Cardano SPO Column: Fat Matt Staking [FATTY]

This week’s guest on the Cardano SPO Column is a bare metal stake pool that describes itself as reliable, high-performance and committed to offering a secure, stable, and profitable staking service for all delegators: Fat Matt Staking [FATTY].

Last week’s guest was a stake pool operated by Stef from Italy who’s working on a traceability solution.

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.

Cardano SPO, interview with Fat Matt Staking [FATTY]

Hi, welcome to this column. Tell us something about your team, where are you based and what are your backgrounds?

Fat Matt Staking is run by two friends, Matt (aka Fat Matt) & Kyle from Abilene, TX. We met playing hockey several years ago and have been good friends since. Matt runs a business called Fat Matt Roofing, and Kyle flies planes for a living. 

I (Kyle) have a light background in computers, earning a Cisco CNA in college, but pursued aviation instead for a career path. I always loved aviation as a kid, and while I enjoyed my computer studies, I wanted to fulfil my childhood dreams. Matt has been an entrepreneur for most of his life, having success in the past decade with his current company. Matt is involved in a few other projects as well, and loves to share the spirit of entrepreneurism. Together we make a great team of tech plus business minds. 

What’s the path that led you to Cardano and to become Stake Pool Operators (SPO)?

Since I’ve met Matt, his entrepreneurial mind has rubbed off on me quite a lot. I’ve always been searching for something to call my own, but never could find the right thing. I have a wife and kiddo to support, with plans to grow our family, so I couldn’t afford to quit my day job; any business I started would have to be a side hustle.

We’ve both been in crypto for a couple years now, and in Cardano for the majority of that time as well. I was drawn to Cardano after noticing the amount of hate it would get on the r/cc reddit page. Curious, I began digging and researching. It wasn’t long until I decided it was the protocol for me after I staked ADA for the first time. My involvement from there has been constantly expanding. Matt came to the same conclusion rather quickly after we discussed it a few times, especially after the famous whiteboard video.

One night at a local brewery with my brother, I was exploring ideas for a business to call my own as we enjoyed some craft IPAs. Wasn’t long into the discussion when I thought about a stake pool, it made sense, my love of Cardano meeting a business. I did some digging on my phone then slapped the table that night and told myself I’d do it; I’d create my own stake pool.

Naturally, it made sense to bring Matt on as a business partner, and he was fully on-board with the idea as soon as I shared it with him the next day.

What does a day of an SPO look like? What can you tell us about your routine? And what is your mission?

A normal day consists of marketing and some managerial tasks. I try to be active on Twitter for my pool (normally/personally I don’t use social media at all) to stay involved and aware of what is happening in the space. I also have some tasks to get done almost each day for different things between the website, marketing, server admin, growth, etc. 

I usually check in on my servers before each scheduled block, or weekly, whichever is more frequent. Sometimes we hit a dry spell as a small pool and go a couple weeks without a block, so I still make sure the servers are operating smoothly. 

Our mission is to grow Cardano in our local area (Abilene, TX) while contributing to Cardano & decentralization. We both want Cardano to succeed, not just for our own interests, but because the world needs it right now. 

One of the things we are working on is what we call the Fat Matt Charity fund, which is a fund we created to use ADA staking rewards in order to build a near endless charity donation. We donate a portion of our rewards to an ADA wallet, which is staked in our pool; once that wallet grows large enough we’ll be able to donate the staking rewards to charity. 

It’s hard to keep up with all the projects emerging on Cardano. Which are your favourites? What are you most looking forward to?

My personal favourites include: 

• NFTs: Artifct’s Moon, Secret Goat Society, SpaceBudz & Aquafarmers. 
• DeFi: Liqwid, MinSwap & Maladex. 

I’m really looking forward to the first live metaverse on Cardano. I think when we can finally start using our digital land, the space itself will change a lot. I think many Twitter spaces will double in the metaverse and exist there, as well as lots of new projects and opportunities launching within the different metaverses. I can’t wait for the Monolith art gallery to be live on the moon as well, I believe that will be a very special moment that brings high quality art into Cardano. 

Great contribution. Any closing remarks? Where can people stay in touch?

We are doing our best to create a community within FATTY pool that promotes learning and personal growth within the ecosystem. We may be small, but we have big plans for the future and hope we can continue to grow as a stake pool to fulfil them. Matt & I both love teaching, and helping others around us, so if you ever have a question about literally anything, feel free to stop by our discord and ask. The link is on my Twitter profile.

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