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- One Year of network node operation for improvement on Transaction Propagation, Network Diversification and Redundancy as well as initiating the establishment of community bootnodes.
- Network technology, hardware operations
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- knmo (me)
- Two-year vocational training program, consisting of one year of theoretical study in IT (application development/network technology) and a second year of practical training in systems electronics.
- Nervos[ât]Posteo[dôt]Net
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- Boot nodes are required for the Nervos Network to operate. These nodes maintain connections to other reachable network nodes. When a new node initiates synchronization for the first time, it would not know where to find full nodes for synchronization without specified boot nodes.
- These very boot nodes are currently operated primarily in data centers belonging to large corporations. These operators lack diversity and are subject to legal and economic influences.
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- Transactions will be forwarded at high speed to other nodes via the node I operate.
- I am an individual with access to high-speed intercontinental internet. I am based in West Africa, with low network latency to South America and Europe.
- As a natural person—which I am—I, as an operator of a network node, achieve political and economic independence from large corporations and create redundancy through diversification.
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- To promote diversity, I am considering a Tier 2/3 platform and will implement it accordingly, provided there are no roadblocks along the way.
- Less widely used systems can be advantageous and offer redundancy compared to the otherwise widely used standard systems. Any widely known security vulnerabilities may not exist on alternative, minimalist systems or may be further out of reach.
“Atlantik” Community Full Node
I operate a fully synchronized network node in a location that can have a significant impact on transaction propagation. The island in the Atlantic is connected to the undersea cable between Brazil and Portugal. Historically, many South American connections have routed through North America to Europe or Asia. Here is a point in Africa that connects the user-heavy Central European region with South America. Additionally, my network node serves than as an additional hub for connections from West Africa. My pings to both South Africa and Central Europe show a latency of only ~80 ms, and ~200 ms to Australia and Brazil. My network node represents a strategically well-positioned diversification of full nodes. I would operate it even without requesting financial support, but unfortunately, I cannot cover the costs of electricity, internet, and the hosting location out of my own pocket.
Electricity $10
Internet $50
Rent $80
$140/month × 12 months = $1,680
I will provide the technical equipment from my own personal inventory, at least for the first year.
For the following years, starting in 2027, I plan to move the equipment closer to the submarine cable/internet provider and upgrade the internet connection to a dedicated fiber-optic line. This should result in an additional latency reduction of ~20ms for all connections. In that case, the cost of renting the fiber-optic modem and, if necessary, purchasing more powerful hardware would also be added. This would then enable the operation of a boot node. However, I would communicate the costs for the following year again next year, provided this is realistically feasible.
This presents an opportunity for valuable network diversification without being a customer of cloud giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. The provider-side tunneling over vast distances is remarkable: ~80ms to Cape Town and ~80ms to Frankfurt are good examples.
Adverse conditions or even outages at cloud giants (negative undertone, as centralization is not beneficial for various reasons) like Amazon are indeed rare, but they do occur—often with significant consequences—as the past has shown.
In the distant future, a network of community-operated, reliable boot nodes would be desirable. In the medium term, these could serve as an alternative to the necessarily hardcoded boot nodes, and in the long term, they could replace them or those can than serve solely as a redundancy measure in exceptional cases.
In the long term, it would also be conceivable to lease an ultra-fast DNS geolocation platform with smart geo records and monitoring through a highly specialized operator to address community boot nodes worldwide, once these have been implemented in larger numbers and with high diversification. Diversification could also be promoted in other ways, such as by operating alternative operating systems. A large portion of the current infrastructure most likely runs on Ubuntu or Debian. Diversity creates reliability through redundancy: less common alternatives such as BSD should also exist. Even if not currently necessary, there may be system-wide vulnerabilities that do not exist in other systems. Bootnode operators could also be @CKBA members, possibly with their own category, each responsible for a small part of the widespread global infrastructure.
I propose a six-week timeline and will provide updates on progress, provided I receive approval to proceed.
- First two weeks:
This can be carried out even without prior funding. Preparation and planning of the hardware for the first year, which will serve as a test and feasibility study for potential subsequent year.
- Second two weeks:
Signing the internet service contract. Node synchronization. Selection of the initial boot nodes: Santiago, South America (Google) / Cape Town, Africa (Amazon)
- Third two weeks:
A buffer in case of unforeseen delays or problems. These will likely be necessary, as delays or unexpected obstacles are unfortunately common in this region. I would appreciate a little flexibility regarding the timeline.
I myself have completed a two-year vocational training program, consisting of one year of theoretical study in IT (application development/network technology) and a second year of practical training in systems electronics. I have also been a long-time CKB-DAO investor and am personally interested in its success and widespread adoption.