HomeBlockchainInterviewCardano SPO Column: OZZY-POOL (OZZY)

Cardano SPO Column: OZZY-POOL (OZZY)

This week on the Cardano SPO Column we have a stake pool operated by a family, motivated by their willingness to contribute to the decentralization of the network as well as donating part of the revenue to Cancer Research: OZZY-POOL [OZZY].

Last week’s guest was a Stake Pool Operator who’s driven by the mission of supporting psychedelic research by donating part of the revenue to related organizations.

This initiative is a point of reference for everything Cardano and every week or two we will invite a 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.

Hi, thanks for being here. Tell us a bit about your family, where are you from and what are your backgrounds?

Thank you for having us. Ozzy pool is run by myself Chris and my partner Becca, we live in Milton Keynes in the UK and have three young children together who keep us active.

My brother Steven is also a part of the OZZY pool team and carries out a lot of the technical tasks involved with running a pool. It’s always handy having a family member who’s a software engineer.

Becca is a support worker for adults with learning disabilities which suits her caring personality down to a tee.

I myself am a senior network operations analyst for a payment platform provider and so love to dive into the technicals of Cardano’s transaction speeds and quantities.

What fascinates you about Cardano and how did you end up operating a stake pool?

Like a lot of the community, I stumbled upon Cardano after first investing in the stock market. Due to the global pandemic, I was looking at alternative ways to invest and crypto investments looked like they had great potential.

After months of research, I realised that there was a lot more behind cryptocurrency and the ecosystems that are being developed. As someone who spends their days in a data center surrounded by payments I understood the potential global utility of the Cardano ecosystem. It has been developed with strong foundations that are equipped for scalability, which is needed in our ever-changing world.

As a family who strongly believes in fundraising and helping others I soon came to understand that not only did Cardano have the technical aspects, but also the community to go with it. The principles that the ecosystem has been developed around is that of equality and inclusion. All of these principles align with our own as a family. Once we realised we could combine this ecosystem with raising money for Cancer Research, we decided it was a no-brainer and after a little persuading, my brother and I started up the pool.

What does the daily routine of an SPO look like? There are so many stake pools to choose from, what makes you stand out from the rest?

Unfortunately, it’s not just the glitz and glam that some people may think. A lot of time goes into teaching new members of the community, whether it be helping them understand the concept of staking or even just how to set up a wallet in preparation for staking.

The marketing side of running a pool does tend to outweigh the technical time spent running the nodes. That aside we are lucky to have Steven monitoring the nodes 24/7 365 days a year.

We are a mission driven pool that’s dedicated to donating and fundraising for cancer research. We do this by donating a proportion of our personal rewards so that it doesn’t impact any delegators’ rewards. It’s a double win for our delegators, gaining monetary rewards along with the satisfaction of helping others.

The Cardano Monthly Update took place on Thursday 27/05, what has excited you the most out of the things mentioned?

Where to start, after watching the monthly Update I believe even more so that the opportunities for Cardano are endless once we enter the Alonzo era. I’m very excited about the progression of P2P network accessibility that will soon be available on the network. I think Marlowe will change the game, bringing a lot of new everyday users into the space with its user-friendly interface, this will help them interact with the blockchain without even realising they are.

Smart contracts will enable developers to completely change the dynamic of our ecosystem and Defi will explode, offering those without credit accessibility a way of gaining it, which in turn will help developing countries evolve faster and give them access to the latest technologies.

Also I was impressed with how easy the  ERC-20 converter works from a holder’s perspective. The fact that someone holding AGI tokens can convert them from their MetaMask wallet into native Cardano AGI tokens in a Cardano wallet is incredible.

Many thanks for the contribution. Any additional comments? Where can people follow you?

If anyone has any questions, complex or not, then please do reach out to Becca or me. We are contactable on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Please help us raise as much as we can for Cancer Research, together we can make a huge difference. The charity is very close to our hearts as my father Philip Osborne, nickname OZZY passed away two years ago with the disease. I know for a fact that even though he still passed away he was thankful for the chance to be involved with many clinical trials that can potentially save future lives.

Thank you again for having us and we look forward to welcoming you all to the OZZY family.

 

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of the SPOs are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Cardano Foundation or IOHK.

Patryk Karter
Patryk Karter
Passionate about new technologies, nutrition, and philosophy, Patryk spends his days exploring the infinite universe of the web. He moved to London after living most of his life in Rome. He starts studying Computer Science at King's College of London but soon understands that it is not his path, instead he decides to invest his time and money in blockchain technology and in the meantime takes university courses available on the web. Now he is a trader and works as a freelancer.
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