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 have the following available:

• 8 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.

Stake pool installation instructions

To learn how to set up your own stake pool, follow installing the node from source instructions.

You can then proceed with stake pool operations:

• Getting configuration files

• Creating keys and addresses

• Creating a simple transaction

• Registering stake address on the blockchain

• Generating stake pool keys

• Creating an operational certificate with key evolving signature (KES)

• Configuring topology files for block-producing and relay nodes

• Registering a stake pool with metadata

• Starting a node

• Withdrawing rewards

• Retiring a stake pool