| Respondent Id | 10604396358 |
|---|---|
| Application Date | 2019-03-19 17:53:58 |
| Application Language | English |
| Applicant City | Sheffield |
| Applicant State/Province | South Yorkshire |
| Applicant Country | United Kingdom |
| What languages do you speak? | English |
| What is your occupation? | IT |
| How many years experience in your field? | 16+ |
| 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? | Mined in 2013-2014 with home-built rigs. Only ever mined altcoins of various algorithms using GPUs. Traded until the present day after selling equipment and actively involved myself in a few communities, BlackCoin especially. Maintained an insight explorer/CoPay fork server for mobile wallet app access for over 2 years, supported people on the Reddit including detailed instructions for using Raspberry Pi and more recent builds of the Blackcoin codebase, and running promotions/giveaways which I constructed. BLK is a non ICO, no premine decentralised proof of stake altcoin and I was there on the day it launched (24th Feb 2014) so felt part of the community from the start. I have since gone on to invest in some other projects and burnt some Blackcoin for Blacknet which is a spinoff project by the same developer, written in Kotlin (java). I'm actively running nodes for that, Blackcoin and Tao, another project I'm recently involved in. I'm not a developer but I am a problem solver and competent user of the hardware and software required to maintain nodes and have a degree in computer networks. |
| Are you an individual or a group? | Individual |
| Node City | Helsinki |
| Node State | |
| Node Country | Finland |
| For which networks Have you ever operated a node? | Presently BlackCoin, BlackNet and Tao. 100s of altcoins over time, using nodes for solo mining and wallets. |
| What kind of improvements would you like to see in Elixxir nodes vs. previous the previous nodes you have supported? | Stable software is clearly a desirable feature to allow for hands-off operation once set up. |
| What are potential setbacks preventing you from operating an Elixxir node? | The only thing stopping me building and running a node from my property in the UK is bandwidth, which is limited and whilst I am investigating a bonded solution which could possibly give me the requisitite 500Mbps symmetric connection, it will probably be cost prohibitive, hence my proposition to run the node in Finland where I have found cloud GPU servers with a similar specification and bandwidth which may not tie me into lengthy contracts and is a less risky setup at least for beta. I may also be able to tailor the specification should requirements change over time. I have run websites requiring dedicated servers for nearly 20 years so am proficient in the remote setup and management including aspects of operational security. |
| 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) | 60 |
| What is a reasonable uptime estimate you can provide for your BetaNet node? (As a percentage) | 99 |
| Please estimate the cost of electricity in the geographic area where your BetaNet node will be running. . | N/A for me personally as cloud service includes power provision. |
| 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) | 50 |
| If you were selected to run a BetaNet node, would it run on your own hardware or be deployed to cloud-based servers? | Cloud-Based Servers |
| In what type of environment would this server be located? | |
| Do you have past experience deploying hardware servers in a datacenter? | |
| Do you already own sufficient hardware to meet the published Elixxir BetaNet node specifications? | |
| 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: | |
| Do you have past experience deploying servers to cloud-based services? | Yes (please specify) |
| Yes (please specify) | I have run dedicated servers in datacentres for almost 20 years and ran a live streaming media company between 2004-2015 so am used to the pressures of delivering quality traffic and stability. In terms of ad-hoc cloud services, I have used Azure when deploying a virtual server for the Blackcoin Copay fork server (payblk) and recently deployed an AWS GPU instance briefly to generate some vanity addresses which was relatively straightforward. |
| Why do you want to be a node? | I read about David's early accomplishments and accidentally found this project. Since 2013 I have been fascinated in how this technology could change the world of payments and privacy and have always been looking for real-world use cases to get stuck into. |
| How did you originally hear about Elixxir? | |
| Which current Elixxir communities are you a member of? | Telegram, Discord, Twitter |
| Are you an active member of those communities? | Yes |
| What specifically, interests you about the Elixxir platform? | Honestly it's the name behind it (David Chaum) more than anything else. Plus the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of something which on the surface sounds very different and less opportunistic/shady than some of the existing 'high throughput' blockchains which already exist. |
| Outside of Elixxir communities, are you an active participant in other node or developer community groups? If so, which ones? | I frequent the Tao Slack/Discord as it has an interesting use case within the music industry and I am heavily invested in it. I also run [a major piece of insfrastructure for Tao]. I still dip in and out of Blackcoin and have the Blacknet community window (very fledgling currently) always open. [edited to protect identity] |
| Have you ever attended a blockchain conference? If so, which one(s)? | Only one - Coinfest in the UK in 2017. I like to keep relatively private within the cryptocurrency world for security reasons. |
| 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? | Whatever seems necessary and not already covered which I feel confident sharing. |
| What is the difference between decentralized networks and distributed networks, and where on the decentralization spectrum do you sit? | Physically speaking a decentralised network consists of nodes which agree to perform tasks based on rules set by software running on each node and not commanded by or reliant on a central control mechanism. In terms of politics, given I have only really been involved with bitcoin-style blockchain derivatives and not those with any major governance programs, I only sit within the true original idea of decentralisation as I know it. I have no agenda to disrupt the status-quo that is a well written decentralised system put it that way. |
| 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. | From my cursory reading which piqued my interest yesterday, the idea of precomputation to eliminate the bottlenecks of block creation is unique, plus the random team selection wherein one honest node can still produce a valid block even if the rest are misbehaving. The overall throughput and scalability seems to be Elixxir's main proposition however in becoming something useful for when the world embraces the concept of streaming money and micropayments in exchange for their own data. |
| 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? | The fact that decentralisation as a movement has come about within a generation of the Internet being mainstream shows that people have already decided that large companies are wielding too much power over us. Multiple failures such as data breaches have slowly eroded the trust in these entities and a realisation that the value we gain from them for 'free' is not so free, and a better model can be conceived by being in control of our own data and even receiving payments by surrendering it voluntarily to specific entities, rather than being bombarded with constant advertising based on catch-all and invasive systems. Holding the keys to ones own privacy would be fundamental to such a shift in business model, but one which people may demand as time goes on as people start to value not only encryption but their own privacy from the prying eye of advertisers and others. |
| Tags | Individual, Finland, English |
4 Likes
Hello. This is my application.
I thought I’d add to the above that since the time of filing the application a few weeks ago I have done further research for acquiring enough bandwidth locally to run a node (the hardware isn’t a problem to purchase) and have received good quotes from a local ISP I can colocate or run fibre to my house with. That would be for mainnet, should I get the chance to get that far! The Finnish datacentre can supply a very close specification as per node requirements and the resources needed, and will allow me to hopefully participate in the Beta before I acquire my own hardware.
In the meantime I’m happy to engage with the community and answer any queries or just discuss any thoughts on Elixxir. I’ve had a good read through some of the more detailed applications - wow you guys have scored some pretty impressive folk!
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@fiftyseven Good work, I hope you are chosen, you have the options and you make sure that the community is working in the north.
I too am willing to change opinions about Elixxir. I am from Spain. Sorry for my bad language:wink:
Thank you for the kind wishes. Do you have an application in also? Have you had a chance to read the whitepaper published yesterday? I can’t even begin to understand the maths but David and co-authors appear to have covered their invention in outstanding detail, something I’ve really missed in the crypto space for a long time.
I’m not a professional programmer but I’m a follower of David’s ideology and his project. If I am translating the withepaper cMix for the Spanish speaking group. It is very technical and I find it fascinating. I had to read it several times in order to understand the mechanics and thus be able to explain to colleagues who have doubts. I want to be part of the team in talks and making known Elixxir. If I have an application
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I am a programmer and it can still be hard to wrap your head around it; especially the details.
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if the technical and mathematical part is too complicated, but I think that with the effort and support of the community among the most experts can help to build something great.
Yeah I’m not a developer either and I don’t think the Elixxir folk expect us to chip in with actual code especially at this stage, but I do love to understand the mechanics. Reading Andreas’s book got me up to speed with the UTXO model of Bitcoin and all the alts spun off from it, it definitely helps to understand what a node/wallet is doing in normal behaviour and fun to poke about under the hood. Can’t wait to see this thing spring to life, it’s a total game changer if it works out.
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Good choice for our project
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Hi folks, thanks for being part of the conversation. We don’t expect that node runners will have coding knowledge; it will be helpful to have some command line experience, but we can provide training in that area for anyone who needs it.
You can get a high-level overview of the mechanics by reading the executive summary for the cMix whitepaper on the Elixxir website. (No links allowed here, so go to our website and click the Whitepaper link at the top right of the page.)
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