Question About Dfinity No Longer Accepting Node Operators

I read on the icp wiki and this was stated on there "With this latest update, there are sufficient node machines for running the current load of canisters on every subnet, and for the decentralisation of the subnets measured in Nakamoto coefficients; no new country entries will be added. "

I will be asking my question from a stand point of someone who doesn’t have an extreme tech background in coding/developing and with limited knowledge of the tech side of blockchain.

First, what is the logic of capping the amount of nodes that can join the ICP network ? If more nodes equal more data storage capacity wouldn’t you want as many people joining as possible with zero limits ? Even though the wiki states " there are sufficient node machines for running the current load of canisters on every subnet" what is the harm of having more? I haven’t heard of other blockchains (Ex-Bitcoin) capping the number of nodes because they met the resource requirement.

Second, how much control does Dfinity have over this system of node joining ? Can this ever lead to any centralization issues? I don’t 100% know the power of having majority nodes of the system, but can’t in theory dfinity just temporarily increase the node limit, launch a bunch of nodes, cap it again, and would essentially have majority of the nodes? To me I don’t see much benefit in doing this, but I actually would like to know if there actually is some sort of benefit in doing this (like potentially controlling the chain if its possible).

Good question.

The TLDR:

  1. Dfinity does not “accept” nodes. The NNS DAO does.

  2. Dfinity (the foundation) decided to vote to reject more node providers because each node provider means more ICP being minted. Dfinity believes that it has optimum decentralization now given the usage. So it will vote down proposals to add more.

  3. Of course dfinity has a minority voting power vote so if the community wanted to override dfinity, it could.

You can find more detailed explanation on why Dfinity internal assessment on why it has enough nodes here:

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Thanks for the reply, this was a great answer!

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