Node Application 10668114334, submitted 2019-04-16 13:29:11

Respondent Id 10668114334
Application Date 2019-04-16 13:29:11
Application Language English
Applicant City Hong Kong
Applicant State/Province Luna
Applicant Country Hong Kong
What languages do you speak? English
What is your occupation? Node operator, Investor, Advisor, Consultant, Co-Founder, Researcher, Mathematician
How many years experience in your field? 4-7
What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? Doctorate or other terminal degree (for example, PhD, EdD)
Please describe your experience in the Crypto/Blockchain space, if any? I've been maintaining nodes for various decentralized projects for more than 5 years. I am currently running nodes for projects built with the bitcoin core library as well as others with unique codebases, such as those that use the Graphene libraries, Ethereum, Tezos, Monero, Cosmos, Blacknet, Bismuth, Veriblock, etc.
Are you an individual or a group? Individual
Node City Hong Kong
Node State Luna
Node Country Hong Kong
For which networks Have you ever operated a node? EOS, Bitcoin (BTC, BCH, etc), Ethereum (ETH, ETC, etc), Tezos, Monero, Cosmos, Blacknet, Blackcoin, Bismuth, Zerocash, Zerocoin, CREAM, MonetaryUnit, Eclipse, EnergyCoin, ReddCoin, DogeCoin, SNOW, XDAG, BlockNet, Lisk, DASH
What kind of improvements would you like to see in Elixxir nodes vs. previous the previous nodes you have supported? Better RPC commands to access account / address info for easier block explorer creation or other services (i.e. to keep track of balances and changes for taxes). Using a singular wallet that holds multiple private keys to various addresses should still allow an operator fine control on information for one particular address. Also, address monitoring (if you do not control the private key) can be significantly improved (primarily by not using leveldb which doesn't support concurrent read access to the database ...) without the need of replaying the entire linearly ordered log of events.
What are potential setbacks preventing you from operating an Elixxir node? The requirement that I run a node in the location that I am. This is a rather odd requirement, as most people do not have access to a co-location for servers. As such, they rent from online providers such as AWS, Google, Vultr, Contabo, Hetzner, etc. These cloud providers have tools that have been developed to make the deployment and automatic recovery in case of a failed node much easier than creating this from scratch. In addition, a proper safety mechanism would be to make sure that you have a failover node running in a separate location. If you are trying to guarantee uptime of operating a node in the network, you would also not in have the node in the same city, due to power and internet outages having more of a geographical bias.
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) 100
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. . .14 / 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) 16
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? 1) Cloud based datacenter and 2) local mining operation
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? Yes (Please list specs)
Yes (Please list specs) AMD Ryzen Threadripper (16 core / 32 thread), 128 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, 500 MBIT internet -- local -- and cloud provider ... whatever the requirements are. There are a variety of hosting solutions.
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: Yes. 1 CPU, 2 GB of RAM, 40 GB HD, 10 megabit internet connection.
Do you have past experience deploying servers to cloud-based services? Yes (please specify)
Yes (please specify) Vultr, AWS, Google, Contabo, Hetzner, VPSDime, etc....
Why do you want to be a node? To provide infrastructure services to decentralized projects in order to be compensated and to participate in experimental and programmable economies.
How did you originally hear about Elixxir? Word of Mouth
Which current Elixxir communities are you a member of? Telegram, Discord, Medium, Twitter
Are you an active member of those communities? No
What specifically, interests you about the Elixxir platform? The ability to use basic skills to run a secure environment and be rewarded for operating a node. The cryptography, obviously. And the consensus algorithm. Particularly the proofs.
Outside of Elixxir communities, are you an active participant in other node or developer community groups? If so, which ones? Yes. You really need to know?
Have you ever attended a blockchain conference? If so, which one(s)? Consensus: Invest 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. No
If yes, how much content on a monthly basis?
What is the difference between decentralized networks and distributed networks, and where on the decentralization spectrum do you sit? A decentralized network is a distributed network, but not vice versa. In the case of a distributed (or permissioned) network the network participants are selected by a single authority or small number of people with no ability to participate unless being chosen a priori. On the other hand, a decentralized network allows for arbitrary participation. You should ask about the requirements to be 'sufficiently decentralized.' For instance, are 21 node operators sufficiently decentralized? What if the validators were randomly selected each epoch from a large possible set of validators? Would 21 be sufficient? Would 100?
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. Performing off-chain calculations for the update to the state with respect to account / address balances and doing so in a tiered fashion to optimize throughput is unique.
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? Privacy should be the default anyway. Why did you ask for all of this information to run a node?
Tags Individual, Hong Kong, English