Hello Lorimer!
Please note:
- There aren’t any rules against NPs working together or assisting each other, as Tina, George, and Bianca are doing.
- There aren’t any rules against NPs running some nodes under their own personal identity and also under a business identity.
Both of these situations have existed since Genesis. We recognize that it could be considered a risk, but no more a risk than:
- Our self-declaration process would be very easy to fake.
- There is nothing to stop a bunch of NPs from giving access (for technical support or any other reason) to the same person… and no one would ever know unless they were honest and open about it, as @louisevelayo is.
But I am not saying that it’s NOT a risk. It is. I’m just more concerned about those who I don’t already know are working together than I am these whom I know are working together.
We know that George is involved in business with Tina and GeoNodes (GeoNodes’ self-declaration shows that he is not trying to hide it) and we have told him that we—DFINITY—would not vote in support of him running more than 42 nodes no matter how many businesses it is or people that he’s assisting. I’ve met Tina and she’s very involved in trying to increase security with the IC in our technical working groups, etc. I have not had the pleasure of meeting Bianca yet. George and Tina are also involved in other ecosystem projects.
You’re right that this is an area of security that could/should be improved, and it also reflects an added layer of complication to decentralization. We welcome the community’s thoughts on how that might be achieved. The Technical Working Group has also been discussing possible methods of verifying who people really are, such as independent KYC requirements. A good solution has yet to be found!
- Katie
ETA: Evidently Tina’s legal name is Bianca, but there is absolutely nothing wrong by going by a nickname, so this does not bother me. Katie is not my legal name, and yet I go by it everywhere, including on this forum. Tina has correctly stated that she is not running nodes under her nickname, but her legal name, which is correct and honest. I see now that she actually announced this on the forum back in 2023 here, but I missed that forum post, which is not surprising since I was not watching the forums closely back then and I met her after that.