my stake to a pool with a controlled stake of 0 ADA. I will log my daily profit here, if I get any reward at all :slight_smile:

Also I have noticed that a number of stake pools has a fake website domain. This means that there is no validation at all (at least for testnet setup)?!

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Dec, 26: controlled stake = changes from 0 to 60K ADA
Dec, 27: controlled stake = raises to 850K ADA, my reward was about 13 ADA
Dec, 28: controlled stake = 2.7M ADA, my reward was 0 ADA
Dec, 29: controlled stake = 1.4M ADA, my reward was 38 ADA

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Remember, rewards in the testnet is not simply based on the controlled stake. The stake pool node has to create its scheduled blocks in order to receive its rewards. If the node is stuck or forked as frequently happening in the testnet, it wouldn’t create it scheduled. No blocks no reward. My point, the node operator has to do some work in addition to a sizable amount of controlled stake. Overall, it is worth it to run a stake pool if you know what you are doing. I am profitably running one, and my pledged account is not small compared to others.

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Thanks for your feedback. I have setup a stake pool. Waiting for Cardano Foundation’s approval, then I’m ready to go.

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You do need an approval from CF to run a pool? Really? I thought that everyone everywhere would be able to run a pool if he/she likes.

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Indeed everyone can setup a pool, but it won’t be visible for staking until CF has approved it. CF needs to do some sanity check, like: the ticker name is unique, https must be used, the ownership signature is valid etc.

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My stake pool is now visible in Daedalus overview after CF approval :smiley:.

Here are the steps for those who want to setup their own stake pools:

  1. Follow the official How-To guide from IOHK: https://github.com/input-output-hk/shelley-testnet/blob/master/docs/stake_pool_operator_how_to.md#download-the-genesis-hash.txt-file
  2. I also recommend to watch YT videos as well: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnPTB0CuBOBxWkg6WuocFSvu-9VIzgg7I
  3. Setup pool monitoring: https://github.com/input-output-hk/stakepool-management-tools/releases

A few notes:

  • 2.5 Configure your node: is not very clear in the guide. You can better follow the steps explained in YT video;

  • 3.2 Send funds to your stake pool account: it’s easier to make use of Daedalus - Rewards to send funds.

  • 4.3 Execute the createStakePool.sh script: the example script is incorrect. TAX_LIMIT is not required:
    ./createStakePool.sh 3100 10000 1/10 1000000 $PRIVATE_KEY_SK | tee createStakePool_output.txt

  • 5.2 Create stake pool JSON file: the field description is optional and is not included in the example, but I recommend to include it as well. Be careful with copying the JSON file between Windows and Linux, because the carriage return and the line feed can be replaced with the line feed only, and vice versa. This will make your signature incorrect. This problem has caused me a headache :frowning:

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