We wanted to find out what are the best ADA staking pools that balance providing premium ROS and enabling sustainability impact.

After some work, we came up with the following question and set out to find its answer: “What is the best pool for me to stake my ADA, based on the amount of ADA I wish to stake, my investment timeframe, and expected return, as well as the causes I wish to support?”

1. We refined the question - what does “the best pool” mean?

2. We created a list of ~50 staking pools that relate to sustainability (or self-identify as “being green”) from various resources (e.g., Adafolio, CNC, Pools.io, Explorer, and more).

3. We evaluated each pool through two primary lenses: Cardano-related performance and sustainability.

4. We picked out the most relevant tools and divided them into two groups: 1)the best all-around pools that we believe are an excellent choice for anyone and 2)pools that can be great choices depending on your situation.

See the ‘Methodology Deep Dive’ section for more information

In this section, we’ll cover a handful of stellar pools that define the gold standard for performance, impact, and transparency and, in our view, are an excellent option for any investor.

In the table below, you can see additional categories:

• Great pools for large stakers - these are pools that do phenomenal work but currently have small staked amounts in them. This means that rewards and support for charities/NGOs will be less frequent. Ensuring sustainable growth, action and planning require a predictable flow of capital, and as such, these pools did not make it to the stellar pools group.

• Additional pools - the pools in this group vary by their performance and sustainability impact - some are only one fix away from becoming stellar (for example, increased transparency by providing donation proofs or adding another relay so the pool has redundancy), while other pools have more work ahead of them to become stellar.

• Renewable Energy Pools - these are pools that currently only focus on being green by running on renewable energy and do not donate to sustainability organizations/NGOs.

• More Info Needed Pools - we did not have enough information to evaluate the pool (typically, since they do not have a website at the moment).

Our personal favorite, and where we are currently staking our ADA, is the CardanoCafe group (which includes CAFE, CAFE2, and CAFE3). We love this group of pools because of its transparency and high level of sustainability reporting, track record, pool sizes (which are able to generate consistent donations), and the team’s level of communication and commitment. Furthermore, come from the operator’s rewards, and support a variety of causes in multiple countries.

Something that caught our eye: The Cafe incentivizes investors to balance the staked amounts across the pools by imposing a 1% operator fee on the biggest pool (CAFE) and committing to increase its impact if staked amounts reach a threshold on CAFE2. These policies can potentially lead to more consistent rewards and higher ROS for the group as a whole.

A note about Cardano Cafe being a group of pools - Since the pools are run by a single entity, we evaluated this effect on decentralization. We believe that the negative effect on decentralization is relatively small since the pools’ combined stake is ~52m ADA, which is less than a single fully saturated pool. In addition, a group of 3 pools is a small drop in the ocean of (currently) ~3,200 pools.

• Even if/when all of the Cafe’s pools are fully saturated, they will only account for ~0.5% of the total staked value on the Cardano network.

An environmentally oriented pool with high staked amounts that ensure consistent ROS for delegators and donations to charities.

• Something that caught our eye: Great sustainability reporting practices and one of the first CNC members.

An Australian pool with a good track record and focus on environmental and animal welfare projects Downunder. This is a smaller pool (currently ~ 1m ADA) which means there is less probability they will be chosen to create blocks, and therefore, rewards are less frequent.

• Something that caught our eye: we love the fact that the pool is putting its funds to use in its geography (Australia and NZ).

A donation-oriented pool (50% of pool rewards are donated!) with a great track record and excellent transparency. The current staked amount allows for consistent production of a few blocks each epoch (on average) - however, it generates fewer rewards compared to bigger pools.

• Something that caught our eye: the pool incorporates community votes to select which projects it will donate to

• What’s missing? The pool currently has only 1 active relay, which provides no redundancy and means that if something happens to it, the pool becomes inactive.

A German pool by climate activists that has been around for a while and provides excellent transparency. Their current staked amount allows them to provide small donations consistently.

• Something that caught our eye: a father-and-son operation that is more professional than most pools we’ve evaluated and with genuine green impact.

• What’s missing? The pool currently has only 1 active relay, which provides no redundancy and means that if something happens to it, the pool becomes inactive.

See the full list here - link (the embedded iFrame doesn’t work on Mirror)

https://view.monday.com/3445653827-cbd4b52c5353dc8653450842a51c42bd?r=use1

The question - what is the best pool to stake my ADA? Is too broad, or to paraphrase Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland: “Would you tell me, please, to which pool I ought to delegate my ADA”? Asked Alice, “Well, that depends a good deal on what you want to get while staking ADA,” said the Cat.

A more relevant question can be, “What is the best pool for me to stake my ADA, based on (1)the amount of ADA I wish to stake, (2)my investment timeframe, and (3)expected return, as well as (4)the causes I wish to support?” So let’s break it down:

• (1) How should the amount I wish to stake affect my choice?

  • To get consistent rewards, you want to invest in pools that (after your delegation) will have at least 10m ADA. That means that if you have a few million ADA to invest, you can choose smaller pools to delegate to - this will also help the pool stabilize and support network decentralization. Why?

    • The more is staked in a pool, the more blocks it will potentially produce (as long as its operating correctly and does not reach saturation).

    • We can approximately derive from Cardano’s current staking mechanism that, statistically, for a pool to produce a block during an epoch, it should have at least ~1m ADA staked (of course, pools with less ADA can still generate blocks, it is just less likely).

    • Furthermore, we can derive that for a pool to provide delegators with competitive and consistent rewards; it should have at least between ~11m ADA to ~14m ADA.

• (2) How should my delegation timeframe affect my choice?

  • If you are delegating for the long run, you can choose smaller pools since, over time, ROS should average out across pools that perform similarly.

  • If you are delegating for the short term, you should consider delegating to a bigger pool (+12m ADA staked and even those who are closer to saturation) since these pools will give more frequent rewards.

    • Since smaller pools tend to give rewards less frequently - but these rewards are higher, and bigger pools tend to give more frequent rewards - but these are lower.

• (3,4) How should my expected return and the charities the donations go to affect my choice?

  • Since most mission-driven pools will offer ~4% ROS, if you find a reputable pool that supports causes that you like - go for it. If you are trying to get the most bang for ADA, you’ll need to dive deeper as it gets a bit more complicated than that:

    • Each pool defines for itself what revenue stream funds its donations (e.g., the operator’s rewards, the delegator’s rewards, or both).

Current and past block production - a pool that rarely generates blocks will not be able to provide consistent rewards. This, in turn, will make it harder for the pool to survive, attract investors/delegators and generate a steady stream of funding/donations to a charity/cause.

Redundancy and resilience - the more relays a pool has, the greater the likelihood it will maintain high up-time and continue to operate even as some of its infrastructure is down.

Staked amount - a pool needs to generate rewards to satisfy its delegators and support its mission. Pools that generate less than one block on average are more likely to see fluctuations in the staked amount and less consistent donations.

“Blockchain Etiquette” - Pools that have “skin in the game” and stake some of its own funds (aka pledge) received higher scores. In addition, to further decentralization, pool groups with more than 1%* of the Cardano network share were not evaluated.

*This value is based on an educated guess, research, and current understanding of Cardano’s resilience. However, the value is not the result of deep technical analysis - we’d love to hear from those who are knowledgeable on the matter.

Transparency and accountability - clear and consistent statements on the pool’s sustainability actions and data to support these claims.

• For example - “our pool donates x% from our operator rewards to charity every month.” → followed by data showing the rewards generated each epoch and proof of those donations (e.g., a receipt or an on-chain transaction record)

Genuine and measurable impact on sustainability - while every action counts, we prioritized pools that donated to established organizations that have a direct and quantifiable impact on sustainability.

Consistency - we prioritized pools that donated at the frequency they committed to rather than sporadic donations (regardless of their commitments).

Sentiment and sustainability-related proficiency - this aspect is a bit more abstract, yet some questions include: “Are the donations coming from the operator’s rewards, delegator’s rewards, or both?”, “Are the operators also donating to causes individually?” and “are the operators vocal about sustainability on Twitter, and are they part of a larger sustainability organization?” etc.

• Investors who are interested in staking their assets in these pools are looking for pools that focus more on the triple-bottom-line (Planet, People, and profit). As such, these investors are not optimizing for the greatest financial return, but rather monetary gain is one of the considerations in their decision-making process.

• Readers have some blockchain knowledge and know how to stake ADA.

Thank you for reading our research! If you find mistakes in our work, please reach out and let us know.

We wanted to find out what are the best ADA staking pools that balance providing premium ROS and enabling sustainability impact.

After some work, we came up with the following question and set out to find its answer: “What is the best pool for me to stake my ADA, based on the amount of ADA I wish to stake, my investment timeframe, and expected return, as well as the causes I wish to support?”

1. We refined the question - what does “the best pool” mean?

2. We created a list of ~50 staking pools that relate to sustainability (or self-identify as “being green”) from various resources (e.g., Adafolio, CNC, Pools.io, Explorer, and more).

3. We evaluated each pool through two primary lenses: Cardano-related performance and sustainability.

4. We picked out the most relevant tools and divided them into two groups: 1)the best all-around pools that we believe are an excellent choice for anyone and 2)pools that can be great choices depending on your situation.

See the ‘Methodology Deep Dive’ section for more information

In this section, we’ll cover a handful of stellar pools that define the gold standard for performance, impact, and transparency and, in our view, are an excellent option for any investor.

In the table below, you can see additional categories:

• Great pools for large stakers - these are pools that do phenomenal work but currently have small staked amounts in them. This means that rewards and support for charities/NGOs will be less frequent. Ensuring sustainable growth, action and planning require a predictable flow of capital, and as such, these pools did not make it to the stellar pools group.

• Additional pools - the pools in this group vary by their performance and sustainability impact - some are only one fix away from becoming stellar (for example, increased transparency by providing donation proofs or adding another relay so the pool has redundancy), while other pools have more work ahead of them to become stellar.

• Renewable Energy Pools - these are pools that currently only focus on being green by running on renewable energy and do not donate to sustainability organizations/NGOs.

• More Info Needed Pools - we did not have enough information to evaluate the pool (typically, since they do not have a website at the moment).

Our personal favorite, and where we are currently staking our ADA, is the CardanoCafe group (which includes CAFE, CAFE2, and CAFE3). We love this group of pools because of its transparency and high level of sustainability reporting, track record, pool sizes (which are able to generate consistent donations), and the team’s level of communication and commitment. Furthermore, come from the operator’s rewards, and support a variety of causes in multiple countries.

Something that caught our eye: The Cafe incentivizes investors to balance the staked amounts across the pools by imposing a 1% operator fee on the biggest pool (CAFE) and committing to increase its impact if staked amounts reach a threshold on CAFE2. These policies can potentially lead to more consistent rewards and higher ROS for the group as a whole.

A note about Cardano Cafe being a group of pools - Since the pools are run by a single entity, we evaluated this effect on decentralization. We believe that the negative effect on decentralization is relatively small since the pools’ combined stake is ~52m ADA, which is less than a single fully saturated pool. In addition, a group of 3 pools is a small drop in the ocean of (currently) ~3,200 pools.

• Even if/when all of the Cafe’s pools are fully saturated, they will only account for ~0.5% of the total staked value on the Cardano network.

An environmentally oriented pool with high staked amounts that ensure consistent ROS for delegators and donations to charities.

• Something that caught our eye: Great sustainability reporting practices and one of the first CNC members.

An Australian pool with a good track record and focus on environmental and animal welfare projects Downunder. This is a smaller pool (currently ~ 1m ADA) which means there is less probability they will be chosen to create blocks, and therefore, rewards are less frequent.

• Something that caught our eye: we love the fact that the pool is putting its funds to use in its geography (Australia and NZ).

A donation-oriented pool (50% of pool rewards are donated!) with a great track record and excellent transparency. The current staked amount allows for consistent production of a few blocks each epoch (on average) - however, it generates fewer rewards compared to bigger pools.

• Something that caught our eye: the pool incorporates community votes to select which projects it will donate to

• What’s missing? The pool currently has only 1 active relay, which provides no redundancy and means that if something happens to it, the pool becomes inactive.

A German pool by climate activists that has been around for a while and provides excellent transparency. Their current staked amount allows them to provide small donations consistently.

• Something that caught our eye: a father-and-son operation that is more professional than most pools we’ve evaluated and with genuine green impact.

• What’s missing? The pool currently has only 1 active relay, which provides no redundancy and means that if something happens to it, the pool becomes inactive.

See the full list here - link (the embedded iFrame doesn’t work on Mirror)

https://view.monday.com/3445653827-cbd4b52c5353dc8653450842a51c42bd?r=use1

The question - what is the best pool to stake my ADA? Is too broad, or to paraphrase Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland: “Would you tell me, please, to which pool I ought to delegate my ADA”? Asked Alice, “Well, that depends a good deal on what you want to get while staking ADA,” said the Cat.

A more relevant question can be, “What is the best pool for me to stake my ADA, based on (1)the amount of ADA I wish to stake, (2)my investment timeframe, and (3)expected return, as well as (4)the causes I wish to support?” So let’s break it down:

• (1) How should the amount I wish to stake affect my choice?

  • To get consistent rewards, you want to invest in pools that (after your delegation) will have at least 10m ADA. That means that if you have a few million ADA to invest, you can choose smaller pools to delegate to - this will also help the pool stabilize and support network decentralization. Why?

    • The more is staked in a pool, the more blocks it will potentially produce (as long as its operating correctly and does not reach saturation).

    • We can approximately derive from Cardano’s current staking mechanism that, statistically, for a pool to produce a block during an epoch, it should have at least ~1m ADA staked (of course, pools with less ADA can still generate blocks, it is just less likely).

    • Furthermore, we can derive that for a pool to provide delegators with competitive and consistent rewards; it should have at least between ~11m ADA to ~14m ADA.

• (2) How should my delegation timeframe affect my choice?

  • If you are delegating for the long run, you can choose smaller pools since, over time, ROS should average out across pools that perform similarly.

  • If you are delegating for the short term, you should consider delegating to a bigger pool (+12m ADA staked and even those who are closer to saturation) since these pools will give more frequent rewards.

    • Since smaller pools tend to give rewards less frequently - but these rewards are higher, and bigger pools tend to give more frequent rewards - but these are lower.

• (3,4) How should my expected return and the charities the donations go to affect my choice?

  • Since most mission-driven pools will offer ~4% ROS, if you find a reputable pool that supports causes that you like - go for it. If you are trying to get the most bang for ADA, you’ll need to dive deeper as it gets a bit more complicated than that:

    • Each pool defines for itself what revenue stream funds its donations (e.g., the operator’s rewards, the delegator’s rewards, or both).

Current and past block production - a pool that rarely generates blocks will not be able to provide consistent rewards. This, in turn, will make it harder for the pool to survive, attract investors/delegators and generate a steady stream of funding/donations to a charity/cause.

Redundancy and resilience - the more relays a pool has, the greater the likelihood it will maintain high up-time and continue to operate even as some of its infrastructure is down.

Staked amount - a pool needs to generate rewards to satisfy its delegators and support its mission. Pools that generate less than one block on average are more likely to see fluctuations in the staked amount and less consistent donations.

“Blockchain Etiquette” - Pools that have “skin in the game” and stake some of its own funds (aka pledge) received higher scores. In addition, to further decentralization, pool groups with more than 1%* of the Cardano network share were not evaluated.

*This value is based on an educated guess, research, and current understanding of Cardano’s resilience. However, the value is not the result of deep technical analysis - we’d love to hear from those who are knowledgeable on the matter.

Transparency and accountability - clear and consistent statements on the pool’s sustainability actions and data to support these claims.

• For example - “our pool donates x% from our operator rewards to charity every month.” → followed by data showing the rewards generated each epoch and proof of those donations (e.g., a receipt or an on-chain transaction record)

Genuine and measurable impact on sustainability - while every action counts, we prioritized pools that donated to established organizations that have a direct and quantifiable impact on sustainability.

Consistency - we prioritized pools that donated at the frequency they committed to rather than sporadic donations (regardless of their commitments).

Sentiment and sustainability-related proficiency - this aspect is a bit more abstract, yet some questions include: “Are the donations coming from the operator’s rewards, delegator’s rewards, or both?”, “Are the operators also donating to causes individually?” and “are the operators vocal about sustainability on Twitter, and are they part of a larger sustainability organization?” etc.

• Investors who are interested in staking their assets in these pools are looking for pools that focus more on the triple-bottom-line (Planet, People, and profit). As such, these investors are not optimizing for the greatest financial return, but rather monetary gain is one of the considerations in their decision-making process.

• Readers have some blockchain knowledge and know how to stake ADA.

Thank you for reading our research! If you find mistakes in our work, please reach out and let us know.