High performance. Professional. Affordable.

A great alternative to self-managed Cardano node

Our mission is to help Cardano Stake Pool Operators run their operation in an easier and more affordable way. Self-managed servers are great for large stake pools, but small pools need some help while they try to grow and become profitable.

PoolMan.io automates block production for Cardano SPOs.

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About us

We are here to help Stake Pool Operators thrive and grow

Too many SPOs have closed their operations and given up before becoming profitable. It hurts the ecosystem when pools retire.

We decided to do somethis about this, and offer SPOs an affordable alternative to running a full-fledged self-managed infrastructure. This will support and boost Cardano’s decentralisation in the long run, and give small pools a chance to make it to break-even and beyond.

How does it work

Simplicity at its best

Claim your pool

After you create your account, you need to claim your stake pool. Search for it in the interface and verify ownership by uploading your VRF signing key, which we match to blockchain data.

Upload KES-key

Once the pool ownership is verified, you need to upload your KES-key and OpCert, in order to us to produce blocks for your pool. We verify the validity of the KES-period and counter.

Enable block production

Simply click a button to enable block production. Your stake pool will be launched and started on our servers in the following epoch.

Security

But, upload my keys?

VRF-Key

The VRF-key is used by the Cardano node to determine when the pool is allowed to create a block, and is necessary for block production.

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KES-Key

The KES-key is used by the Cardano node to sign the blocks that are created, so the Cardano Network can verify the legitimacy of it.

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NEVER Cold Keys!

Your pools cold key should never touch an internet connected machine in any way. It’s the master key for your stake pool. Always keep it offline.

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We only ask for keys that are absolute necessary in order to produce blocks. These keys does not give access to your ADA, your rewards address nor to make changes to your pool. You can always invalidate the uploaded keys by changing your VRF-key and update your KES-keys.

Are you ready to switch to an affordable Stake Pool solution?

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Pricing

Get 4 epochs for free

All pools get 4 epochs for free to test PoolMan and verify that blocks are produced correctly. After this, the price is tiered based on your active stake, at 20-50 ADA per epoch. You automatically switch between the tiers, based on your active stake. This way, it’s fully flexible and fair.

We’re currently applying for funding via Project Catalyst to make it 100% free for 6 months for pools with up to 250K active stake (100 spots available).

Small tier

Small and New SPOs starting out

For pools with an Active Stake below 500K ADA

20 ADA per epoch

Medium tier

Established SPOs looking to grow

For pools with an Active Stake between 500K and 1,5M ADA

30 ADA per epoch

Large tier

Profitable SPOs with high stake

For pools with an Active Stake above 1,5M ADA

50 ADA per epoch

Questions and Answers

Dive into the details of PoolMan.io

Decentralisation

Consider PoolMan infrastructure in the same way that AWS and Google Cloud also host many stake pools on the Cardano network. While PoolMan controls the block production and could potentially act maliciously, an attack could very quickly be stopped by the SPO changing the KES-key. We believe that PoolMan is a net benefit for Cardano’s decentralization, as we make it possible for more pools to stay alive and compete.

How fast can I join

You need to enable block production in your PoolMan dashboard at least 24 hours before the next epoch starts, in order for your pool to be included in it. Likewise, when you disable block production, it will stop at the end of the current epoch.

Is it secure

Yes. All keys are kept securely, and they cannot do any major harm even if they were exposed. They can hardly be used maliciously by a 3rd party, and you can always change the keys using your cold key.

You account is prepaid

When you sign up for PoolMan, the first 4 epochs are free. To continue using our service, you fund your PoolMan account using ADA by sending it to a specified address. This credits your PoolMan account, which is then used to pay for the service.

Why are you doing this

We want to make it easier for new SPOs to join the ecosystem, and help small, unprofitable pools survive and improve their chances to become profitable. We also want to give SPOs a chance to offload their workload instead of retiring their pools, when life doesn’t allow for the SPO workload anymore.

Relays, topology, P2P

All relays and block producers are running P2P with the latest Cardano-node version, with properly configured topology for great connectivity. You don’t have to worry about any of this anymore – we monitor all servers and ensure blocks are produced timely and correctly.

A few more words on decentralization

We expect to be asked about the seemingly centralizing effect of having a single entity run 100 pools for other people. While it might seem that way, there are very import nuances. PoolMan only ask for 3 files to be uploaded; VRF-key that determines which slots are allocated to the pool, and KES-key+OpCert that are used to sign the blocks. We can never take control of a pool and change parameters, touch the pledged ADA in any way, change rewards address or anything else. Your pool is safe. We can create blocks on your behalf, and that’s it. The uploaded KES-key can instantly be made useless if the pool owner generates a new KES-key and creates a new block with that key.

The damaging effect of centralization of SPOs is the ability of a few people to collude in order to censor transactions and similar control of the blockchain. It’s bad to have a single person control 5% of the stake in the system, as that power is very hard to take away. If PoolMan ever got compromised for any reason, and started acting maliciously, the power could very quickly be taken away by the SPOs in question, and in any case automatically disappear as the KES-keys expire (as they only last 3 months, before having to get renewed). That’s a very important distinction to make between PoolMan.io and large multi pool operators.

PoolMan is primarily aimed at small SPOs, and even if PoolMan has 200 pools with 1 million ADA staked each, the network power of those pools is the same as just 3 fully saturated single pool operators.

Join PoolMan to get started

“When you don’t want the headache of managing your own pool, you hire a PoolMan.”

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