Why choose a small SPO?
"A mighty oak is just a small nut that stood its ground" - origin unknown
Cardano is a community made up of many stubborn nuts….. pardon me, stakepool operators who help secure ADA by providing a decentralized staking network. This is why there is a saturation level for pools- to prevent them from being too large and exerting too much influence.
There are other reasons to choose a small stakepool however. The Cardano ecosystem is vast and growing every day. It can be hard to navigate as an individual. Staking with a small SPO gives you access to additional resources- often a discord or other social setting where you can ask questions or get assistance. Additionally, there are mission driven pools that benefit specific charities. If you delegate to these pools, you will find like-minded people who are interested in things that are important to you. There are pools that sponsor environmental charities, homeless pets, clean water initiatives, plant based medicine, hydroelectric power, feeding the hungry, at risk kids and the list goes on. These pools use their rewards to fund charitable causes while still paying delegators approximately five percent annual rewards.
Let's take a closer look at a few of the stake pools. First up: Maluiin Pool, ticker MALU. If you want to comprehend the extraordinary ways in which Cardano is changing the world then consider the mission of this pool: to provide hydroelectric power to the remote people's of West Papua, Indonesia. Using income generated from her stakepool, Linda intends to install hydroelectric generators which will be sustainable, environmentally friendly and will literally change the lives of people in this remote region. Once they have reliable power they can have internet access which will open the floodgates of knowledge, education, medical technology and so much more. No mission is too large for Cardano.
On the other side of the world, we find Grahms Number Plus One, ticker GNP1, a pool that supports mental health awareness initiatives. If there was ever an appropriate time to support mental initiatives, it's now. They also have their own line of NFTs, Numpugz, which they constructed as an additional mechanism to fund their charity efforts.
The next pool up is TAILS pool which does a little of everything. If you like mermaids, environmental causes or NFTs, these are your people. Staffed by a husband and wife team who are incredibly active in the community, TAILS knows that our oceans are in trouble. They donate a portion of their earnings to coral reef restoration and ocean conservation charities. They hold weekly talk spaces for the community. They also offer a minting engine for NFTs. If you want to create NFTs of any sort and in any amount, TAILS can educate you, help you decide which service is appropriate for your project, and mint your NFTs.
Huat Pool in Singapore has produced 190 lifetime blocks as of this writing. They support environmental causes and climate change mitigation efforts. Every quarter they donate to Singapore’s Garden City fund, which plants trees or corals. Additionally, they are active in the Cardano foundation’s First Global Impact Challenge, an effort to plant one million trees world wide.
These are just a few of the almost 3000 incredible stake pools in the Cardano Community. A decentralized group of pools stabilizes the network. This is an important reason to delegate to a low saturation pool, but as you can see, it is far from the only reason. We consider small stakepools to be an integral part of Cardano's mission, a bedrock of its community and the keystone of its success.
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.