Node Application 10540438451, submitted 2019-02-19 15:41:31

Respondent Id 10540438451
Application Date 2019-02-19 15:41:31
Application Language English
Applicant City San Francisco
Applicant State/Province California
Applicant Country United States
What languages do you speak? English
What is your occupation? Software Development
How many years experience in your field? 8-15
What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? Bachelor’s degree (for example: BA. BS)
Please describe your experience in the Crypto/Blockchain space, if any? Employed developing blockchain applications. Experienced in general systems security (I've run security efforts for small-to-mid-sized companies in the past), experienced in reliability engineering and systems administration, and currently working as a blockchain engineer implementing smart contracts and evaluating cryptographic system security.
Are you an individual or a group? Individual
Node City San Francisco
Node State California
Node Country United States
For which networks Have you ever operated a node? Ethereum (ETH, ETC, etc)
What kind of improvements would you like to see in Elixxir nodes vs. previous the previous nodes you have supported? None needed.
What are potential setbacks preventing you from operating an Elixxir node? Time availability. Also, upfront capital investment. It'll depend on how much it costs to set up the code and how much time it takes to do so. If I get a node up and running I may want to move it to another location in the future, so if that's not possible I probably also wouldn't be interested in participating.
What is a reasonable maximum connection speed on which you could operate a BetaNet node in your geographic region? (Where 0 = 10 Megabits/second, and 100 = 10 Gigabits/second) 50
What is a reasonable uptime estimate you can provide for your BetaNet node? (As a percentage) 95
Please estimate the cost of electricity in the geographic area where your BetaNet node will be running. . $0.21/kWh
On a monthly basis, how much time can you publicly commit to dedicating toward governance if you were selected as a BetaNet node operator? (Where 0 = 1 hour/month, and 100 = 20 hours/month) 1
If you were selected to run a BetaNet node, would it run on your own hardware or be deployed to cloud-based servers? Both
In what type of environment would this server be located? Personal Home
Do you have past experience deploying hardware servers in a datacenter? Yes (please describe)
Do you already own sufficient hardware to meet the published Elixxir BetaNet node specifications? No
Yes (Please list specs)
Do you have hardware you would like to use but does not meet the stated BetaNet node specs? If so, please provide specs on that hardware below: No
Do you have past experience deploying servers to cloud-based services? Yes (please specify)
Yes (please specify) I have 4 years experience working full time with AWS-based deployments, have contributed to cloud service management tools (DigitalOcean modules for Ansible). I've managed cloud deployments with terraform, ansible, and saltstack, and also have experience with both chef and puppet. I built and ran a devops organization at a medium-sized company using AWS, responsible for systems administration, reliability, and security. I've also helped migrate applications from traditional colocation providers to AWS. I have additional experience working with DigitalOcean, GCP, Azure, and Linode as cloud providers, but nowhere near as much.
Why do you want to be a node? I see it as an opportunity to learn more about blockchain technology and distributed organizations.
How did you originally hear about Elixxir? Word of Mouth
Which current Elixxir communities are you a member of?
Are you an active member of those communities? No
What specifically, interests you about the Elixxir platform? Distributed computing power.
Outside of Elixxir communities, are you an active participant in other node or developer community groups? If so, which ones? No, although I'm looking at joining arweave as well.
Have you ever attended a blockchain conference? If so, which one(s)? CESC, part of San Francisco Blockchain Week 2018
As part of growing the Elixxir community, are you willing to create content as part of operating an Elixxir BetaNet node? Examples would be node setup & on-boarding review vlog post, bi-weekly twitter update, medium review of on-going node operational process, etc. Yes (how much content on a monthly basis?)
If yes, how much content on a monthly basis? I'm willing to write articles about setting up and operating a node, but not on an ongoing basis.
What is the difference between decentralized networks and distributed networks, and where on the decentralization spectrum do you sit? Decentralized networks span multiple physical computers and lack a single controlling authority while distributed networks span multiple physical computers without constraints on control. I prefer to reason about data custody and portability instead of decentralization. Decentralization isn't itself a goal, but may be a way to enable some goals.
As best as you can given currently available information, please describe the value proposition of the Elixxir platform and how it differs from other current blockchain solutions. Transaction speed and computation power. I've seen other projects that offer similar gains, but most make more significant sacrifices to achieve them.
Privacy by Default is a goal of the Elixxir Platform. In your opinion, why is Privacy by Default critical for the future of the internet? It's not, but if we don't transition to privacy-preserving technology very soon we'll likely lose the notion of privacy entirely. The consequences of a significant change in our understanding of privacy are hard to predict, but will cause large changes in society.
Tags Individual, United States, English