Update November - Node Decentralization
Following up on the roadmap that we posted four weeks ago, I would like to give an update of the decentralization activities since then. Before going into the details, let’s look at the network topology as of today versus last year. A lot of progress has been made with respect to decentralization so far. The table below shows that overall decentralization has increased over the last three quarters on every metric, with the exception of the number of Node Providers (NPs) and Geographies, which is the reason our target for the next year will be to have new Node Providers onboard, in particular in new Geographies.
Storage increase of existing replica nodes
To recap, Node Providers are currently upgrading their existing configuration, allowing these Node Providers to independently manage their nodes, while at the same time increasing the storage capacity of the nodes from 3.2 TB to 32 TB. This upgrade is in full progress, with Asia nodes being 100% completed, European nodes 94 % (1 Node Provider left) and US nodes 44% completed (9 Node Providers left). We expect the upgrade of existing Node Providers to be fully completed by the end of the year.
When the upgrade of existing Node Providers is completed, the Dfinity team that is consulting these Node Providers can start to focus on the autonomous onboarding process for new Node Providers.
Testing of 2nd Generation Hardware
The minimum requirements for the next generation of replica node hardware (Gen2HW) have been published on the Internet Computer wiki, as well as three specific configurations of HW that have been validated by the Dfinity team. Validation of other HW specifications is in progress, and for discussion please refer to the separate Forum post New Hardware Specification.
Testing of the fully autonomous NP onboarding process
The new NP onboarding process consists of two parts, covered by two separate runbooks: the onboarding of a new Data Center (DC) and the registration and acceptance as a new Node Provider by the NNS. The latter runbook was already available on the wiki. The DC runbook is completed as well, and is currently being verified internally. The next step will be to test both the NP registration runbook and the DC setup in combination with Gen2HW. A brave potential new NP has agreed to test this process in November and December. The progress of these tests will mainly be determined by the lead time for procuring specific Gen2HW.
Remuneration
Cycle pricing and node provider rewards (remuneration) require refinement as the network grows. More concretely, we propose the following changes with respect to node provider rewards:
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Today’s Genesis remuneration model: In early 2021, NPs had to commit to a not-yet-launched network. To compensate for the risk taken, the original genesis remuneration model includes significant profit margins. This model does not cover all of the storage extensions described above, so the foundation has been covering a portion of those costs, while the storage was not benefitting the network.
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Interim Gen2HW-ready remuneration model: While a more general remuneration overhaul is required and needs to be discussed mid-term (see next bullet point), an interim update is required as the storage upgrade comes to a completion and NPs using Gen2HW are onboarded. We propose the remuneration to be take into account two factors. First, HW costs have risen and need to be compensated. However, having a running IC network reduces the risk of entry for new NPs, hence a lower risk premium is being included in the reward. Taking into account these above factors, the interim remuneration is lower than the Genesys remuneration model. The wiki page (Node Provider Remuneration) shows the draft of the interim remuneration model that we propose to use. It is based on currently available hardware prices and average rates for ICP and XDR. As shown from the table, the premium multiplier for remuneration will lower from 2.5 to 1.9 to take into account the reduced risk premium for joining the IC network. We look forward to your feedback in this forum thread, plan to incorporate it into the interim remuneration model and then submit the respective proposal to the NNS.
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Future remuneration model: We acknowledge that the interim remuneration update does not address all open questions such as how to incentivize decentralization through an adaptive remuneration. A more general update needs careful preparation and a thorough discussion with the community. We plan to start that discussion during the next few weeks.
Node provider self-declaration
As already asked by Jordan Last about a year ago, the autonomous NP onboarding process requires incentives for NPs and node operators to act in the interest of the IC. Moreover, the community needs sufficient information in order to be able to decide whether to adopt or reject a new NP. As sketched by Dom on Medium, we plan to discuss and propose a self-declaration for NPs. We will present that in a separate thread shortly. Stay tuned.
Way forward for onboarding
With the runbooks tested and with a proposal for interim remuneration, we can start onboarding new node providers in a controlled way. Currently, the onboarding process requires sound technical knowledge, which is something we are aiming to reduce in the coming weeks and months. The steps to follow are roughly as follows:
- NP to prepare self-declaration (separate thread to follow shortly)
- NNS registration through proposals (see Wiki instructions including all prerequisites)
- Register as an NP (including pointer to self-registration)
- Create a new data center record (if that does not exist already)
- Create a node operator record (if that does not exist already)
- NP orders hardware (see verified 2nd gen replica node configurations on the wiki)
- NP/node operator setup DC, install nodes, set up the reward configuration and have them join the network.
Lead time for ordering hardware can be up to several weeks or even months, thus the above process will take time. Most of the work is with the node providers: preparing documents for self-declaration, submitting proposals, purchasing hardware, setting up the nodes, etc. As outlined in earlier posts, we plan to provide a better user experience for some of these activities, especially for submitting proposals and changing the NP profile. For now, however, NPs should be comfortably working with a console.
As explained in the introduction of this post and also motivated in the Medium article Let’s Grow the Internet Computer Network, the IC network needs to grow. In particular, the network needs
- more, i.e. new, node providers and
- nodes in underrepresented geographies, such as Asia, Australia, and Africa in order to improve decentralization.
Call for action
In summary, we encourage
- new node providers
- who are technically savvy and not afraid to be among the first to run the autonomous onboarding process
- and plan to contribute nodes in underrepresented geographies
to start reviewing the hardware specifications, to familiarize themselves with the runbooks, and to stay tuned for the upcoming self-declaration discussion.
We propose to start with small batches of node machines (e.g. 5 per new node provider and location). As the process matures based on the feedback of these early adopters, we expect the numbers to grow more rapidly.
We look forward to feedback from the community, especially from potential future node providers.