SPOs Supporting Community Projects

The Problems:

Problem 1: Stake Pools are not easy to set up, and are hard to run properly in a reliable and secure manner. This is a professional IT domain. Not all community projects and groups are staffed with people with these skills. This makes it hard for these projects to use stake pools as a revenue stream even though they have great community visibility and the ability to market to a wide delegation base.

Problem 2: There are many hundreds of single pool operators that struggle to mint even their first block. They are pouring expertise, time, and energy into keeping the Cardano network secure and not receiving any rewards for it. The level of delegation they are able to acquire is insufficient for long-term success. See: https://twitter.com/QCPOLstakepool/status/1466785787530420233

A Solution:

Wouldn't it be great to bring small single pool operators who are struggling to a community project that has demonstrated its "proof of community", and allow the two to combine forces to make something beautiful happen -- minting regular blocks through higher delegation brought by a popular project and providing a living wage to the stake pool operator as well as a steady income stream to the community project. A partnership between two communities that rarely interact might even produce amazing additional collaborations and innovations.

We would also like to form a new Community Pool Network out of these projects and stake pools to combine delegation marketing, coordination, and ultimately to form a holocratic treasury to help support climate and SDG-related initiatives and projects. This will be modelled on and inspired by https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Ryuki-Funding/380968-48088.

We will open-source and document the journey so other groups and pool networks can leverage the experience gained in this journey to create new instances of pool networks.

Detailed Plan:

Create a space for SPOs and community projects to connect and form partnerships.

• Create a registry of stake pools and operators who want to partner with community projects
• Provide a mechanism for community projects to register for partnering with qualified SPOs
• Create online communities where SPOs and projects can collaborate and create partnerships

Establish peer-review mechanisms to ensure both sides are entering into high-quality partnerships that are safe and mutually beneficial

• Establish a board of SPO advisors to peer review stake pools and ensure they are following best practices for security, firewalls, key management, monitoring, etc.
• Establish a board of Community Project advisors to peer review projects to ensure "proof of community"
• Establish a standard "Community Stake Pool" rewards agreement and allocation scheme to encourage more collaboration and less competition or haggling over terms.
• Create policy and mechanisms around wallet ownership and funds distribution and auditing

Impact:

Small stake pool operators will get larger amounts of delegation by partnering with community projects. This will help to keep the Cardano blockchain decentralized and allow small stake pool operators to make a living. Community projects will in turn be provided with a regular income stream that is independent of the Catalyst funding mechanism and timing.

Feasibility:

This proposal is being put forth by a team of small stake pool operators of SAMON pool: https://twitter.com/pool_salmon who have been running a mission-driven stake pool to support the Salmon Nation Decentralized Alliance (https://www.sanada.eco). This team is also highly engaged with the Catalyst community and community projects. We form a unique bridge between these two communities and understand well the challenges and issues both small SPOs and community projects face.

Strong ties to the Cardano4Climate group make that an ideal community in which to start a second Community Pool Network alongside Ryuuki. The community already has a number of strong community projects as well as SPOs collaborating and adding some organization and structure for forming a pool network would be a logical next step there.

Core Team:

• Jeremy Kiffiak: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-kiffiak-68442331/
• Bryan Lesiuk: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-cameron-lesiuk-94239211/
• Nori Nishigaya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishigaya/

Auditability:

Transparent from the beginning

• SPOs and projects interact on a public community forum to get to know each other, collaborate, and interact.
• Suitability of participation for SPOs and projects will be audited for fairness by peers through well-documented criteria and procedures
• Community Pool Networks will be encouraged and will reference the first example in Ryuuki https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Ryuki-Funding/380968-48088

Roadmap (3 months):

February

• Establish a panel of project peers to evaluate and determine "proof of soul" for community projects.
• Establish a panel of SPOs to verify the security, configuration, and ensure candidate stake pools are following best practices
• Establish best practices around wallet management and margin allocation between stake pools and projects

March

• Begin working with Cardano4Climate to find projects that are interested in stake pool support
• Outreach to xSPO and other SPO communities to find interested stake pools to come meet the projects
• Begin peer evaluation process and matchmaking

April

• Launch a second community pool network like Ryuuki.
• Publish open-source documentation on how peer review happens for projects and stake pools

KPIs:

Input Metrics (leading indicators):

• number of promotions for the service on public forums, telegram groups, and twitter
• number of qualifying projects (peer verified)
• number of qualifying stake pools (peer verified)

Output Metrics (lagging indicators):

• number of SPOs and projects that work together
• amount of delegated ADA to these pools before and after partnering
• amount of rewards generated before and after partnering

OKRs:

• Have a set of criteria and documented procedures for peer-reviewing stake pools and projects by the end of March, 2022
• Form a new Community Pool Network comprised of Cardano4Climate projects and aligned stake pools by the end of April, 2022

Budget breakdown

• Marketing Campaign (to SPOs and projects) = $40/hr * 10 hrs = $400
• Setting up Website = $50/hr * 10 hrs = $500
• Community Management = $50/hr * 40 hrs = $2000
• SPO security review process = $50/hr * 40 hrs = $2000
• Pool Network Coordination = $50/hr * 20 hrs = $1000
• Communication Hub Management (Discord, Telegram) = $25/hr * 10 hrs = $250
• Technology and infrastructure = $500