Fair ISO application for stake pool operators begins now!

Stake Pool Apply Now: https://forms.gle/qJAELnie2fayt6Z57

IMPORTANT: There is no way for delegators to participate at this point. We are in the pool selection process. This article is intended to give a broad overview of the process and different aspects of the FISO. The selected pools will be announced on July 29th at 9:45 PM UTC.

This model allows projects to raise funds in a decentralized way that enables broad community participation and small SPOs to gain delegation. There are a number of benefits to this model:

• Allowing SPOs to directly benefit from the growth of DeFi and other projects
• Further decentralizing the Cardano network
• Opportunity for SPOs to build trust and reputation as ISO partners

Both small and charity-focused stake pools will be chosen based on criteria such as pool size, fees/margin, and history. The specific criteria will be publicly available for SPO applicants. Delegators who wish to participate in the FISO can find participating pools and details about delegation rewards on our website and social media channels prior to launch.

FISO Stake Pool Operators

All SPOs who are interested in becoming a FISO pool should submit their pool ticker to Minswap by the application deadline. Minswap will use Cardano DB-Sync to pull on-chain data to ensure pools meet the qualifying criteria. The snapshot of on-chain data to evaluate pools will be taken when the application deadline ends. All qualified pools will be assigned a number from 1 to N (N is total applications). After that, the first transaction ID of epoch 281 will be used to seed a Mersenne Twister random number generator. The first 10 numbers generated within the 1 to N range will be the designated delegation pools for our FISO. The next 15 numbers are reserve pools which will open once the first 10 pools have each reached 3 million in delegation.

The stake pools that are chosen will be announced and posted on Minswap’s social channels and website. Each participating FISO stake pool will also have the agreed-upon pool parameters linked to our website. This includes the pool pledge, margin, fixed cost, etc. that can be expected to stay the same for the duration of the FISO. If a stake pool deviates from the agreed-upon parameters in a way that is harmful to delegators Minswap will remove the participating pool from the FISO. Delegators to a pool that has been removed from the FISO will receive MIN token rewards up to but not after the point when we announce its removal on social media channels. It is the responsibility of every staker on Cardano to track the performance of the pools they delegate to.

Participating Stakepool Criteria

• Single-pool operators only.
• Pool size range: 100k — 2 Million.
• Fixed Cost: 340 ADA.
• Minimum Pledge: 20k.
• Margin Range: <5%.
• History of block production: Minimum 1 block produced

If you don’t qualify, don’t get discouraged! This is a prototype, the first FISO. FISO models in the future might include smaller pools or newer pools, or even multi-pool operators.

FISO Delegators

Just before the FISO begins and participating pools are announced, we will take a snapshot of each pool’s stake. After this snapshot, additional ADA delegated to participating pools will be considered part of the FISO and accrue MIN rewards accordingly. Minswap’s FISO is considered a FISO-0%. This means Minswap will not receive any of the ADA rewards that result from FISO participants delegating to designated pools. The purpose of a FISO-0% is not to raise funds. It is to distribute tokens to the community and incentivize MIN token recipients to seed liquidity to our DEX.

Delegator Rewards

ADA Rewards

Since Minswap is running a FISO-0%, participants who stake in our FISO pools will receive 100% of the standard ADA rewards one would expect to earn from staking. The ADA rewards will be the same as pools that have similar parameters to our participating pools.

MIN Rewards

The MIN rewards received by delegators will be split into two types of tokens:

1. MINt tokens: These can be converted to MIN tokens by providing liquidity to the MIN/ADA pool. MINt can be used in place of MIN to provide liquidity for this pair only. This will mint a MINx/ADA LP token that locks for 45 days. MINx rather than MIN indicates a reward multiplier applied on top of the regular MIN/ADA LP staking rewards. After 45 days these can be redeemed for the underlying ADA and regular MIN tokens. The MIN tokens redeemed will be released on a linear 45-day vesting schedule.
2. MIN Tokens: These are the standard MIN tokens.

The amount of each token delegators receive for FISO participation is still being determined. The conversion rate for each ADA staked for one epoch will be announced before staking begins.

Fair Stake Bonus Rewards

This is a flat-rate, one-time reward of MINt + MIN tokens for delegating to the pool with the smallest stake at the time you delegate. This reward can only be earned once, so re-delegating your stake to the smallest pool won’t result in an additional bonus. This reward is intended to evenly distribute delegation across our participating FISO pools.

Application Timeline

• July 16th to 26th 4 PM UTC: Stake pool apply
• 26th 4 PM UTC: Take a snapshot of all eligible applicants for the lottery.
• 26th 4 PM UTC to 29th 9:45 PM UTC: Test and QA lottery system.
• 29th 9:45 PM UTC: The beginning of epoch 281, the first transaction ID of this epoch will be used as the seed for the lottery.

The FISO will run for 20 epochs. There will be a bonus that rewards delegates based on the number of epochs staked. All rewards earned by stakers will be claimable by participating wallets after the last epoch of the FISO. As we are not raising money from this FISO and have taken no outside funding, participants claiming rewards will need to send 2 ADA. We will send back the change of 1.66 ADA, as there is a 0.17 transaction fee each way. Also, the minimum native token transaction size of 1.4–1.6 ADA led us to choose 2 ADA.

We look forward to your participation! As this is a new, experiential model we look forward to your feedback. Questions, comments, and concerns that can help us improve and iterate are appreciated and encouraged.