[Pool Update] Epoch 249

Hey people! πŸ™‚

I’m sure most of you already know that there are absolutely no ADA giveaways ever, but it can’t be stressed enough: If you’ll ever send away your ADA to anyone they will most likely be gone forever!

New Daedalus 3.3.0 released

The new Deadlus version 3.3.0 was released recently. If you haven’t updated already: Do it now!
It’s packed with new features:

  • Mary-ready
  • Built-in voting-registration for catalyst
  • Wallet ballance in crypto/fiat
  • More transaction details including metadata
  • SMASH server support
  • Multiple wallets from one hw wallet

Make sure to download it from a trustable source and make sure you are on the correct website: https://daedaluswallet.io/

All details can be found in the Deadalus 3.3.0 release notes.

What to expect from Mary?

Soon we will enter the Mary era which is mainly known for integrating the native asset functionality. This means that tokens can be created on top of Cardano. What this means for Cardano and how it looks like can you read in this iohk blog post: Building native tokens on Cardano for pleasure and profit

For those of you who prefer to listen rather than read, this and many other blogposts are also available on Soundcloud:

Definetely also worth a read is this blog post from emurgo: What is the Future of the Cardano Blockchain After the Mary Hard Fork?

Performance for 248

|=====================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck   | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|=====================================================================================|
| 19     | 19.9  | 95.48% | 19      | 19        | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|=====================================================================================|

Epoch 249 was the first epoch where our big delegation increase got active. Therefore, this was the demonstration that this pool can also consistently produce a larger number of blocks without any problems and that is exactly what we achieved: We were assigned 19 blocks while 19.9 would have been ideal. We produced all of those 19 blocks and did not miss a single one. We end up with an assigned performance of 100% and ~95.5% luck for that epoch.

Assigned Slots for 249

|=====================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck   | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|=====================================================================================|
| 23     | 20.72 | 111.0% | 0       | 0         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|=====================================================================================|

In Epoch 249 we are looking for 23 blocks while 20.72 is the statistically calculated amount we should have been assigned, which brings us to 111% luck.

Thanks for stopping by and have a nice epoch 249.

That’s all I have for you today, talk to you soon πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 248

Hey people! πŸ™‚

Hope you are all doing well. I know I do and so does the pool. So let’s dive right into this pool update.

Planting some trees

We know that PoS uses far less energy than PoW and is clearly superior in this regard. Nevertheless, its not completely emission free. As I do think that environmental protection is one of the most desirable goals of our time, I decided to start donating money to support projects in their fight against the climate change and polution of our earth. I started by donating to plant a total of 150 trees spread over five different countries all over africa. It may be a small step, but together we can make a difference and every single contribution counts.

This was just a humble beginning, but I will continue to donate at irregular intervals to various projects that I find worthy to support. Feel free to write me if you have any great projects for me that I should look into. I am happy to hear about them.

If you also want to participate just start watching the following video about plant for the planet and the trillion tree campaign:

Want to start right away? Check out their homepage: https://a.plant-for-the-planet.org/

How to mine Crypto in 2021

A small new video from IOHK on mining crypto in 2021 has gone online. I think most of you will know about this of course, but if you have someone who is interested, this video is a quick way to bring them up to speed.

New Blogpost about Project Catalyst

Read through the following post (or just listen to it via the audio file provided on the blog) to get the latest updates on Project Catalyst: Our million-dolar baby: Project Catalyst

Performance for 247

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 6      | 4.95  | 121.21% | 5       | 5         | 0      | 0       | 1      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

In epoch 247 we produced 6 blocks but only 5 were actually adopted. That means we still produced every assigned block but ran into a slot battle. For those of you that do not know what that is: A slot battle can occur if two pools are eligible to produce a block for the exact same slot. In epoch 247 that was the case for block 249933. At the end only one block can make it to the chain and the other one will be orphaned. Which of the produced blocks actually makes it to the chain is chosen randomly. This time we we’re unlucky and the other pool was chosen to make the block. Nevertheless, we have a luck of ~102% for that epoch and are perfectly within the ideal number of produced blocks.

Assigned Slots for 248

|=====================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck   | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|=====================================================================================|
| 19     | 19.9  | 95.48% | 0       | 0         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|=====================================================================================|

248 is the epoch where a new big delegations becomes active. We will therefore produce more blocks in this epoch than ever before. We are looking for 19 Blocks, which will bring us to ~95% luck. More overall stake means more stable rewards and lesser impact of the fixed fee on every delegators rewards. So I’m very happy to see this increase in delegation.

Really glad for each and everyone one who decided to stake with me! Big thanks to all of you.

That’s all for now. Talk to you soon πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 246 & 247

Hey people! πŸ™‚

With the ongoing price increase, we are currently seeing a sharp increase in new wallets and therefore new people in the Cardano network. First of all, I want to welcome everyone who is new to Cardano! You have made a very good decision to join the best community in crypto.

However, since many people may be inexperienced in the area of financial self-responsibility, I would like to outline some basic security rules to keep your funds secure:

  • If it is too good to be true, it probably is!
  • There are NEVER any giveaways! Even if it looks 100% real! Scammers are actively hacking big Youtube Channels, other Accounts and copying designs. Do not fall for it.
  • No officials, moderators or ambassadors will ever send you a private message! Scammers are copying those profiles and target people seeking help.
  • Always download Software related to Cardano from trusted sources! Double and triple check URLs to make sure you are on the correct website.
  • Never ever give your seed phrase to anyone. Your funds will be lost forever!

Those are only the very basics rules. I strongly recommend everyone to have a look at the following more detailed information: Cardano Stay Safe Content

If anyone is interested in buying a Ledger hardware wallet, don’t hesitate to contact me for a discount code.

Stay safe and enjoy Cardano!

Native Tokens and Mary

As the Goguen rollout continues we approach the next network update: the Mary Update!
Read everything about the Mary hardfork and native tokens in this blog post from IOHK: Native tokens to bring new utility to life on Cardano

Performance for 244

|=====================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck   | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|=====================================================================================|
| 4      | 4.04  | 99.01% | 4       | 4         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|=====================================================================================|

We produced all four assigned blocks in 244 and ended up with an assigned performance of 100%, a luck of 99% and a return of ~5.3%.

Performance for 245

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 10     | 4.35  | 229.89% | 10      | 10        | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

Epoch 245 was really good for us. We produced all 10 assigned blocks. This is the most blocks we ever produced in one epoch. This means an assigned performance of 100%, a luck of 229% and an estimated ROS of ~12%.

Leader Schedule for 246

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | confirmed | 5307024 | 21046738 | 137938      | 2021-02-06 12:03:49 UTC |
|============================================================================

As good as epoch 245 was for us 246 is quite an unlucky epoch. We were assigned one block, which we already produced successfully. We will therefore end up with an assigned performance of 100% and a luck of 22%.

Leader Schedule for 247

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 21469276 | 128476      | 2021-02-11 09:26:07 UTC |
| 2 | leader | -     | 21469321 | 128521      | 2021-02-11 09:26:52 UTC |
| 3 | leader | -     | 21551638 | 210838      | 2021-02-12 08:18:49 UTC |
| 4 | leader | -     | 21573912 | 233112      | 2021-02-12 14:30:03 UTC |
| 5 | leader | -     | 21590733 | 249933      | 2021-02-12 19:10:24 UTC |
| 6 | leader | -     | 21724487 | 383687      | 2021-02-14 08:19:38 UTC |
|=======================================================================

Epoch 247 already looks better: We are scheduled to produce 6 blocks, which equals to ~122% luck.

Many thanks to all the delegators and readers. That’s all for today, thanks for being here. Talk to you soon πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 244 & 245

Hey people! πŸ™‚

Combined Update for epoch 244 and 245 today and there are so many news, that I don’t know how to accommodate them all…

The Mission of Cardano

Sometimes we need a little reminder of who we are and why we are here: We are Cardano. And if you’ll permit us, we’d like to change the world…

Transaction Metadata on Cardano

This doesn’t sound like a big deal at first glance, but take a closer look and you’ll see that transaction metadata is paving the way to the future. Transaction metadata is basically arbitrary data that can be attached to a transaction and then stored forever and unchangeably on the blockchain. This opens up new possibilities and use cases that we have not seen before.

If you’re curious now, definitely check out this post on the Cardano forum about it, where you’ll get more information about what metadata is, how you can use it, how you can view it and how we can benefit from it in the future: How to get started with metadata on Cardano

Dezentralized Finance on Cardano

DeFi here, DeFi there. DeFi is a term you can’t avoid in the crypto space at the moment. How DeFi looks like on Cardano and which advantages Cardano offers compared to existing platforms is discussed in more detail in the following article in the Cardano forum: What will decentralized finance look like on Cardano?

Plutus Playground

Great short video to get you started with the Plutus Playground and therefore with writing smart contracts on Cardano. Some additional shortcuts for you:
Plutus Playground: https://playground.plutus.iohkdev.io/​
Cardano Plutus Forums: https://forum.cardano.org/c/developers/cardano-plutus/148
Plutus GitHub repository: https://github.com/input-output-hk/plutus
Access to Additional Support: https://input-output.typeform.com/to/gQ0t9ep5
Full Technical Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/DhRS-JvoCw8​

Goguen Development Update

Every two weeks, the Goguen development team presents the latest updates, features and functionalities. This is the fourth episode of the series of technical development updates.

Atala PRISM Demo

Ever heard of Atala PRISM? No? Atala PRISM is a self-sovereign identity and verification solution, built on the Cardano blockchain. Check out the video to see what’s already possible.

Cardano Monthly Update

Check out January’s monthly Cardano update for a quick and easy way to keep up with the latest developments. Tim and Aparna do a great job of making everything simple and easy to understand. Definitely worth seeing!

Dezentralizing Social Media

In this landmark conversation, Charles Hoskinson and Dr. Ben Goertzel of AI pioneers SingularityNET discuss the implications of decentralization for social media platforms, the moral dilemmas of centralized social media platforms and how applying AGI to these systems might help drive positive change.

Join Ben and Charles discussing libertarianism, artificial intelligence, and what improvements will result from SingularityNET moving to Cardano.

Performance for 242

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 5      | 3.44  | 145.35% | 5       | 5         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

Epoch 242 was great for us with 145% luck, 100% assigned performance and an ROA of about 7.8%.

Performance for 243

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 4      | 3.64  | 109.89% | 4       | 4         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================

Epoch 243 was also quite good for us with a slight overperformance of 109%, again 100% assigned performance and an estimated ROA of about 5.9%.

Leader Schedule for 244

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | confirmed | 5260679 | 20115887 | 71087       | 2021-01-26 17:29:38 UTC |
| 2 | confirmed | 5263014 | 20163536 | 118736      | 2021-01-27 06:43:47 UTC |
| 3 | confirmed | 5268499 | 20273093 | 228293      | 2021-01-28 13:09:44 UTC |
| 4 | confirmed | 5272574 | 20354375 | 309575      | 2021-01-29 11:44:26 UTC |
|============================================================================|

As this Update is written late in epoch 244 you can see that we already produced all four assigned blocks of this epoch. We are at about 100% luck and 100% assigned performance again.

Leader Schedule for 245

|========================================================================|
| #  | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|========================================================================|
| 1  | leader | -     | 20489994 | 13194       | 2021-01-31 01:24:45 UTC |
| 2  | leader | -     | 20517894 | 41094       | 2021-01-31 09:09:45 UTC |
| 3  | leader | -     | 20540298 | 63498       | 2021-01-31 15:23:09 UTC |
| 4  | leader | -     | 20586497 | 109697      | 2021-02-01 04:13:08 UTC |
| 5  | leader | -     | 20728713 | 251913      | 2021-02-02 19:43:24 UTC |
| 6  | leader | -     | 20735585 | 258785      | 2021-02-02 21:37:56 UTC |
| 7  | leader | -     | 20743773 | 266973      | 2021-02-02 23:54:24 UTC |
| 8  | leader | -     | 20823159 | 346359      | 2021-02-03 21:57:30 UTC |
| 9  | leader | -     | 20840181 | 363381      | 2021-02-04 02:41:12 UTC |
| 10 | leader | -     | 20861596 | 384796      | 2021-02-04 08:38:07 UTC |
|========================================================================

Epoch 245 looks absolutely amazing for us! We are heading for 10! blocks this epoch, thus we will produce the most blocks we have ever produced in one epoch. It also means that we will have an incredible lucky epoch with a performance of over 200%. Hope you enjoy this as much as I do! πŸ™‚

A warm welcome goes out to all new delegators and a huge thank you to all existing delegators who ensure the existence and thus decentralization through their support of an independent pool with an excellent infrastructure.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to contact me. That’s all for today, talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 242 & 243

Hey people!

Combined Pool Update for Epoch 242 and 243 today. First and foremost, thank you for your continued support and the trust you have placed in this pool. The payoff for you came the last few epochs with a great average 6-epoch ROA of ~7.1%.

Hardware Upgrades

I recently did another pool update: As I already told you I moved to new servers some time ago but I wasn’t 100% satisfied.
The performance of the servers is great but I thought another relay at another provider as well as another country makes sense for the decentralization and the reliability of the pool.

So that is exactly what I added: Third relay is online and running for over a week now and is also registered on the chain. So its now also visible for everybody. You can check it out at the “About” tab in Adapools.

A nice side effect of the new relay is the reduced propagation time, which has been rather high lately and has improved significantly with the additional relay. This change is currently not yet reflected by the explorers, as this calculation takes some time / blocks.

I’m thinking a lot about the future and how we can contribute to dezentralization even more. I do not want to give up hosting servers at a state-of-the-art data center with all its advantages like high performance and high reliability but also do not want to depend on its (extremely unlikely) failure. The step I have already taken is to have servers at different providers and in different countries. The next step is to build up another “small” home server, which will live at my location.

It will act as a backup if everything else fails (which is highly unlikely but nothing is impossible). I’m currently looking into building an efficient and environment friendly solution for this. It adds some cost but I think its a good way to diversify between full bare metal hardware and data center servers, so its kind of the hybrid way. Hope you like it πŸ˜‰

Hardware wallet Pledge & Pledge increase

As promised every rewards earned will be reinvested into the pool and everything that is left will be pledged. I’m happy to announce that I will increase the pledge of the pool again in the next few epochs.

Recently, the cardano-hw-cli and a new Ledger firmware was released. The cardano-hw-cli is a software with which it is now possible to use a hardware wallet for pledge and rewards. This means that these funds will be much better protected against theft and misuse in the future. Of course I will use this possibility and I have already taken the necessary preparations.

You can see this by the fact that the pool now has two owners. I have control over these two wallets, one of them is the old pool wallet and the new owner is the hardware wallet.
This is what will happen: the funds of the old wallet including rewards will be completely transferred to the new wallet. So there will be a withdraw of the previous rewards but this will have no further consequences. Once I did the according transactions you’ll be able to track them via the blockchain.

Fund2 Voting Results

The counting is finished and the results are now available. 250.000$ were distributed to 11 projects to implement their proposals. Those are the winning proposals:

  • PoolTool platform upgrade
  • Ouroboros over RINA
  • Haskell/Plutus/Marlowe education
  • Create a message-signing standard
  • Liqwid: Cardano lending markets for decentralized finance
  • Cardano for mobile DApp developers
  • GimbaLabs – starter kits and tools
  • Lovelace Academy for Marlowe and Plutus
  • Sign Tx Arduino
  • Pet Registry DApp with β‚³Pay
  • Japan Cardano Governance Association

Take a look at this IOHK blog post for more information about project catalyst and some more information about the mentioned projects: Project Catalyst – the first winning proposals

And for even more Project Catalys information check out the Project Catalyst Dashboard – Cardano Governance – by Daniel Ribar which is a great source of information.

Performance for 241

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 3      | 2.85  | 105.26% | 3       | 3         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

In epoch 241 three blocks were assigned to the pool and all of those three blocks were produced successfully (100% assigned performance). In relation to the statistical estimation of 2.85 blocks we are at a luck of ~105%.

Leader Schedule for 242

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | leader    | -       | 19187878 | 7078        | 2021-01-15 23:42:49 UTC |
| 2 | leader    | -       | 19266125 | 85325       | 2021-01-16 21:26:56 UTC |
| 3 | leader    | -       | 19381764 | 200964      | 2021-01-18 05:34:15 UTC |
| 4 | leader    | -       | 19539651 | 358851      | 2021-01-20 01:25:42 UTC |
| 5 | leader    | -       | 19549272 | 368472      | 2021-01-20 04:06:03 UTC |
|============================================================================|

In epoch 242 there are five blocks assigned to us which is over the estimation of 3.44 blocks thus leaves us again at a luck of over 100%, specifically at about 145%, which means that we will see very good rewards for this epoch.

Leader Schedule for 243

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 19651555 | 38755       | 2021-01-21 08:30:46 UTC |
| 2 | leader | -     | 19763163 | 150363      | 2021-01-22 15:30:54 UTC |
| 3 | leader | -     | 19844956 | 232156      | 2021-01-23 14:14:07 UTC |
| 4 | leader | -     | 19989141 | 376341      | 2021-01-25 06:17:12 UTC |
|=======================================================================|

In epoch 243 we are heading for four blocks. With an estimate of 3.64 blocks this leaves us at 109% luck.

That’s all I have for you today, thank you for reading and your interest. As always: Don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or just want to chat. Talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 240 & 241

Hey people!

Today there is a combined update for epoch 240 and 241. Let’s get right to it.

Catalyst Fund3

Fund2 is barely finished and Fund3 is already in progress. If you were not able to participate in the last fund, now is your chance. I really want to encourage everyone of you to take a look at it, as this fundings will shape the future of Cardano. We’re working towards getting the community, all of us, to steer this project in the right direction. Every vote counts and you can actively do your part and push the projects forward that you like.

Missed the introduction to fund3? No problem, the stream was recorded:

Performance for 239

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 6      | 2.87  | 209.06% | 6       | 6         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

Epoch 239 was a great one for us. Six blocks were assigned to the pool and we successfully produced all of them. This leaves us at 209% luck and 100% assigned performance for this epoch. The estimated ROS therefore is about 11%.

Leader Schedule for 240

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | leader    | -       | 18471819 | 155019      | 2021-01-07 16:48:30 UTC |
| 2 | leader    | -       | 18527977 | 211177      | 2021-01-08 08:24:28 UTC |
| 3 | leader    | -       | 18641027 | 324227      | 2021-01-09 15:48:38 UTC |
| 4 | leader    | -       | 18671702 | 354902      | 2021-01-10 00:19:53 UTC |
| 5 | leader    | -       | 18716473 | 399673      | 2021-01-10 12:46:04 UTC |
|============================================================================|

Our luck continues in epoch 240. We were assigned five blocks, which corresponds to 170% luck. This is again a clear overperformance and will also yield above-average rewards again.

Leader Schedule for 241

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 18908170 | 159370      | 2021-01-12 18:01:01 UTC |
| 2 | leader | -     | 18912555 | 163755      | 2021-01-12 19:14:06 UTC |
| 3 | leader | -     | 19093151 | 344351      | 2021-01-14 21:24:02 UTC |
|=======================================================================|

Statistically, we should get 2.85 blocks in 241 and we were assigned three blocks. So we are in the expected range here with a slightly increased luck of 105%.

Thanks for your time, talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 239

Hey people!

First Pool Update in 2021. Hope you all had a good arrival in this new year. It’ll be a great one for Cardano.

Little reminder: If you registered to vote for Catalyst fund2 you need to cast your vote by January 4th 8 PM (UTC).

I’ll keep it short this time and we’ll jump right into the numbers for epoch 238 and 239.

Performance for 238

|=====================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck   | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|=====================================================================================|
| 3      | 2.76  | 108.7% | 3       | 3         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|=====================================================================================|

In Epoch 238 we produced three blocks, resulting in 108% luck and an assigned performance of 100%. This means we had a slight overperformance and produced every block assigned to the pool. The estimated ROS for that epoch is around 5.4%.

Leader Schedule for 239

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 17951904 | 67104       | 2021-01-01 16:23:15 UTC |
| 2 | leader | -     | 17965145 | 80345       | 2021-01-01 20:03:56 UTC |
| 3 | leader | -     | 18057001 | 172201      | 2021-01-02 21:34:52 UTC |
| 4 | leader | -     | 18098335 | 213535      | 2021-01-03 09:03:46 UTC |
| 5 | leader | -     | 18172014 | 287214      | 2021-01-04 05:31:45 UTC |
| 6 | leader | -     | 18238791 | 353991      | 2021-01-05 00:04:42 UTC |
|=======================================================================|

This first epoch of 2021 looks absolutely great and I hope the year continues like that! We are assigned to produce six blocks which will result in 209% luck. This also means very good rewards for this epoch. At the moment our lifetime luck is still a bit under 100% but that should level out in the near future. With our current stake it is also likely that we see an overall stabilization in block production as well as rewards.

That’s it for now, talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 237 & 238

Hey people!

Due to the holidays there was no dedicated pool update in epoch 237 and also the update for epoch 238 will be rather short, because it feels like the whole crypto space is on vacation and there is not too much Cardano related to talk about.

Rest assured that the pool is monitored 24/7, even over the holidays, and operation is assured at all times.

12 days of Christmas IOHK style

You can find the full blog post here: Some thoughts for the next 12 days

Note that it will be updated throughout the next few days with new content πŸ˜‰

Performance for 237

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 3      | 2.16  | 138.89% | 3       | 3         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

As you can see we produced all three assigned blocks in 237. Which leaves us at a luck of ~138% and an assigned performance of 100%.

Leader Schedule for 238

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 17552942 | 100142      | 2020-12-28 01:33:53 UTC |
| 2 | leader | -     | 17628589 | 175789      | 2020-12-28 22:34:40 UTC |
| 3 | leader | -     | 17838558 | 385758      | 2020-12-31 08:54:09 UTC |
|=======================================================================|

In 238 we are looking for three assigned blocks again. This leaves us at a slight overperformance for this epoch.

Now there is nothing left for me to say except to thank you all. 2020 was an exciting year for Cardano, but 2021 is expected to be even better. I wish you all relaxing last days of 2020 and hope that 2021 will be more pleasant for our international community.

That’s all I have for you today, talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 236

Hey People!

Exciting new developments and partnerships have recently been announced. An overview as well as links to further information on the individual topics can be found below.

Fund2 voting

Even though the fund2 voting was already addressed in the last pool update, I would like to give a small update here. The voting registration is finished and all registered voters have now until January 4th to vote for the proposals.

With this voting we managed to become the largest DAO in the world. About 1725 different wallets with about 566M ADA have registered. We have received many high quality proposals and this shows once again what the community can do when everyone’s individual suggestions are not only allowed but actually encouraged.

Read more about the fund2 in this spreadsheet from Daniel Ribar: Project Catalyst Dashboard – Fund 2 Challenge

Cardano Gogouen Development Update

In this video series you’ll be informed about the latest developments and the rollout of Goguen. Have fun watching the latest update from december 10th:

December 17th Cardano Development update

I think many of you will already know the Cardano Development update which takes place every month. In this video there are many very interesting announcements. First the new partnership with the Nervos Network. IOHK and Nervos will work together on enhancing security, scalability and increasing adoption, as well as jointly research UTXO ledgers to develop an improved framework for UTXO-based chains. Read more about the partnership in this medium article: Nervos and IOHK Join Forces to Make Smart Contracts Safer.


But an even bigger partnership is with Wolfram. Wolfram Alpha (possibly the most popoular product of Wolfram) is a so called computational knowledge engine, also called an answer engine, which can give you answers to factual queries. This means that it not just searches for the solution in the internet but uses external data sources to extract the needed information to solve the problem you asked it and provide you with the correct data. But they are much more than that and I think their own description fits quite well:

“Founded by Stephen Wolfram in 1987, Wolfram Research is one of the world’s most respected computer, web and cloud software companiesβ€”as well as a powerhouse of scientific and technical innovation. As a pioneer in computation and computational knowledge, we have pursued a long-term vision to develop the science, technology and tools to make computation an ever-more-potent force in today’s and tomorrow’s world.”

Source: Wolfram research company background

Another news is the launch of the new KEVM where Solidity (the smart contract language of Ethereum) developers can develop smart contracts on Cardano without learning a new programming language. But take look at this short but very informative video about the KEVM:


All the above mentioned topics and partnerships are part of the December 17th Cardano Development Update. But there is much more to see in the video, so you should watch it if you want all the other good news too:

Performance for 235

|======================================================================================|
| Leader | Ideal | Luck    | Adopted | Confirmed | Missed | Ghosted | Stolen | Invalid |
|======================================================================================|
| 2      | 1.79  | 111.73% | 2       | 2         | 0      | 0       | 0      | 0       |
|======================================================================================|

As you can see we produced all assigned two blocks in 235. Which leaves us at a luck of 111% and an assigned performance of 100%.

Leader Schedule for 236

|=======================================================================|
| # | Status | Block | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|=======================================================================|
| 1 | leader | -     | 16888644 | 299844      | 2020-12-20 09:02:15 UTC |
|=======================================================================|

We were assigned one block in 236, which means a more unlucky epoch for us. The good news is we are seeing some nice increase in stake lately, which should lead to a more consistent block production in the future! πŸ™‚

I would like to welcome the new delegators and thank everyone for the support. Please keep the Cardano Reward Schedule in mind, which tells you exactly when you will receive rewards from which epoch. All new delegators will receive rewards around 15-20 days later, if you switched from another pool you will still receive rewards from your old pool until then.

If you have any questions just get in touch with me. That’s all for now, talk to you soon! πŸ™‚

[Pool Update] Epoch 235

Hey people!

As already announced in the pool update for epoch 234 I successfully updated all nodes to 1.24.2 and we are therefore ready for the upcoming Allegra hard fork. This update brings token locking to Cardano and you should give this article a read if you are interested in more information: Goguen brings token locking to Cardano

Voting on fund2 proposals

Recently the registration process for voting on the fund2 proposals started and Daedalus Catalyst 1.0.0 was released. If there are now many open questions in your head, what this is all about, then you should give this post a read: Project Catalyst voting: the genesis of a new era of blockchain governance (there are many more interesting links included there e.g. to the proposals and some informative videos etc.)

Also take a look at the Daedalus Catalyst 1.0.0-CT release notes and instructions.

I would like to encourage everyone to take the opportunity to look at the relevant proposals and then, of course, to vote for them. This vote is incentivized, meaning you get some ADA as a reward for your effort. In the future this will probably change and the community should vote to represent their own interests and thus shape the future and development of Cardano. This is a very important part of Cardano and only if as many people as possible vote, the opinion of the whole community can be represented. Those who don’t vote give away their votes and have to live with the consequences that result from the voting.

Performance for 234

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | confirmed | 5060054 | 16048664 | 323864      | 2020-12-10 15:42:35 UTC |
|============================================================================|

In epoch 234 one block was assigned to us and as you see above we successfully minted it. This leaves us with an assigned performance of 100% and ~55.5% luck. In the upcoming epoch I’ll talk with you a little bit more about the “assigned performance” metric and how it is the best measure to judge about a pool. So stay tuned πŸ˜‰

Leader Schedule for 235

|============================================================================|
| # | Status    | Block   | Slot     | SlotInEpoch | Scheduled At            |
|============================================================================|
| 1 | leader    | -       | 16288566 | 131766      | 2020-12-13 10:20:57 UTC |
| 2 | leader    | -       | 16473045 | 316245      | 2020-12-15 13:35:36 UTC |
|============================================================================|

In epoch 235 there are two blocks assigned to us. This will give us quite a good ROS again as it leaves our luck at about 111.7%. As already announced earlier I will turn off the two old relays as they are not needed anymore. These two relays are from before the move to the new servers. The contract is now expiring and since they only cause additional costs and would not bring any real added value, I am switching them off.

That’s all for now. Talk to you soon! πŸ™‚