This week’s guest in the Cardano SPO section is a stake pool which is a SundaeSwap Scooper and donate 100% of the pool’s profits (48% of the pool’s total income) to save children’s lives: GROW TEAM [GROW].
Last week’s guest was one stake pool whose mission is that of direct Chinese investors to Cardano.
This initiative is a point of reference for everything Cardano-related and every week or two we will invite one Stake Pool Operator (SPO) to answer some questions and give us an update directly from within the Cardano community.
Considering that many of our readers are new to the crypto space, we will have a mix of simple and technical questions.
Cardano SPO, interview with GROW TEAM [GROW]
Hi, thanks for your time. Please introduce yourself, where do you reside and what is your background?
I’m Raymond Mata, SPO of GROW. I live in Oregon, United States, and am often in Hawaii.
My background is as a dad to an amazing girl, two crazy dogs and everyone else I love and care about so much. 22 years as a systems engineer and owner of a small MSP in Hawaii serving small and medium-sized businesses with a track record of zero data loss. Certified in permaculture and sustainable agriculture and formed in an ancient lineage of tantra called Sri Vidya, which is where the stake pool logo comes from.
I am best described as a lover with a huge heart for humanity and to serve a greater good.
What is the path that led you to Cardano and to become a Stake Pool Operator (SPO)?
The path that led me to Cardano is a journey of a lifetime, looking back on it. Much of this feels like destiny. Over the past two years, the omens and signs of this have become more frequent and evident. I made the leap on May 5th 2020. That’s when I bought my first ADAs. I was on a deep research path, trying to answer questions about who is spending the most money during a pandemic and what is still on the rise.
I found that everything that supports the AI ​​industry is bullish. This naturally led me to the blockchain, an ideal substrate for giving birth to General Artificial Intelligence (AGI).. It wasn’t long before I came across Charles Hoskinson in a newspaper article. A research-driven community with a huge heart for humanity was a natural magnet for me.
I began my journey as an SPO towards the end of ITN with my first ever pool, DREAM. After that it was a non-stop race towards my best, as I helped as many people around me to be their best, indeed, to outdo me. Today I am surrounded by a passionate and visionary global community, committed to bringing economic identity to the 3 billion people who do not.. In the process, we will turn the narratives of poverty upside down and take us one step closer to true world peace. Very ambitious. Cardano is climbing that mountain and I am doing it too. Today we support 28 children on their journey out of poverty, the effects are already being felt.
You are a SundaeSwap Scooper. What is SundaeSwap and what is your role?
Yes, I’m a Scooper! SundaeSwap is Cardano’s leading DEX, offering an easy-to-use and smooth user interface to the DeFi hungry. With SundaeSwap it is possible to exchange tokens, create liquidity pools, do yield farming and much more on the way. Many DEXs will build and release this year. These are growing pains for us too. We are asking the network for more than it is ready to deliver in terms of transaction latency.
As a Scooper my job is to sync the chain, read each TX containing an escrow for Sundae, determine which escrow needs to be signed and sent, and try to do it as fast as possible. The Scooper are the ones who take all of our Sundae orders and send them to the chain through the smart contract.
Right now with the block size and recent Plutus script memory improvement, we can have up to 6 escrows in a single scoop. There is a commission for each escrow. This adds up after a while and represents a huge financial incentive for us to always do our best and work well as a team. So far GROW is in the top 5 Scoopers in terms of number of scoops / orders.
This is also an amazing opportunity for us to push the nodes, figure out the optimal settings for mempool, p2p, etc and make this network the best it can be. We are really lucky to have the SPOs we have, it looks like a Top Gun academy LOL.
You are also part of the Ardana Stake Pool Alliance (ASPA). Can you tell us more about this?
The ASPA is Ardana’s recognition of what it is a decentralized community of stake pools is important for the ecosystem. They are building a DEX with stablecoins and already have their $ DANA token in the markets which is doing very well.
As a stake pool in alliance with Ardana, we help to promote and educate the ecosystem on the project. In return, Ardana will stake all or part of their treasure to the alliance pools. Currently 50 pools, many of which are small single pools.
A few final words? Where can I contact you?
Final words to all of you, fantastic souls. We have come this far and there is still a long way to go. Don’t get frustrated and don’t burn yourself out before we reach our goals, I’m learning to give myself the rhythm. As an SPO I am learning that the game is shifting from how I advertise to who my partners are.
The staking experience is becoming a game through new gaming applications such as Mandala Metaverse. This will be a game changer for PES looking to gain more delegation and loyalty. Loyalty is, alongside the smooth running of the pool and serving charities, the NUMBER ONE priority for me. Our delegators are the true power of Cardano. It is their investment in these visions and technologies that we must serve with everything we have.
Let’s keep in touch on Telegram, Twitter And GrowPools.io.
Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the SPOs are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOHK.
