Why Choose CardanoCafe? Stake Pool Delegation Concerns Explained

Stake Pool Operation

Why Choose CardanoCafe? Stake Pool Delegation Concerns Explained

Delegating your Ada to a Cardano Stake Pool enables you to earn rewards passively without surrendering your tokens, but there are several important factors which you should consider when selecting a stake pool. I believe that aligning your personal values and goals with the stated values and goals of a stake pool can provide you more than just an increased amount of Ada, and that is why I choose to delegate my Ada to CardanoCafe. It gives me the satisfaction of knowing that as a contributing member of the Cardano community I am doing good in the world while simultaneously enhancing the value of my crypto assets.

   Earning rewards by delegating your Ada to a Stake Pool is gratifying and actually kind of fun. Ada is an asset that is gaining in acceptance and is at the core of multiple beneficial use-cases worldwide. The Cardano community is passionate about making the world a better place, and our Cafe community reflects that passion. Anyone can earn rewards by delegating their Ada to any stake pool that they like, but there are several important factors to consider  which make some pools more interesting and worthwhile than others.  My Ada are delegated to CardanoCafe for reasons that go beyond the basic motivation of personal gain. 

   All Ada Stake Pools operate on the founding protocols of the Ouroboros Proof of Stake system.  It enables the minting of blocks through a rigorously researched proprietary programming mechanism that is fair, secure, and fully decentralized. The original protocols are what makes the system tick, and it is important to understand that the consensus mechanism guarantees that no individual or small group can manipule the system to their advantage.  Earning Ada by delegating tokens has a double benefit to the delegators: it increases the amount of Ada automatically, and in so doing it enables a subtle Dollar Cost Averaging element to your holdings since every Ada earned reduces the overall cost per Ada that is held.  One of my favorite aspects of delegating is that you do not surrender your Ada to the Stake Pool, it stays in your Daedalus or Yoroi or Ada Light wallet, there for you to trade or hold as you see fit.

   The Ouroboros protocol is built to give out rewards every Epoch, (5 days), to the Slot Leaders who are chosen by a mathematically based lottery system that cannot be manipulated or redirected by any bad actors.  The timing and distribution of the rewards is not determined by the Stake Pool Operators, but by the programming itself. The Stake Pool Operators earn a set fee, usually 340 Ada, for each Epoch from the aggregate delegators to their pool which is also pre-programmed into the system.  The annual percentage rate of rewards can vary from pool to pool, but as with all cryptocurrency issues and concerns, it is the individual's responsibility to know the facts and to make judgements based upon what is best for their personal goals. 

   In addition to the set fee which the SPOs are entitled too, different pools can charge different percentages of the rewards per delegator. It is the Delegator's job to review the data about the pool being considered, and to make a self interested judgement as to whether or not that particular pool is right for them.  A Stake Pool that charges 6% or 10% of rewards per Epoch in addition to the set fees which the SPOs are entitled to, may be right for someone else, but wrong for you. There are other factors to consider when looking at pools to delegate to: the number of delegators, the number of Ada in live stake, the saturation levels of the pool, and the percentage of annual return that your rewards give you.  For me, and clearly for all of us who are staked with the CardanoCafe poos, there are other factors that really matter and are significant in my decision to delegate with CardanoCafe.

   The first important point is to see the amount of Ada that Chris has Pledged to the Cafe pools. His committment of a total of 225,000 Ada tells you a lot about his belief in his work as an SPO and his deep involvement with our Cafes.  Secondly, in my mind it is of vital importance that renewable and sustainable energy is used to power the Cafe server data centers.  Next is the friendly and informative approach that Chris takes in all of his communications and interchanges whether on the Cafe website, Twitter, or on the Telegram channel.  There is a tangibe sense of community that Cafe offers, and I enjoy being part of it. I like the fact that the Coffee Cafe motif permeates the language and graphics on the site, and quite honestly I love coffee too! 

   But when I was researching Cardano Stake Pools to delegate my Ada, the most compelling factor was that Chris and the Cafes donate money to Five different environmental organizations around the world, and for me that sealed the deal.  The donations enable verifiable benefits to nature, ecosystems, and the residents of those countries.  I believe in supporting environmental causes therefore how wonderful is it that I can delegate my Ada to a Stake Pool based upon the same beliefs? The Ouroboros is the ancient symbol of sustainability and the cycle of life.  The CardanoCafe pools are examples of that ethic: they use sustainable energy to earn rewards with a Delegated Proof Of Stake protocol using a fraction of the electricity required for Proof Of Work, and then Cafe completes the circle by donating funds to worthwhile causes which are focused on sustaining our environment and this beautiful earth we live on.  

  If these ideas interest you and you would like to delegate to CardanoCafe, then please have a look at our Getting Started page https://cardanocafe.org/getting-started which gives you detailed information about our Stake Pools.  If you prefer to see some statistics first, then please head over to our Statistics page https://cardanocafe.org/statistics to see specific data about our block production, rewards being earned, and real time annual percentage rates of return.  We hope you will feel an affinity for our vision and our committment to the Cardano worldwide community. You will be welcomed and your particiaption will be worthwhile to you for all the right reasons.

written by: Eric Hill     published at: Oct 4, 2021