Thanks to @EnzoPlayer0ne 's new toy we can prove that transfers have been made between the node providers.
Ferndale International and Aspire Properties both use the same exchange, but they do not appear linked apart from geographical location.
Anypoint PTY Ltd was a surprise to be honest. That appeared unconnected, and is based in Australia. I even declared them to be one of the âgood guysâ.
Hi Donna,
I am Greg Searle the owner of Anypoint Pty Ltd.
Your question is âcan someone dig into this and find out the relationship between these five node providersâ @anypoint is mentioned in the group, Karel Frank is the only other node provider I know.
To put some context on this response, I am a seasoned (read older than usual) IT expert having entered the industry in 1975 as a programmer. I have built and sold several businesses during my 50 years and still have Anypoint as an active IT company providing hardware sales and software consulting services in Australia.
I met Karel Frank through school activities when he was living in Australia, we have boys of similar age. After Karel left Australia, we kept in touch which consisted of an email every now and then. Several years ago, Karel mentioned the Internet Computer and suggested I have a look at it, being a developer, I scanned the information and went straight to the âhow to develop and deployâ section. Distracted by other priorities at the time it got pushed to the bottom of the pile.
Last year Karel contacted me because he was exploring the possibility of installing some nodes in Australia and asked me if I had any interest. Having a well-established pipeline in Australia with H/W suppliers, hosting centres (I have a cluster of servers in a data centre to service my existing client base), and Internet Transit suppliers I decided to help Karel. Although he suggested I may want to be a Node Provider in my own right I initially declined believing the best value add was to provide servers.
During the process I started to investigate and become familiar with the IC eco system and was impressed with the scope and detail. This led me to the conclusion that it would be a sound investment so in my own right I started the process of becoming a Node Provider. I had no prior exposure to crypto and blockchain and no crypto exchange experience, so I purchased the initial 11 ICP (I believe) from Karel to establish my account in the NNS. Anypoint is a privately owned company in Australia, and I am the only shareholder and Director. Karel Frank has no influence on the decisions Anypoint makes, and no financial interest directly or indirectly. I cannot be clearer on this point. There is no connection between Anypoint and the Frank Family.
I understand the concern and the intent of raising the issue about linked node providers however, when I read the following statement it hurt.
âAnypoint PTY Ltd was a surprise to be honest. That appeared unconnected and is based in Australia. I even declared them to be one of the âgood guysâ.
In my opinion this statement was careless and should not have been made (typo included) without confirming the relationship first. Assuming guilt is wrong, always has been.
I was not assuming guilt, I was honestly surprised there was a connection. I genuinely am not out to call out people (apart from the two bad actors that 100% know are bad actors as I personally know them and they are already being taken care of). I may be straight forward with my posts but that is because i just believe in being honest.
It is possible that there was a once off transfer between NPs, which is why i just flagged this so that someone with way more tech prowess than me can verify.
The IC is an amazing ecosystem, the community is just a bit on edge at the moment but will come through stronger as a result. We may have fallen asleep at the wheel for a bit, but now the community is working together to achieve what we all came here to do.
Hi Greg, thank you for such a detailed response and your openness about how you became an IC Node Provider here in Australia.
I think it is important that the IC community develops a better understanding about how we node providers operate independently of each other, so could I ask you to clarify whether you have physical and/or remote access to Karelâs node servers (as a technical support service or otherwise).
Given the IC Topology already excludes multiple nodes in the same datacentre from being placed in the one subnet, this question is more about shared access as it relates to IC replica node security and being open about sharing this information with the IC community.
I agree with @sat in his posts elsewhere about the need for node providers to have the necessary skills and experience to run and maintain server-grade hardware in datacentres, or otherwise be clear about the technical service provider they contract with to supply this technical expertise.
