DFINITY Gen-1 servers available for sale through silent auction

General DFINITY
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Greetings!

As discussed in this forum thread, all node providers are now limited to operating no more than a total of 42 nodes (Gen-1: after their initial 48 months). This limit also includes nodes operated by DFINITY. As such, DFINITY now has the following excess Gen-1.1 servers (from its nodes exceeding the aforementioned limit) currently in the listed cities below which are available for any prospective node provider to purchase (partial bids accepted):

Atlanta, Georgia, United States - Qty 21 Dell servers meeting the Gen-1.1 specs here.

Atlanta, Georgia, United States - Qty 7 Supermicro servers meeting the Gen-1.1 specs here.

Boston, Massachusetts, United States - Qty 28 Dell servers meeting the Gen-1.1 specs here.

Marseilles, France - Qty 28 Dell servers meeting the Gen-1.1 specs here.

DFINITY will be making these servers available through a silent auction. Please submit your bid, including all requested information, using this link: Submit a bid. All bids must be submitted by the close of business on November 15, 2024.

By submitting a bid, you understand that:

  • The servers are being sold as-is without any express or implied warranties. As of the date of this post, there are no known issues with any of them.
  • If your bid is accepted, you will be sent an invoice within 5 business days. This must be signed within 7 calendar days to indicate your agreement to purchase. Full payment will be due within 30 calendar days of invoice date. Upon receipt of your payment, we’ll work with you to arrange your pickup time in the city listed above.
  • You are responsible for any and all costs associated with the pickup of your server(s), including packaging, insurance and shipping-related costs.
  • All purchased servers must be picked up at their respective locations between January 1 and January 31, 2025.

If you choose to run IC nodes with these servers:

  • You will be permitted to onboard them under the terms of NNS proposal 132553. They can either stay in the same country or move to a DC or country that would increase decentralization. (All of the US and all of EU count essentially the same as far as decentralization goes.)
  • The rewards for hosting IC nodes with these servers are shown in the NNS proposal 133145, also listed on the wiki here.
  • These nodes must be run as per all the relevant requirements as outlined in the Node Provider Documentation section of the wiki here.
  • Specifically, they would be onboarded using the directions here.

ETA: clarity to invoice sending timeline.
ETA again to clarify and link to reward and onboarding steps
ETA again to state that partial bids are accepted and that the nodes can be kept in the same DC/country or moved.

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Follow up cross-post… it is highly recommended that prospective NPs also follow the ongoing conversation about penalties for underperforming nodes. The most recent post just went up here:

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can you list examples of European or African countries considered “increasing decentralisation”?

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All of Europe essentially falls under the same level of decentralization, although in general, countries with zero nodes or just a few would obviously be better than Switzerland which already has too many nodes.

Africa has many countries that so far have no nodes at all, so that would obviously increase decentralization if you move them to one of those countries.

If you are wondering something specific about a specific country, please tag @SvenF as he is more knowledgable on the decentralization than I am. :slight_smile:

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@paulm most European countries with the exception of Belgium and Switzerland (where there are more than 42 node machines) might help in decentralization, as well as most African countries (with the exception of South Africa where there are 24 node machines). But if node machines are moved from Marseille the increase in decentralization might be limited as basically there won’t be any nodes left in France, which means from a decentralization perspective almost a whole country is lost (there’s only 4 nodes in Paris remaining).

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I am interested in the silent auction for Gen 1 machines next week. I am an existing node provider using Gen 2 machines out of Midrand in Johannesburg South Africa. Would the the only qualifying criteria be the best price, or would other factors also be taken into account. Is there a preference to keep the servers in the country or can I bring them back to South Africa? I currently have 12 servers at Samrand DC so would I be abto add the new ones there or would it have to be another data centre?

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Can you share dims / weight / Ctns + pick up and delivery address, to estimate shipping cost?

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Hi @ic.aitubi you can find the specifications of the node machines on the node provider wiki page under Gen 1.1 specification, and then do a search for the exact dimensions for the specific hardware. Hope this helps.

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@ic.aitubi Please also note that they are not boxed up, and DFINITY is not taking responsibility for that. You will need to arrange for someone to be there at the DC, to receive them, box them up, etc. (If you want to ship them elsewhere.)

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Thank you everyone for your participation! We had almost 50 bids come in. Emails have been sent to all bidders, informing them of their status.

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Hello @katiep,

I know it’s too late but unfortunately I have missed the original post. Did you manage to sell all the available nodes for purchase? We have been looking for an opportunity to become part of IC from a node provider perspective for more than a year and I think we could make a great addition - we started a Czechia Dfinity community back in the days of launch and we are also professional node providers that can provide some unique locations in Eastern Europe. Please let me know if there’s still a chance to participate. Thanks a lot!

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The auction did close and the winners are arranging payment and pickup. We had a lot of interest, which is amazing! Hopefully the IC growth will continue to escalate so that it will require more NPs soon!

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Wow, great to hear that! Thanks for your reply, well, we are staying in the queue and don’t hesitate to contact us if there’s such an opportunity again :slight_smile: