Posted on 18th Aug 2020 by the LSS team
LongShortSignal is pleased to announce the launching of our very own Cardano stake pool, listed under the ticker LSS. Despite having our own stake pool related page, I wanted to use this view post to detail some of the systems we have implemented to ensure maximum performance and ROS (return of stake).
We are currently running 4 nodes, one is our block-producing node and it is connected to 3 relays. All 4 nodes are running 24/7 around the clock to ensure maximum uptime in the unlikely event a relay goes offline.
The 3 relays' topology file is dynamically updated every 12 hours to ensure they are connected to the most up-to-date list of 19-20 peer relays throughout the decentralised network. This requires a reboot of the relay nodes, so they are staggered so as not to overlap. Every reboot takes the node approximately 10 minutes before it can sync the blockchain from the /db folder, so even within that 10-minute window, the block-producing node is at the very least connected to 2 relays.
All nodes are running on Google Cloud, using 1 CPU @ 3.75GB including a 50GB Ubuntu 20.04 LTS SSD drive for maximum stability. There is also monitoring alerts set up to allow us to rapidly respond to UpTime readings below 1.
LSS had originally upgraded to version: 1.18.1 however IOHK were concerned about some issues regarding that release, so all stake pools were asked to roll back their nodes to 1.18.0 which we have done (at time of writing).
Below is a screenshot of the 4 nodes in operation. The top left is the block-producing node, and the other three are the relay nodes.
We have pledged 100,000 ADA and the current live stake is 1,326,044 ADA, so with the d parameter dropping down to 0.8 and 0.78 in the next two epochs, we are expecting to outperform with our first block very soon. Should you be willing to stake your ADA with us, you can find us on Daedalus or Yoroi wallets, however if you are after cold-staking, then ADALite is a good solution.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Contact page, or hit us up via social media accounts listed in the footer. A convenient way to track our progress would be to join @PoolToolBot on Telegram and add 'LSS' to receive automatic alerts regarding blocks minted, pool or stake changes.
In summary, we are convinced of Cardano's longer-term utility as the future of the global financial system.
- Albert Ingles
*Update on 21st August 2020: All four nodes have been upgraded to version 1.19.0 which has many improvements, including the /db folder syncing time being reduced from 10 minutes to 15 seconds.