What are the Top K Pools?

The Top K Pools are the top 500 pledged Cardano stake pools. These pools are considered the most desirable by the network because they create competition at the protocol level that decentralizes the network and increase the Minimum Attack Vector (MAV).

What is k?

k is the Cardano network parameter which determines the number of stake pools that can be saturated by the circulating supply of Ada. k is currently 500 but is likely to increase in the future. Therefore, 500 stake pools can be saturated. If a pool is oversaturated, rewards are reduced.

What is pledge?

Pledge represents the stake pool operator’s level of ownership, or stake, in the network. It is often referred to as the operator's "skin in the game". Pledging Ada to a pool is financially incentivized. The more Ada an operator pledges to their pool, the higher the potential rewards the pool's delegators can earn.

Why do these parameters matter?

Pledge incentives and the k saturation limit work together to create a more decentralized network by creating competition for pledge, thus discouraging pool splitting and sybil behavior.

Pool splitting is when an SPO creates additional pools and distributes their pledge from the original pool to the new pools.

Sybil behavior is when a self-proclaimed single pool operator splits or creates many pools using anonymous identities to avoid reputation damage.

All sybil operators are multipool operators but not all multipool operators are sybil operators.

Why are multipools included in the list?

A bias against pools with high pledge, including known multipools, is a bias for unknown sybil multipools. Known multipools are detectable and allow delegators to choose a different pool. Sybil multipools pools do not offer that same courtesy. This is why staking to pools with high pledge is important. You cannot trust any SPO, single or multi, to be good actors but you can absolutely verify a pool's pledge. Don't trust, verify.

How do I choose a pool?

Start at the top of the list and work your way down. Find pools that have a fee structure you are comfortable with and check to see if they are saturated. Do not be afraid of a pool that is close to saturation. A saturated pool is a sustainable pool and sustainable pools make for a sustainable blockchain.

Top K Pools List

Pools in the Top K Pools list must meet their declared pledge. The pools are sorted by pledge and then stake in descending order. The higher the pledge, the higher the K-Rank. If pools have matching pledge, the pools with more stake are ranked higher. This allows the market, or the vote of the delegators, to have a say in the ranking of the pools.

Twitter Bot

The twitter bot, @topkpools, posts a tweet when a pool in the Top K Pools list gains at least 100K Ada stake from a pool with less pledge than the kth pledged pool.

As a delegator in a decentralized Proof of Stake blockchain, it is your responsibility to monitor your pool’s returns, performance, saturation levels, fees, and retirement status. Do not "set it and forget it". Be vigilant of pool and network parameter changes that might affect your rewards. Your Ada is never locked and you are free to stake with any pool of your choosing at any time for any reason.