Cardano stake pool operator delegation – a new round

The Cardano network continues to grow exponentially, thanks to the efforts of the stake pool operators (SPOs) who secure and maintain it.

During 2021, we have been delegating a proportion of our corporate ada holdings to help bootstrap our SPOs. In the first two rounds of delegation, IOG’s strategy has focused on supporting geographically distributed pools, mission-driven operators, pools creating content or driving social awareness. We also supported geographically distributed lower-middle-sized small pools to help balance the network. In previous rounds, we have tried to identify pools where our delegation can support strong performers, while making a positive impact for the whole community.

To date, around 200 pools have received IOG delegation of c. 3M ada each. It's a healthy number of pools but just a fraction of a vibrant SPO ecosystem now numbering in the thousands. Inevitably, we haven't been able to support as many pools as we’d have liked and plainly, a number of valued community contributors have been missed.

So this time, we’re doing things a little differently. In this third round, as we enter a new era of smart contracts, we wanted to acknowledge and applaud the community contributors that are widely recognized yet so often without much fanfare. As well as applying for themselves, we’re asking the SPO community to nominate the best of their own. As well as requesting delegation to their own pools, SPOs will also be invited to nominate up to two additional pools they feel should be recognized and supported for their positive contribution to the community.

We’re looking for outstanding contributions made to the ecosystem that fall into at least one of these categories:

• Build: SPOs contributing to ecosystem growth by providing tools, dev advice, resources, etc.
• Create: SPOSs producing high-quality written content and creative artwork such as infographics that adds value to the wider community.
• Educate: SPOs building alliances, groups or educating delegators on important topics, role modelling technical excellence, or contributing to the Plutus Pioneer body of knowledge.

In addition, SPOs should operate only a single pool and have a current stake of 12M or less.

Once we have received all the delegation requests and community nominations, we shall evaluate all the candidates against these criteria, publish the pools selected and make delegations in October after the Cardano summit.

And another thing. It’s not often we get a chance to survey the whole community. So this time, we’re also asking SPOs to contribute to our study on sustainability. Along with the questions for the delegation survey, this time we’re also polling SPOs at the end of the survey on their pool’s setup and green credentials. We’ll share the results of this survey with the community.

I’m an SPO. How do I take part?

Each month, we publish an ‘SPO Digest’ newsletter bringing together key news for the stake pool operator community. The next SPO Digest, which we will be sending out shortly, will include the survey where you can apply for delegation. SPOs seeking delegation should fill this in and also add up to two additional SPOs they’d like to see recognized. To receive the delegation survey, please ensure you are signed up to the digest list via https://mailchi.mp/iohk/spodigest by midnight UTC on Sunday 4th September.