SPRD: Advanced delegation system

Notify delegators to delegate together as soon as enough delegators are found. Enough means who in total have ~1.5m in order to mint a block

I have over 8 years of experience as a software developer, over 4 years in Cardano, and over 5 years as an entrepreneur.

Further Context - The base
SPRD advances the delegation process of Cardano. In the software, users can give their "commitment of delegation" without a real delegation and each "commitment" will be registered by SPRD. If there are enough "committed delegators" collected then all of them are notified by email, telegram, or something similar. Enough "committed delegators" means who have in sum the minimum ADA in order to let a pool mint a block and to get rewards.
This process will guarantee with any delegation to fulfill the minimum ADA before the delegation happens.
When smart contracts are available then the delegation will automatically happen without the need for notifications which improves trust and automation.

Attract "Commiters" in the first place
Users may not use the software because of a lack of motivation, but here comes a bonus feature that will attract them:
Pool operators themselves can register within the software and define prices, some examples:

• The very first "commiter" will get 50 ADA when we mint the first block
• The first 5 "commiter" will get 10 ADA when we mint the first block
• The first "commiter" who owns more than 100.000 ADA will get 50 ADA for 2 epochs when we mint blocks
• All the "commiter" will get 5 ADA when we mint the first block
• All the "commiter" will get the whole pool rewards equally splittet when we mint the first block. Example: when the pool gets 400 ADA of the first minted block and there were 10 "comitters" then everyone gets 40 ADA

In this way the user is attracted by the prices and the pool operators can afford them since it's related to the condition when the pool gets rewards.

This will be implemented by a smart contract to ensure trust and automation.

Prevent scamming

• The logic behind starting with a desktop app is due to validation limits on server-hosted APIs vs Daedalus wallet API. In order to prevent scamming we can verify on the desktop app if the current user has access to a wallet with a specific ADA. On server-hosted API there is no way to prevent users from faking to be the owner of a wallet with 500k ADA, the only way would be to transfer ADAs but this will increase costs by transaction fees and therefore not applicable.
• We aim definitely to find a thin client (web) solution while Cardano APIs are evolving.
• While waiting for smart contract to be available we are facing another scamming issue when users are not delegating what they "committed"
• If one person of the delegators that did "commit" does not delegate at all and changes their mind then this wallet will be blocked for a time period and will be internally ranked lower. But Goguen (smart contracts) in May would solve it because delegation will happen automatically.
• The same example is true for pool operators which are offering prices. (see above)

What pools is the software showing and in other words recommending?
The software could show with no filters all Cardano stake pools, but the software will have default filters in for supporting a better decentralization.
Those default filters are:

• Having less than 100% block chance
• Single pool operator
• If a cloud hoster is used then it would show a more negative ranking to the user if the hoster is used by a lot of others in the Cardano network*

*https://nasec.co.uk/2020/12/28/cardano-decentralisation/

Workflow

1. User opens SPRD application
2. User finds an interesting cardano stake pool with a live stake of 500.000 ADA
3. User shows his interest by "commit" his 150.000 ADA to this pool within SPRD
4. On the blockchain, nothing happened so far
5. Another user shows his interest by "commit" his 350.000 ADA to this pool within SPRD
6. Another user shows his interest by "commit" his 500.000 ADA to this pool within SPRD
7. Now the live stake plus all the "committed" ADA will have the minimum reached.
8. SPRD will send notifications to the "committed" delegators in order to delegate the ADA.
9. All delegators manually delegate their ADA (Prototype already published in April)
10. When smart contracts are ready then the delegation will happen automatically in order to guarantee trust and automation.
11. Soon the pool mints blocks and everybody gets rewards.

Roadmap

• Jan 2021: The idea of SPRD is born (done)
• Feb 2021: Cardani API capability was approved to fulfill requirements of SPREAD (done)
• Mar 2021: Collected beta testers, found co-developer for server-side, implemented client desktop alpha version. (done)
• Apr 2021: Publish desktop client and server beta versions. (done)
• May 2021: Researching website solutions for replacing desktop clients.
• May 2021: Extend desktop client with pool operators to offer prices.
• May 2021: Start implementing smart contract if Cardano Goguen test net is ready.
• June 2021: Replacing server-side with the smart contract if Cardano Goguen mainnet is ready.
• July: Continue to research website solutions and implement if ready.

More on the website: https://sprd-pool.org/#roadmap

Funds

The funds will be used to finance the development, management, and marketing until publishing. Also, the infrastructure costs like Website and SPRD server hosts will be covered.

The calculation for the first 1 year (261 working days) for Developer, Marketing, management and research with costs of 115 $ per hour comes to the sum of 30.000 $
This ensures the finished development with smart contracts, maintaining the software and giving support.

In the second year there are two possibilities for being valued of the time invest in SPRD:

• I run a Cardano stake pool called [SPRD] and when minting blocks the rewards can be used to maintain the SPRD software
• If case one is not fulfilled then provision costs are added for stake pool operators when a not minting block was successfully funded within the SPRD software. Example: Stake pool XY mints his first block then SPRD will get 25% of the epoch rewards, in the case of 400 ADA total pool rewards this would be 100 ADA.

Which of these definitions apply to you? Stakepool operator, Developer