Cardano’s Shelley testnet has beaten other opponents with their impressive staking pools

By Polkadot News 12/17/19 1:14 PM

Cardano, one of the biggest proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain projects, celebrated the launch of the Shelley Incentivized testnet, as it debuted with hundreds of pools and over 2.6 billion ADA staked. Cardano’s Shelley has entered the stage of the Incentivized Testnet network on Dec. 13.

Cardano’s Shelly has been rising after being incentivized by testnet

After months of anticipation, the incentivized testnet for the Shelley era of Cardano finally went live. With a week-long test run between a trial balance check and the real network snapshot, the company and its team were focused on creating a solid foundation for testing out the network’s staking protocol.

cardanos-shelly-testnet-has-beaten-other-opponents-with-their-impressive-staking-pools — Image via Coinspace

Charles Hoskinson, the CEO of Input-Output Hong Kong (IOHK), Cardano’s parent company, said that the team hopes the incentivized network’s 1000 pool hosting capability will be fulfilled. And while the number might have sounded a bit too ambitious at the time, the incentivized testnet for Shelly debuted with metrics that show that it’s not just possible, but closer than ever.

Helmed by Charles Hoskinson, Cardano also released the Daedalus Rewards wallet that allows its users to stake ADA tokens. With the most recent wallet launch, ADA holders are now able to earn rewards by delegating their tokens or acting as a stake pool operator (the latter is much more profitable). These rewards will become spendable after the completion of the testnet. According to the company’s rewards calculator, delegating 100,000 ADA, worth just under $3,600 at press time, would earn the user around 7.1 percent, or around $257, annually. Cardano could surpass some of its competitors with its hefty staking rewards.

As the testnet progresses, the ranking of the staking pools won’t be based solely on their performance, as it will transition to a desirability-based ranking. That means that it won’t be long before a combination of cost, margin, pledged stake, and performance will determine the desirability of a staking pool.

By implementing such an incentive mechanism, Cardano moves towards decentralizing the network, which appears to be the main purpose of the Shelley era.

Cardano beats Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, and Tron by number of staking pools

According to IOHK, less than 24 hours after the staking pool setup was enabled on the incentivized testnet, more than 120 pools were onboard. However, that number more than doubled since Dec. 15, as data from ADAPools has shown that there are 281 staking pools at press time. If the number of pools keeps its growth rate, the network could reach its equilibrium with 1000 pools sooner than expected.

There are over 250 pools ready in #Cardano #Shelley #testnet. They all have a right to create a new block.

Currently, it is not more than 10 in PoW #Bitcoin and #Ethereum. It is only 21 and 26 in DPoS #EOS and #Tron.

It is the future of decentralization! pic.twitter.com/MjumHQH0zo

— cardanians.io (@Cardanians_io) December 16, 2019

While still in its infancy, the Shelley era of Cardano show has the potential to outperform its older and more established PoS competitors. According to a tweet from Cardanians, a community-led Cardano news outlet, the Shelley incentivized testnet boasts 10 times more staking pools than both EOS and Tron. Bitcoin and Ethereum both have around 10 pools according to the tweet, which is 28 times less than what Shelley onboarded in just two days.

According to data from PoolTool, there is currently more than 2.6 billion ADA staked on the incentivized testnet for Shelley. With a circulating supply of around 25.9 billion, that means around 10 percent of all available ADA is currently staked on the testnet. That number looks even more impressive when compared to Tron, which is a circulating supply of 66.7 billion and 8 billion TRX staked, only around 12 percent of the available tokens are staked.

Running an entire stake pool is much more profitable according to the calculator. Delegating the same amount of ADA, while retaining 1 percent of the total stake in the pool and taking 10 percent of the rewards as an operator, could earn the pool more than 90 percent of its stake annually.

The testnet currently has 281 staking pools, which is 10 times more than EOS’s 21 and Tron’s 26. That said, Cardano has already greatly surpassed Tron and EOS, the main delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) networks, by the number of staking pools.