Cardano SPO Column: Kaizen Crypto Stake Pool [KAIZN]

This week’s guest on the Cardano SPO Column is a stake pool operator who’s a Cardano content creator with his own Youtube channel and operates 4 stake pools: Kaizen Crypto Stake Pool [KAIZN].

Last week’s guest was a stake pool operator who stumbled upon Cardano during the bull run of 2017 and has been involved in the community ever since.

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 Column, interview with Kaizen Crypto Stake Pool [KAIZN]

Hi, thanks for your time. Tell us something about yourself, where are you based and what is your background?

Hi, thanks for having me! My name is Pritesh. I’m a Cardano Content creator and Stake Pool Operator (SPO). 

I have been involved in Cardano since 2017 and began creating youtube content in 2019.

I’m based in Georgia, United States and have a background in IT and social media marketing. 

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

I heard about crypto back in 2013 and passed it off as a scam. Then in 2017, I saw Bitcoin making headlines as it hit record highs consistently each month. That’s when I decided to learn more about crypto. 

Like many people, I stumbled across the iconic Charles Whiteboard video. That was my lightbulb moment! I began searching for content and found Rick and Phillipe. I got involved by creating my own channel as well. 

During the early days, I wanted to build a stakepool using a Raspberry Pi and document that on the channel. That’s how I got my start during the ITN. Then when Shelley went live on mainnet, I decided to take things to the next level and went with enterprise grade hardware for our stakepools. We now have a thriving community and loyal delegators that have been supporting our team for the long run! 

Besides [KAIZN] you’re also running [KRSNA], [KRONO] and [KOBE], can you tell us more? And what are your thoughts on the debate within the Cardano Community about multi-pools?

I operate 4 stake pools on Cardano. KAIZN, KRSNA, KRONO, and KOBE. I’m very grateful to be able to contribute to various causes by operating these pools. 

For instance, my owner’s rewards from the KRSNA pool are donated to help those in need. Recently, I flew to Sri Lanka to give food to families struggling with poverty. It was a profoundly impactful experience that enhanced my perspective on life. 

The single pool / multi pool debate will continue for the foreseeable future on Cardano. In my opinion, decentralisation of the network is a spectrum. We have passionate single pools who advocate for decentralisation, however, their infrastructure is hosted on the cloud. Is this any more decentralised than a pool operator who runs several pools, but hosts the infrastructure in multiple geo locations on bare metal? 

It’s an ongoing debate. I believe that incentives will align behaviour, and currently there are many protocol changes that are being proposed. As a public face of the community, I’ve dealt with fallout from having multiple pools. I believe that changes need to be made at a protocol level to encourage a healthier debate.  

What excites you about the future of Cardano? Do you have any upcoming projects you’re looking forward to? What use cases do you think will help us reach mass adoption?

I’m excited about a lot of things coming up for Cardano! Some of the projects include Liqwid Finance, Project NEWM, World Mobile, Cornucopias, Indigo Protocol and so many others!

My team is also building several projects including Lovelace Saga, Cardano Calendar, and I’m even putting together a Cardano 101 course to help newcomers! 

Mass adoption will come from applications that make use of blockchain without users knowing. Some examples include streaming royalties for music, DIDs with Atala Prism, or even decentralised telecoms.

Amazing. Any final thoughts? Where can people follow you?

Thanks so much for the opportunity to share some thoughts! The future is bright and I’m very excited to be on this journey with the most amazing community. 

Please feel free to follow my work on Youtube and Twitter.

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