FAQ - Socean

Socean
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FAQ
What is Socean?
Socean (SO—shen, rhymes with Ocean) is a stake pool running on the Solana blockchain.
What is a stake pool?
A stake pool allows for the pooling of funds (SOL) to be managed on the user’s behalf and delegated to a group of validators. The pool issues depositors a token (scnSOL) that represents their ownership in the pool. 
Socean is an algorithmic stake pool, meaning it makes staking decisions via transparent logic based on objective data. We intend for Socean to become fully autonomous in the future, relying only on independently-verifiable oracle data to make its decisions.
See the Solana Foundation's official announcement on stake pools for more details.
Why should I stake with a stake pool?
Unlock your stake’s full potential. Staked SOL is immobile. Conversely, stake pool tokens (representing ownership of staked SOL) are fungible. A stake pool token lets you earn staking rewards, while using it to lend, borrow and provide liquidity -- increasing your total earnings. Find out more about DeFi usage here.
Decrease hassle and increase stake diversification. Most stakers today manually delegate stake to one or two validators. However, even keeping track of that is a chore, while switching stake from validator to validator requires waiting till the epoch boundary. A stake pool monitors and redelegates stake dynamically, and handles the redelegation process in a way that minimises loss of rewards. Socean also provides monitoring tools to track validator and pool performance and staking rewards.
Protect the network. Staking SOL in a stake pool helps decentralize the network by systematically spreading the staked SOL across a larger number of validators. Greater stake distribution in turn makes the network harder to attack
Why should I stake with Socean?
Meritocratic, transparent delegation strategy. We've thought a lot about our delegation strategy, which maximises APY for stakers while promoting network health. We have published the full details of our delegation strategy in our whitepaper. Unlike other stake pools, we don't make backroom deals, or have a preferred set of validators: any validator can and will be selected by our delegation algorithm as long as it demonstrates good performance.
Strong expertise. Our team members actively contribute to core development in the Solana runtime, run a mainnet validator, and participate in a variety of Solana ecosystem projects. We've integrated security and accessibility features into the stake pool's open-source implementation. 
We've worked with the Solana Foundation for several months, helping to develop the Foundation's stake pool program. We've received grants from the Foundation to develop the stake pool ecosystem. 
Safe implementation. Unlike some stake pools which run their own code, we use the Solana Foundation's open-source reference implementation. This ensures that our stake pool has been audited for safety, and receives timely fixes and updates. The program can be built from source and verified against the on-chain version.
Powerful ecosystem integrations. We will be releasing key integrations with partners in Solana's DeFi ecosystem.
Why shouldn't I stake with Socean?
You want to put your eggs in one basket. Socean tries to strike a balance between high APY, diversification and decentralisation. We will always aim to increase APY, but we will not do things like put all our SOL in one or two validators, or validators in the same data center, to extract that last 0.1% APY.
You have a bias towards particular validators. By definition of being an algorithmic stake pool, Socean will treat validators on an equal footing. We will never make backroom deals with "reputable" or "friendly" validators. There are other avenues to incentivise and reward validators' contributions outside of running nodes. If you have a validator you prefer, you can allocate a certain portion of your SOL towards the preferred validator, and the remainder to Socean or other stake pools.
How do I stake with Socean?
The easiest way to stake with Socean is via a direct ◎SOL deposit. Connect your wallet on the Socean site to exchange ◎SOL for SOCN tokens instantly.
You can also get SOCN tokens by trading them on the open market or by swapping them on an AMM; check the Staking with Socean page for more details.
Are my funds safe?
Yes. We use the Solana Foundation's reference stake pool program, which has been deployed in a production setting and has received multiple rounds of audits, feedback and scrutiny. The three audits were done by Kudelski, Neodyme, and Quantstamp. All issues have been remediated, either by us or by Solana Labs.
We have made safety a key priority in development. You own a non-custodial share of the SOL tokens in the pool which can be redeemed for the underlying SOL. This is similar to index funds or exchange traded funds (ETFs).
We have developed additional security and usability features for the stake pool program that were incorporated by the Solana team, and understand the program and related aspects of the Solana runtime in detail.
How does Socean delegate my funds?
Socean allocates its funds via a transparent and principled delegation strategy. We delegate funds to validators that demonstrate a historical track record, are decentralized (geographically, jurisdictionally and by data center), and are not part of the minimum security group.
We combine analysis of validator performance with financial and economic theory (mean-variance analysis, expected utility theory) to maximise APY, minimise rewards variance, and improve network health. For more details, have a look at the validator whitepaper here. 
We will produce reports for the community to gain insight into our data analyses, highlight trends in validator and cluster performance, and shed light on updates to our allocation logic.
Will there be a governance token?
We are still developing the governance and token structure. Be assured that we are committed to sharing rewards and control with strategic partners, contributors and users.
Is there an airdrop?
We have always planned to reward early and loyal stakers. We have already issued a collectible to the first 3,000 stakers of Socean (details here), and will continue to reward people who stake with Socean.
A collectible that was given out to reward early stakers with Socean
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How can I keep abreast of Socean's development?
Follow our socials: Discord, Twitter, Medium.
What fees does Socean charge?
We charge a one-time deposit fee (0.15%), a one-time withdrawal fee (0.3%), and an ongoing management fee (~0.16% p.a.). These fees may be subject to change. 
The Socean team will notify all our users prior to making fee changes to give holders of SOCN sufficient time to adjust their holdings. 
The stake pool program limits how and by how much fees can change over a short span of time. For instance, withdrawal fees are limited to increase by at most 1.5x per epoch. This ensures that you have enough time to withdraw your SOL before drastic changes are made.
In the future, Socean will be governed entirely on-chain, and fees will be determined by majority vote.
I am a validator. How can I get Socean to stake with me?
The best way to get Socean to delegate stake to you is to be consistently high-performing and not clustered in a geographical/jurisdictional region or datacenter. We do not make backroom deals.
Take a look at our Validator Onboarding Process to get started.
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