Cardano SPO Column: Vetspool [VETS]

This week’s guest on the Cardano SPO Column is a stake pool operated by a US Navy Veteran supporting those who served and their families: Vetspool [VETS].

Last week’s guest was a stake pool giving its delegators discounts when buying ADA at any of the Boinnex Crypto ATMs.

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 Vetspool [VETS]

Hi, welcome to this column. Tell us something about yourself, where are you based and what is your background?

Thanks for asking. My name is Nyakeh, born in Liberia, raised in Sierra Leone and Ghana. I moved to the US as a teenager in early 2002 and decided to join the US Armed Forces. 

I served in the US Navy from 2002 to 2007 as a hospital corpsman and spent most of my time with the marines. Deployed to the Al Anbar province in Iraq between 05-06. 

After an honorable discharge, I pursued pharmacy and graduated from Lipscomb University with a doctorate in pharmacy and a masters in healthcare informatics. 

I am an avid sports fan. I root for FC Barcelona, New England Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins, Predators, Houston Rockets. I love playing jazz piano and some of my favorite soul and R&B music. 

I currently work as a clinical pharmacist in managed care. Currently based in Nashville, TN

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

I learned about blockchain and crypto in late 2017. Like many, I entered the markets at the top without any prior knowledge and trying to consume lots of information at once. 

The bear markets ensued soon after, which enabled to take a step back and learn the basics about Bitcoin and crypto as well as technical and fundamental analysis.

Found out about Cardano around the same time and came across Charles Hoskinson’s whiteboard video and got hooked on the vision of the organization. 

I decided to get a better understanding of networking, security, and cryptography,  therefore I picked up a security+ textbook and read it. 

I learned different topics ranging from the different types of malicious attacks and how to prevent them, different protocols, ports, and other pertinent topics that came in handy while setting up my stake pool. 

I started staking with SWAG from inception and was inspired to spin up my own pool after a little over a year and just in time for smart contracts. 

I took the Stake Pool School five-day course to help me set up my stake pool. Alex from CHRTY pool provided further assistance to get my pool up and running. 

Please tell us more about your initiatives to support US veterans and their families.

Having worked in different VA healthcare facilities, I saw first hand the struggles our veterans undergo upon discharge and some end up coming back because they had no other option. 

Therefore, what better way to contribute to the veterans community than to donate a portion of the pool operator proceeds to alpha omega veterans services to help vets integrate back into society. 

I also choose to donate a portion of the pool operator rewards to United way of Greater Nashville to help children get a better start at a bright future. As the stake pool grows, other initiatives would be added to the donations list. 

As a Clinical Pharmacist, how can the integration of blockchain technology help the medical sector? Is there anything in particular you are looking forward to?

This is a broad question as there are many blockchain use cases in the medical sector ranging from medication track and trace, securing patient records, genomics and many more. 

Imagine a world where pertinent medical information can be obtained immediately using blockchain technology no matter your location. The medical sector is always slow to adopt new tech but it’s one aspect of blockchain use cases I am really looking forward to

Thank you kindly for your time. Any final words? Where can people find you?

Try to learn at least one to two new skills a year to help you grow personally and professionally. 

To find out more about VETS stake pool, please visit our website and our Telegram group where we talk about anything. 

I can also be reached on Twitter. 

Please consider staking with VETS. Thank you so much for your time. 

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

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