Stakeboard: Social Staking Platform

Preface - Problems with the Current Staking Landscape

Currently an estimated 11% of staked ADA is being staked on Binance Exchange alone. And more than 50% of all delegated ADA is currently delegated to just 25 multi-pool owners. Currently delegated ADA should be more broadly distributed, both for the health of Cardano's Stakepool Operator community, and the security of the Cardano network itself.

Current staking-compatible wallets provide delegators with a limited number of metrics to ascertain the yield they might expect in delegating to a given stakepool. But this information is only useful to delegators with a solid understanding of what these metrics mean. Less savvy delegators typically become intimidated because they don't fully understand what these metrics mean, and these delegators become frustrated when their delegations don't result in the rewards they expect.

Additionally, for delegators trying to identify stakepools that align with their values, finding the right stakepool quickly becomes a tedious and labyrinthine search. Even savvy delegators find themselves running web searches of numerous stakepools without a clue about what they'll find, and find themselves visiting numerous stakepools websites where there's no standardization of information presented.

What's worse, many scammers are exploiting the good will of Cardano Stake Pool Operators (SPOs) and Cardano projects by spinning up imposter stakepools. There are scammers further exploiting delegators via social network accounts impersonating SPOs. And for the vast majority of delegators who want to stake their ADA in a purpose-driven way – with a pool that uses renewable energy, is operated in a given location, supports diversity in blockchain, etc. – there aren't practical ways to verify claims made by SPOs.

Currently, some centralized exchanges offer a fixed yield on ADA with two clicks of a mouse. And with the significant learning curve involved in delegating prudently with a smaller SPO, and the lack of tools to foster the growth of trust in smaller SPOs, it's no wonder the bulk of ADA is delegated to so few pools. If the perceived balance of incentives for most delegators is going to tip back in favor of supporting a healthy, growing SPO community, it's going to take more than collective marketing efforts, support from the Cardano foundation or charitable intentions: We'll need to make it easier, more trust-inspiring, and more lucrative for Cardano users to drive decentralization.

Stakeboard's solutions

Our team at Stakeboard is building a social staking marketplace to provide SPOs and delgators the tools and incentives to support a growing number of prosperous SPOs. Stakeboard will:

• Make delegating easier, more informed, and more rewarding;
• Promote decentralization by fostering transparency and trust between SPOs and delegators;
• Grant SPOs and delegators access to a growing number of staking-centered, decentralized business opportunities.

1. Improved Staking Experience:

The platform will aggregate all Cardano stakepools in one place, where delegators can run targeted searches based not only on quantitative criteria, but also based on their values. So whether they want to support single-pool operators, women in blockchain, Cardano developers, charitable causes, and/or other value propositions highlighted on Stakeboard, delegators can narrow their search for the right stakepool in seconds.

For delegators who find the right fit and are ready to stake, Stakeboard will provide an easy, intuitive staking interface. Delegators will have clear (yet unobtrusive) access to explanations of what specific stakepool metrics mean (so they can make an informed staking decision). And Delegators will even be able to ask stakepool operators (SPOs) questions via Stakeboard's messaging application.

For Stakepool operators without a lot of time or money to spend on marketing, Stakeboard will bring some equity to the Cardano staking landscape by giving every SPO a space to present their unique value proposition to the delegator community, along with tools to easily and effectively communicate with their delegators.

2. Transparency and Trust:

To combat the rise of imposter stakepools, Stakeboard will enable SPOs to verify ownership of their stakepools. Further, it will enable SPOs to link their verified stakepools to its authentic social accounts and website. And our team will be able to identify, flag, and send out alerts to Stakeboard users about any fraudulent stakepool that claims to be owned by a legitimate project or pool owner.

One of the best things about Cardano's staking system is there isn't a high barrier of entry to setting up a stakepool. But the drawback to this is bad actors can create one or more stakepools with a relatively modest investment. And especially since the advent of the Initial Stakepool Offering (ISO) funding model on Cardano, we've seen an alarming rise of fraudulent stakepools. That said, to give delegators the confidence they need to embrace a greater degree of decentralization, it's critical to provide them with a way to know they're interacting with real SPOs and not imposters.

Alice, Stakeboard's staking detective, is a bot which scans Cardano for questionable and suspicious SPO actions that could negatively impact delegator rewards. Users who sign up for a free, Stakeboard account will be able to receive notifications from Alice pertaining to their delegation(s).

Alice's notifications, combined with the pool information metrics displayed on Stakeboard (derived in part via integrations with adapools.org), will increase user confidence in delegating to smaller, less established pools. Stakeboard will inform and educate delegators upfront, and Alice will monitor their delegations on an ongoing basis, so they'll feel more confident in breaking away from the delegation herd without feeling the need to constantly check on their delegations.

Alice has already demonstrated its usefulness by individuating SPOs trying to impersonate MELD [1], Nami wallet developers [2] and the HOSKY team [3].

1. https://twitter.com/Stakeboard_/status/1460921011268898817

2. https://twitter.com/berry_ales/status/1460917711920414723?t=ZUp5ULmisx75eVc_hBhRFg&s=09

3. https://twitter.com/Stakeboard_/status/1460582521436057604

Moreover, Stakeboard's functionality will allow delegators to verify SPOs' claims.Stakeboard will encourage a culture of "trust, but verify" in delegating. If a delegator is uncertain about whether a stakepool's specific claims are true (for example, that they use predominantly green energy or are owned by a woman in blockchain) then Stakeboard's messaging application enables them to ask the SPO for supportive documentation. And Stakeboard will provide verified stakepools with the ability to upload documents to their profile that evidence the truth of their value propositions.

[To learn what the Stakeboard team is already doing to combat scams attacking Cardano's staking community, and how we aim to make Stakeboard one of Cardano's most valuable tools in disarming disinformation cyber attacks, please check out our proposal focusing on this topic: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Defending-Cardano-Staking-Ecosystem/384952-48088]

3. Decentralized Business Opportunities:

At Stakeboard we think of Proof-of-Stake (POS) consensus as foundational decentralized finance (defi). And we believe the power of POS combined with Cardano's UTXO model will only begin to realize its full potential once Cardano delegators and SPOs come together in innovative ways to leverage their collective block rewards into the growth of decentralized business (debiz). The reality is, even if projects like Stakeboard improve trust, transparency and ease-of-use in the Cardano staking landscape, a huge amount of ADA will still remain on centralized exchanges unless delegators are provided more compelling financial incentives towards decentralization. And at stakeboard we believe this financial incentive will be the chance to participate in the growth of staking-centered debiz. The advent of the Initial Stakepool Offering (ISO) funding model is already beginning to show the potential here, and at stakeboard we want to push this potential forward with debiz products built into the Stakeboard platform - starting with the following three:

Stakepad: Stakepad will leverage Stakeboard's infrastructure and resources to improve the Initial Stakepool Offering funding model. Building upon MinSwap's Fair ISO (FISO) model, Stakepad will further improve the fairness, feasibility, and delegator experience of the FISO model in several ways, including:

Stakepad will greatly lower the barrier to entry for Cardano projects wanting to raise funds via an FISO, thereby creating more opportunities for SPOs and delegators to participate in FISOs.

Stakepad will allow projects to introduce criteria for selecting their partner stakepools that go way beyond basic parameters like pools' fixed costs and minimum pledges. If projects wish, they'll be able to include criteria to specifically include stakepools utilizing renewable energy, women and/or minority owned pools, pools located in specific regions, SPOs developing applications for the Cardano ecosystem, etc.

With Stakepad, the Stakeboard team will encourage partner projects to opt for a hybrid stakepool partner selection model which balances fairness to SPOs and the need for community participation in the selection process.

StakeStarter: With StakeStarter, SPOs wanting to use block rewards to launch and/or grow a business (or non-profit organization) will be given special space and additional functionality on Stakeboard to realize their entrepreneurial goals. StakeStarte will essentially allow an stakepools to present proposals to the delegator community, including the SPO's experience, what the stakepool intends to build, what margin they'll require (in other words, what level of ADA rewards delegators can expect while staking to the stakepool), what kind of progress reports will be provided, and what benefits (financial or otherwise) delegators will receive for delegating to the stakepool.

Additionally, for projects needing a considerable amount of seed funding to launch, SPO's will have the option of setting an initial funding contribution requirement prior to launching their pool. If this contribution requirement is reached prior to a deadline stated in the proposal, the SPO will launch their Stakestarter proposal plan and receive the seed funding from Stakeboard, but if the seed funding goal isn't reached by the deadline, any ADA contributed to the seed fund will be returned to the contributor(s).

Essentially, StakeStarter will aim to combine the best of Patreon and Kickstarter models, and integrate them into the POS mechanism to help launch and sustain Cardano ventures.

Opportunity Board: The Opportunity Board will enable Stakeboard users to list job, gig and collaboration opportunities for projects within the Cardano ecosystem.

[To learn more about Stakepad and Stakestarter and the business opportunities they aim to bring to Cardano's SPO community, please check out our proposal focusing on these products: https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/Beyond-ISOs-SPO-driven-Funding/384955-48088]

Connect with us

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stakeboard_
• Discord: https://dsc.gg/stakeboard
• Medium: https://stakeboard.medium.com

Stakeboard Team

Giovanni - Co-Founder

Senior Software Engineer - DevOps Advocate - Plutus Pioneer and Stake Pool Operator

https://www.linkedin.com/in/giovannigargiulo/

Sebastiaan - Co-Founder

Entrepreneur and government contractor for software integrations and solutions - Plutus Pioneer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sebastiaan-m/

Anthony - Head of Business Development

Entrepreneur with 7 years business development experience, 15 years sales experience, primarily in financial services and real estate.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycapitan/

Trecy - Head of Design

Passionate about creativity and design processes, I have been working for several years to design aesthetic and functional user experiences.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/trecy/

Floriaan - Communication Manager

Support, Community & Social media experience in IT, Design and Blockchain industries.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/floriaan-mekes-96b510127/

Matteo - Product Manager

Master degrees in Government Science - Product and Project Manager - Blog writer on blockchain ecosystem.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteo-mannucci-201b12168/

Roadmap

We've been hard at work on Stakeboard since August, and despite having to fund the project's development until now from the team's savings and on a volunteer basis, we can proudly say we've made huge progress: Platform design is complete and several core functions are built.—As of late November, SPOs can now verify ownership of their pools and create Stakeboard profiles. Nami wallet integration has been completed and delegating directly from Stakeboard has been enabled. And we recently launched the project's landing page at stakeboard.net.

Unfortunately though, we're quickly approaching the point where our abilities to self-fund the project will be depleted, which is why being awarded Catalyst funds for our Fund7 proposals will be critical to sustain project development.

That being said, Here's our Roadmap:

August 2021

• Proof of Concept    (completed)
• Proposal Fund6  (completed)
• CICD & infrastructure  (completed)
• Concept design  (completed)

September 2021

• Stakepool listing page  (completed)
• Stakepool verification  (completed)
• Feature design  (completed)

October 2021

• Implement feedback from users  (completed)
• Iterate through the design  (completed)
• Notification center - Alice: Pool updates on telegram  (completed)
• Feature design  (completed)

November 2021

• Notification center - Alice: Pool retirement, Twitter integration  (completed)
• Launched Stakeboard.net  (completed)
• Stake from Stakeboard w/ Nami  (completed)
• Catalyst Fund7 Proposals Submission  (completed)
• Marketing Project and Proposals  (completed)
• Interview with Cardano Hotel  (completed)
• Create Stakeboard style guide  (completed)

December 2021

• Create Stakeboard style guide cont.
• Interview with CF "Ask an operator" with Jeremy Firster  (completed)
• Stakepool Management - Stakepool Profile customization
• Enhanced filtering: filter by offchain data (eg. mission, charity, contribution, women in blockchain, etc.)
• Notification Center - Alice notifications on Stakeboard
• Marketing project and proposals

January 2022

• Onboard Stakepool operators and delegators to test the MVP
• Delegator Account creation via wallet
• Notification Center - Subscribe to specific Alice notifications on Stakeboard
• NFT First X SPO to register. (First Y Multi Pool Owner to register)
• NFT First X Non-SPO to register
• Set Staking Address(es) on profile

February 2022

• Communication Center - On platform SPOs to Delegators Messaging
• Social Media content Integration: Youtube, Medium, Twitter
• Initial Stakepool Offering MVP Dashboard

March 2022

• Stakeboard beta launch

Key Performance Indicators

1-month

•      50 SPOs registered
•      200 Community size
•      500 Searches
•      1k Page Views
•      5 delegations from stakeboard (nami like)

3 months

•      150 SPO
•      500 Accounts registered
•      4k Searches
•      15k Page Views
•      50 delegations from stakeboard (nami like)

6 months

•      Reduce by overall 1% amount staked on exchanges (very had to verify, but still)
•      1500 registered accounts
•      200 SPOs connected
•      20k Searches
•      100k Page views
•      100 delegations from stakeboard (nami like)

Cost Breakdown

+  UX: $ 5000

+  One full-time engineer for three months (at 50% of accustomed wages): $26.000

+  One part-time engineer for three months (at 50% of accustomed wages): $13.000

+  Cloud hosting: $ 1.500