Let's HUAT Together, One Block at a Time!
"If we are to prosper together in our increasingly small world, we must listen to- and learn from each other’s stories." - Queen Noor of Jordan
Huat Stakepool, (Huat means to prosper), first came to be in Epoch 257. It is located in Singapore, has minted 195 blocks and currently has an active stake of 624,000. Huat's proprietors fell in love with the Cardano ecosystem in 2020 after learning about its scientifically reviewed protocol and its vision of providing a fairer, more egalitarian society. First learning of Cardano in 2020, they became increasingly impressed with its focus on security, interoperability, scalability and decentralized governance. They feel that this deliberate approach is key to a well-functioning network which accommodates future growth. Huat pool runs a bare-metal setup with one physical block-producing node and three relay nodes (both registered and private). This allows for easy troubleshooting and a better understanding of the complexity of Cardano. All pool infrastructure was built to be upgradable. Huat’s proprietors believe that Cardano is the most advanced proof-of-stake protocol available today, and is inherently the most focused on adopting blockchain to improve the overall well-being of society. Cardano also appeals to their belief that talent and kindness exists in every corner of this world. They believe that the equal opportunity Cardano provides will allow the entire world to prosper as one entity.
Huat pool is deeply grateful to one of the lovely ADA whales who decided to stake with them in the early days. Although the whale has since moved on to greener pastures, its presence helped the young pool grow, mint blocks consistently, and contribute to the network's decentralization. Serving as a stake pool operator has its myriad of challenges, ranging from: marketing, combatting disinformation, meeting operational costs, managing price fluctuations and generating consistent rewards for delegators. While Cardano's vision remains the primary guiding principle, the proprietors of Huat understand the realistic expectation that delegators stake with SPOs for asset growth. To prove their commitment to serve as a SPO for the long term, the pool pledge is set at 200,000 Ada, with the minimum fixed fee of 340 Ada + a low margin fee of 0.8% to cover business overhead. The high pledge demonstrates the pool's long term commitment to Cardano. As stakepool operators their primary focus is to provide another decentralized node to the ecosystem and to serve the delegators within this region, who may be interested in learning more about Cardano.
For those who may be unfamiliar, Singapore is an island nation in South East Asia with lots of greenery and no natural resources. In its relatively short history, it has grown to become one of the region's major financial, trade, and transportation hubs. As nature lovers, it is Huat’s hope that future generations will be able to continue enjoying a connection with our natural environment in an increasingly digitized world. They believe that there is nothing more healing than taking a walk amongst nature. To this end, they set up a tiered system (based on active stake every end quarter) to contribute to tree planting through Singapore's very own Garden City Fund (GCF). Additionally, they contribute to Veritree. In total, they have made donations for the planting of 117 trees in total (2 upcoming for GCF and 115 ongoing for Veritree).
It is Huat’s belief that more productive stake pools improve the strength and resilience of the overall network. Therefore they use social channels to showcase other growing small SPOs, in hopes of helping them to mint the coveted first block or improve their stake. Keeping up with the improvements within the ecosystem is also a core tenet of Huat pool and there is no better method than contributing to Cardano's very own Project Catalyst. Since Fund 5, they have participated in every round of proposal voting; they keep to a self-imposed maximum cap of 6 proposals per funding round. The full list of SPO showcase/ proposals they voted for can be viewed under Pool Initiatives. This is clearly an SPO that is focused on the network’s long term growth.
Their immediate goal is to regain block minting consistency through improved active stake. They are strongly committed to continue serving as SPO and a small decentralized part of the network but are keenly aware of the challenges surrounding a non-minting/ rewards pool. In addition they recently completed the first iteration of Atala Prism Pioneer Program and are currently listening to more lectures in the ongoing third iteration of Plutus Pioneer Program. The goal is to enhance their ability to contribute to the technical aspects of the Cardano ecosystem. Lastly, they have applied for Nunet's program that partners with SPOs to build an alternative to centralized cloud based computing solutions.
Huat is an amazing stake pool that contributes to the Cardano community in a number of ways. Geographic / technical decentralization, community engagement and education are all priorities for this pool. They are eager to welcome new delegators and are always reachable by a variety of social media: their pool website, twitter, telegram and email.
Let's Huat together, one block a time!
By Traveler Jo | CardanoArmy.io
You can find Traveler Jo somewhere close to the sea. She loves Cardano, kayaking and food - not necessarily in that order. She's busy exploring the world, always in the company of her husband, tired dog and indignant felines.