[MnM] Minimum Fees Charity Pool
340 ADA fixed epoch fee. 0% variable fee.
10% of all fixed epoch fees donated to globally-focused charities helping uplift struggling people in developing countries, primarily Africa.
$607.38 USD donated to date.
Make the world a better place while increasing ₳ rewards.
This is a Cardano stake pool with a mission of helping those that need it most while ensuring delegators retain the maximum rewards due them.
I have strong opinions about how a charity pool should be run. Too many pools claim they donate to charity without outlining clear amounts, donation timing (year end?), or providing proof of donation. It is prudent to maintain a healthy scepticism of such claims. There must be proof.
MnM pool provides monthly proof of donations on our Twitter account. This enables people to verify the donation is real by asking the charity.
Please see charity section below for MnM donations and proof of donation.
Another concern I have are those claiming to donate a "percentage of profit". Is that a percentage of gross profit, net profit or gross income? Both gross profit and net profit have certain expenses deducted and can be open to 'massaging'.MnM pool makes it simple; 10% of Epoch fees are donated to charity monthly. See charity section below.
I believe running a stake pool with a minimum fee structure is the right thing to do. The price of ADA enables adequate pool profits without dipping into delegator's rewards.
I expect Cardano's value to continue to strengthen, reinforcing this minimum fee position.
Charities Supported and proof of donation
I have selected New Zealand charities (I’m a Kiwi) with an international focus, primarily bringing clean water, medical, educational and vocational help to struggling children and families in Africa. My family and I have personally donated, and sponsored children, through these charities over the years; therefore, I trust these charities.
We may broaden the list in future.
Tear Fund
International Needs
Mercy Ships
10% of the pool fixed epoch fees will be donated to these charities on a monthly basis. Proof of donations will be provided on our Twitter account.
For example, if MnM pool mints blocks in 5 consecutive epochs within a month, 170 ADA will be donated at month end.
5 epochs x 340 epoch fee = 1700 ADA
1700 x 10% = 170 ADA donated to charity.
If the charity doesn't accept ADA natively, the ADA will be swapped into NZD at the spot price at the time of donation. Calculation showing exchange rate will be provided.
Proof of donation.
Up-front donation prior to pool profit $100 NZD Twitter Link
Feb 2022 - 238 ADA / $330.23 NZD / $223.19 USD Twitter Link
March 2022 - 204 ADA / $308 NZD / $213.66 USD Twitter Link
April 2022 - 238 ADA / $268 NZD / $170.53 USD Twitter Link
Cardano & Rewards
Cardano is a platform looking to become the future financial operating system of the world. Ambitious, yes. Achievable, absolutely.
Ethiopia is now building their student and teacher ID's on Cardano, along with tracking and recording school achievements. This will on-board over 5 million students and 750,000 teachers, giving them tamper proof ID's and digitally verifiable school records.
Ethiopia is looking to digitize sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. All going well Cardano will enable everything from blockchain-based ‘track-and-trace’ of smallholder agricultural supply chains to digital IDs for transport or healthcare. This is only the beginning.
So how do stake pools and staking rewards work?
Stake Pools are the computers running the Cardano network, processing groups of transactions called blocks. The stake pool receives ADA rewards as compensation for processing blocks. The more ADA staked in a stake pool, the higher that pool's chance is of being allocated a block. Thus, the incentive for pool owners to find delegators.
In a 1st generation cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin, a minor would increase their chance of mining a block by increasing their computational power. This is why Bitcoin uses a vast amount of electricity (up to as much as a country the size of Argentina). Cardano has replaced this wasteful method with the previously described staking system (called proof-of-stake) which doesn't benefit from computational power; thus, being drastically more energy efficient.
Back to Cardano.
When the stake pool receives a block, a portion of the block rewards go to the delegators in the pool. Delegators will typically get 5-5.5% return per annum, depending on the pool fees taken by the pool operator. A pool offering the lowest fees the network will allow will reap a higher return than a pool with an identical fixed fee, but 10% margin. A 10% margin pool may achieve around 4.5% annual return for its delegators. A 0% margin pool will be closer to 5.5%
Pool Operator & Pool Specs
I’m a bean counter in New Zealand, now nauseated with beans and their excessive beaniness. I want to extract myself from the grind and do something more fulfilling. I’m a computer enthusiast experienced with Ubuntu and networking. I like figuring things out for myself. All manner of computer builds and setups, graphic art, websites, the lot, I enjoy doing it myself.
After hearing Charles Hoskinson speak back in February 2021 (when I started getting into crypto), it was an eye opener. I found his vision of Cardano extremely compelling. I see this as the future, and myself having a part helping people in this future.
Stake Pool Specs:
One relay node and the block producer node are Virtual Private Servers hosted in Germany. Each has 4 CPU cores, 8gb RAM, 200gb SSD, 200mbit internet. Power and internet redundancy is built into this hosted system; thus, reliable uptime is assured.
The second relay node is bare metal, has 8 CPU cores, 8gb RAM, 1TB HDD, 100mbit internet and its IP is intentionally hidden - not registering publicly with my stake pool cert. This ensures the block producer maintains up-time if my public relay is attacked.
MnM pool is closely monitored. Additional relay nodes can be spun up extremely quickly if needed.
Air-gapped laptop for cold keys kept securely.
