A Spotlight on Stake Pools: Centre for Open Systems Deployment [COSD]

Learn how [COSD] supports the Cardano ecosystem through active engagement

The Cardano Foundation recognizes the vital contributions of stake pool operators (SPOs) to Cardano’s longevity and security. Through the ”A Spotlight on Stake Pools series”, we explore the diverse motivations and missions of SPOs around the globe. These interviews further delve into the unique approaches of individual SPOs. By highlighting their impact on network decentralization, resilience, and growth, the Foundation celebrates the contributions SPOs make to the Cardano ecosystem.

In the previous installment, we highlighted activities of the Logical Mechanism [LOGIC] pool operated by Quinn Parkinson. In addition to showcasing some of the pool's recent initiatives, including Project NEWM and Aiken contributions, we explored its development of a novel proof-of-humanity hyperstructure solution. Parkinson further discussed Logical Mechanism's bare metal approach and the stake pool's growth from inception.

This time, we feature Robert Phair, operator of the Centre for Open Systems Deployment [COSD] stake pool. In his responses, Phair delves into the pool’s history, its open-source Frankenwallet, and frequent contributions to the Developer Portal. He further outlines his tireless efforts to support the Cardano Improvement Proposal (CIP) process.

Why did you become a stake pool operator?

In 2020, I arrived late to Cardano, missing the Incentivized TestNet (ITN) snapshot by only six weeks. I followed the Cardano Forum messages from the first stake pool operators, regretting that I had missed my chance, but as the Shelley period approached, I couldn't help thinking about starting a pool anyway. I was leading a Cardano user group of Western expatriates locked down in the north of India and we were all curious how far a stake pool could get with no equipment, no social network following, and no startup budget.

I was convinced that anyone with rigorous devops experience would be able to catch up with the original ITN stake pools eventually. Additionally, Cardano's early statements on behalf of the unbanked in emerging market countries made me want to set up and run the pool as if I were in their place—which was not far from the truth, with no fixed address and an initial allocation of $2 per day for our servers.

We were intimidated by the significant social network influence of the larger pools coming out of the ITN, but I was convinced that through superior technical performance, with occasional honest writing about Cardano, we would attract enough of a distinctive following to keep the pool operational and profitable for ourselves and delegators. All of this eventually led to us receiving stake delegation from the Cardano Foundation, which in turn led to my own niche in the Cardano community as the main supporter of Cardano's CIP (standards) process.

What is the mission of your stake pool?

Our mission can be categorized into the following:

• •To demonstrate profitable participation in Cardano's validation process (and someday its sidechains) with expenses no more than daily subsistence costs of living in developing countries, no capital expenses, and no equipment that cannot be included in a typical working nomad's traveling baggage.
• •To improve upon officially recommended design parameters from Cardano's node developers through research and experimentation, resulting in a stake pool configuration engineered for the highest possible reliability at the lowest possible cost.
• •To use SPO-specific and Cardano operational experience to support Cardano's CIP process from three unique perspectives: as the longest continuously active CIP editor, as the only editor unaffiliated with any other Cardano business (other than stake pool operation), and as the only editor who is also an SPO, thus providing a unique bridge between the SPO and CIP communities.
• •To ensure the Cardano community receives accurate and transparent information about stake pools, we've made education a primary focus of our online presence. We use our website and social channels to clearly explain what Cardano stake pools do, empowering users to make informed decisions.
• •To share our own operational tools (specifically, the Frankenwallet) and methods (via the Cardano Forum) with the Cardano general and SPO communities, so the community as a whole can benefit from our own improvements.

Can you give us a brief history of your stake pool?

The timeline was as follows:

• •

  August 2020: Single pool COSD established with delegators from our local user group of working nomads from Western countries in a town in the foothills of Himalayan India. In the same month, my concern about securing the pool's pledge led to the development of the Frankenwallet: initially, a long checklist of installation instructions to build a Cardano-tooled standalone environment on a bootable Linux memory stick.

• •

  Late 2020: The Cardano Foundation selects COSD in its first group of ten stake pools re-delegated from ITN, providing a substantial delegation for only four epochs—just enough to demonstrate that our operations and workflow placed us among the highest-performance early stake pools.

• •

  January 2021: First application for IOG stake pool delegation leads to publication of the Frankenwallet as a one-web-page outline. Subsequent repeated applications for Cardano Foundation delegations become checkpoints for improving the Frankenwallet as it eventually develops into an installation e-book. During that same month, I began attending the bi-weekly CIP meetings to promote a CIP draft for direct links (URIs) to stake pools. This work developed into CIP-0013 and gradually made me an informal but regular participant in the evolving CIP process.

• •

  July 2021: CIP editors from the Cardano Foundation, IOG, and Emurgo invite me as the “Community” CIP editor, and I begin regular work on CIPs through maintenance of the repository and supporting developer relations and community outreach for CIP-related topics.

• •

  Into 2022 and onward: Continue to support and improve the CIP process, develop the Frankenwallet and its documentation, and maintain excellence in stake pool operation.

How did the Cardano Foundation delegation impact your stake pool operation?

Mainly, it helped us disprove the common assumption that stake pools need to maintain social media following to ensure delegation. Although multi-pools promoted through YouTube channels have been much more profitable for these SPOs, those that attract delegation by supporting development and documentation initiatives profit more for Cardano as a whole. Specifically, the Cardano Foundation delegation allowed a considerable amount of time to be spent on uplifting Cardano's quality of written documentation and standards.

Also, in mid-2022, my status as a CIP editor led to an invitation to edit and review submissions to the Cardano Foundation Developer Portal. Over our recent quarters of delegation, my frequent contributions to the Developer Portal have been mutually supportive, especially in the Portal's documentation quality and relevance for SPOs.

For the Cardano community, this demonstrates the exciting premise that anyone who supports collective efforts in the area of their own excellence—not necessarily what everyone else is doing—will be able to gain support for their own enterprises in return.

How would you summarize your contributions to the Cardano ecosystem?

I would summarize my contributions in the following way:

• •

  CIP editing and standards process support: From reviewing hundreds of CIP submissions and modifications over the last three years, I have become the most prolific and frequent contributor to the Cardano Foundation CIPs repository. So far, I have worked on 445 CIP pull requests, helping writers and reviewers with all possible issues while connecting participants with developer and organizational support to ensure cooperation and consensus. Ongoing public documentation of my CIP work highlights, which have been posted monthly for the last two years, are viewable here.

• •

  Developer Portal: Thanks to the Cardano Foundation Community Team's suggestion of a cooperative arrangement between stake pool delegation and my committed support of the Developer Portal, I've become its most frequent contributor outside of the Cardano Foundation itself. This includes support for contributors (portfolio curation, technical review, proofreading, and English support for non-native writers) as well as the GitHub workflow itself (repository maintenance issues, contribution templates, software and compatibility issues, and web presentation).

• •

  Frankenwallet: An open-source project to maintain Cardano operational and wallet security by putting Cardano tooling or browser-based wallets on either an air-gapped or an Internet-restricted Linux environment on a removable drive. Initial documentation (soon to be ported to frankenwallet.com on a Netlify site like the Developer Portal) is viewable here.

• •

  Cardano Forum (as well as related Discord channels for Cardano devs and operators): Frequent postings about operations, governance, software and documentation standards, economics and tokenomics, social responsibility, and more.

Are you currently building something that you would like to share?

My work on the COSD pool's signature projects (the CIP process, contributions to the Developer Portal, and the Frankenwallet) is publicly visible, regularly updated, and already described above, so I can talk here about a project I've been contributing to indirectly.

Cardano's rise in blockchain capitalization during the last bull market was coupled with Automated Market Maker (AMM) based trading systems, which caused a vigorous token market to develop along with a sudden increase in liquidity, according to the popular definition.

A growing number of Cardano-focused writers and developers view the Total Value Locked (TVL) metric as a trap since it represents centralized funds outside the reach of end users waiting for trades. Cardano's transaction determinism and unique eUTxO model would support order setup and fulfillment for funds that remain in user possession, but this would require breaking free of the AMM models so heavily capitalized by some well-known Cardano exchanges.

I have been an early advocate of an alternative economic model supporting more decentralized, atomic, peer-to-peer, and (ideally) composable transactions, orders, loans, and options. In addition to reviewing the initial documentation for some of these projects, which continue steadily thanks to Catalyst Funding, such as the Cardano-swaps, Cardano-loans, Cardano-options, or Cardano-aftermarket project.

I take frequent measures to keep CIP review balanced between standards suiting the existing AMMs and whatever approaches would support these new Cardano markets. This new model will help keep control over their funds in the users’ hands, and will eventually support economies with loosely defined trades, contingent orders, and other features that would require centralized architectures on all blockchains except Cardano.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thanks to the Cardano Foundation and its Community Team for giving me and our unconventional pool a chance to strike our own path. I especially look forward to seeing what happens within the next year as Cardano moves ahead with our long-awaited governance model while the industry navigates the influence of traditional finance. I intend to hold onto Cardano's unique vision as long as necessary to see that bright future emerge.

For more on Robert Phair and COSD, visit GitHub, X (formerly Twitter), the CIP summary page, or the stake pool website.

The Cardano Foundation invites all operators to submit the SPO notification form. Completing this form ensures that SPOs receive updates on the newest operator tools, upcoming delegation rounds, on-chain governance developments, and other pertinent information.