Yes, even more than anything else, because you point your nodes to an empty address and then pay with ANT. You didn’t buy Ethereum, there is no direct connection to your ID.
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Who is the payment recipient and whats to prevent them using blockchain analysis for connected nodes?
Blockchain analysis only shows you that you received payment for a specific piece of data. Which file this piece of data is from is almost impossible to understand if the file is private. Plus if you upload the data through a Portal you will not be able to connect the IP address of the uploader to the payment because the address will be that of the portal.
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So we just assume the portal can be trusted?
Trusted for what? The portal will know your IP. Use VPN or Public Wifi.
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OK, I thought the big feature of Autonomi was that it was anonymous and private, but actually you need a VPN. Thanks for the clarification.
Different people need different levels of anonymity and privacy. Each approach has its pros and cons. For me, one of the pros of Portals is that you don’t need Ethereum for fees and you point your nodes to the address generated in the portal and you can upload to the network. A perfect solution for sharing memes and public data.
Otherwise, the main plus for me is the eternal storage of data and its immutability. I expect this technology to be used mainly by AI, because it will be important for them to be able to check whether the data has been changed.
Of course, there may be many other main advantages, for example, if brutal censorship (UK) occurs in certain parts of the world, certain groups of people may use it mainly for this purpose. There is something for everyone. Can there be such a thing as one solution for everything or is everything part of something bigger? If Autonomi is not your tool right now, that’s okay. However, I really enjoy it.
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Or just do not use a portal and not the paymaster
That requires use a third party crypto exchange with KYC so it is no better. Autonomi’s great feature is permanent storage, but security depends on third party trust, I wish there was some clearer messaging around this.
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If you have ANT then you can swap some ANT to ARB-ETH within metamask wallet. This does not require any KYC etc. Of course assumes you have ANT, which paymaster would as well
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Which, just to underline, you can earn from node running. No KYC needed there either.
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Once you have ants yes things are easier, but you can’t get ants without giving your bank details to an exchange. Competing with millions of nodes to earn a viable amount of ants to store stuff is a non starter. There is no built in secure, private and anonymous way to join the network. It should be made clear to new users.
I tried that, I earned 0.0007 ants in a 4 weeks running node 24/7. The only way to do it is to run thousands of tiny low storage nodes (which undermine the network) or spend a fortune on commercial hardware. The latter is a non starter for me, the former isn’t really in the spirit of things and is preventing the network from being tested properly for data loss.
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I just want to clarify that running a thousand of nodes without having the data space a node needs when full is not really undermining the network. As long as a node can store the chunks they need & are responsive, a node is actively contributing to the network.
I personally dislike the massive overprovisioning that is happening and I do think there is a network risk that when large amount of data start to get uploaded could result in a collapse. I.e. nodes scaling down because required disk space, other nodes getting a heavier disk load therefor shutting down too. But as long as the team pro-actively communicates when (massive) data uploads will start, node runners will probably adjust accordingly before.
Hi Jane, I currently have over 3 ANT on a MetaMask wallet I created specifically for running nodes back in August/September. I have only ever had a single PC to do this with and I am limited to 16 nodes max (at first I only had space for about 4 nodes) and I have never needed to provide any personal information to create or use this wallet.
Considering the recent gains in gas efficiency, I think this is very accessible and economical if you are truly wanting to remain private (as seems the intent of the MaidSafe team from my time on this forum).
And to add to previous comments about this platform, the primary focus is the immutable nature of the data, this is THE unique feature and a huge selling point in a world that is largely driven by changing narratives.
Context around information may change, but the data itself can never be changed. Evidence once recorded can never be buried or modified, this is huge in a world where journalism as a noble pursuit has been twisted to a point where irrespective of one’s own intent, truth has become as relative as the wind.
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Surely the risk is that when one computer goes offline then thousands of nodes could disappear in an instant, then the network may struggle to re-provision fast enough. Nodes are supposed to be distributed/decentralised, that is the point of the network. So could it not be the case, for example that we have millions of nodes connected to the network yet the entire network is running accross just 6 computers? ( this is in addition to all the other risks you mentioned about storage/demand etc). Is it possible to test the network against these possibilities? Perhaps the devs have done that somehow?
Yes earning is safer than buying (although you will still need a VPN for your wallet for proper anonymity). I only ran 2 or 3 nodes, maybe its time to try again but because of the ETH which do have to be purchased from an exchange I have been put off. How did you purchase ETH without an exchange? Is it really something ave users are expected to do? Its really not clear to normal people how to use the network without giving up details to an exchange. And the paymaster is really just another third party exchanging for you.
Once there is a more substantial amount of data stored on the network, each node will take more resources to run, decreasing the number of nodes, increasing the rewards by implication.
The economics are tough to run nodes right now, because the storage requirement is not meaningfully high. As the network matures and fills, this should start to pivot.
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My view is that as long as people are providing at least 4GB per node above the average current record store size then its all fine. So those capable of monitoring that are fine to run with that storage methodology.
Even 32GB stated is under-providing. The actual node sizing is 64GB (16K records x 4MB) We can only ever really estimate what is actually needed and at this time 4GB record store (7GB with logs) is plenty
Some are using RAM disks with 10MB to 30MB average. That is way too small
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