Thread by @ruttkowa

Since it comes up more often than I expected, I wanted to make a little thread and shed some light on what it takes to be a Stake Pool Operator on a technical level. So if you ever thought about starting a #CardanoADA Pool, here you go

First of all - you need basic knowledge of how the protocol works and the terminology. Tx, extended utxo, keys, certificates, and how a blockchain in general works.

Know your way around bash / terminal / Linux command line interface. This includes file/system structures, moving, copying, editing files, privilege escalation, security concepts, user and group management.

Know the foundations of git and working / pulling with git on the terminal as well as working with remote repositories.

Have an working knowledge of how to create, run, edit and troubleshoot / debug systemD service files.

Understand the basics of ssh connections and how to secure them. Also locking down a Linux system with a firewall (depending on your distribution).

Understand how asymmetric encryption works, what private and public keys are and how to secure them.

Setting up monitoring, health rules and alarming with Prometheus, Prometheus exporters and grafana. Interpreting those metrics and seeing trends and acting on those.

If you want to take it to the next level, here are a few buzzwords: automation (ansible, puppet etc), failover concepts, zero downtime systems and zero touch production are a few which come to mind.

Long story short - there‘s obviously a guide to everything. But blindly copy & pasting or never is a good idea. Know what kind of tools you are using. Know what they are doing. And be able to the stuff manually as well.

At all the other SPOs - you have anything to add for the curious lurker? @matiwinnetou @BabelPool @CryptoJoe101 @Wiiinnie @ADAFrog_Pool @GrowYourStake @Straightpool4 @lionstakingpool @SafeStak @StoicPool

If you still like to be a pool operator - great! It‘s been quite a steep learning curve for me as well but if you have any questions reach out! In the meantime don’t forget to delegate and spread the word 🤟🏻