Creating a stake pool

Prerequisites for stake pool operators

As a stake pool operator for Cardano, you will typically have the following abilities:

• operational knowledge of how to set up, run and maintain a Cardano node continuously
• a commitment to maintain your node 24/7/365
• system operation skills
• server administration skills (operational and maintenance).
• experience of development and operations (DevOps) would be very useful

Hardware requirements

In terms of hardware, you should ensure you have the following:

• 10 GB of RAM
• 24 GB of hard disk space
• a good network connection and about 1 GB of bandwidth per hour
• a public IP4 address

Note that processor speed is not a significant factor for running a stake pool.

Setting up a stake pool

First, you should install the node from source.

You can then proceed with the following operational tasks for managing your stake pool:

Set up

• Configuration and topology files
• Configuring topology files for block-producing and relay nodes
• Creating keys and addresses
• Generating stake pool keys
• Registering key stake address on the blockchain
• Creating an operational certificate with key evolving signature (KES)
• Registering a stake pool with metadata
• Starting a node
• Creating a simple transaction

Maintenance

• Leadership schedule
• Querying a stake pool snapshot
• Generating new operational certificate and keys
• Withdrawing rewards
• Retiring a stake pool