Early Cypherpunks would urge every single user to ‘run their own node’. Thereby creating a financial system that would be fully decentralised and a truly peer-to-peer network. A glorious idea, but even for seasoned crypto enthusiasts, it often comes down to choosing cloud services over self hosting due to fear of downtime and localised issues.
If you are planning to deploy smart contracts or are a builder that already has active code live on the blockchain, you will need a direct line with the blockchain you are on. The allure of having a dedicated node, impervious to misuse and manipulation, is undeniable. Don’t trust. Verify, after all. But how reasonable is it to expect people to run their own node?
Advantages of Running Your Own Node
Let’s go over some of the reasons you would want to take the leap and invest time in running your own node. First and foremost, it can be an act of principle. An increased number of nodes, situated in diverse geographical locations, enhances the resilience of any blockchain network. By running your own node, you actively contribute to the decentralisation effort thereby making the blockchain stronger against attacks.
Another classic benefit is Censorship Resistance. Running your own node guarantees uninterrupted access to the blockchain, safe from potential censorship from third-party nodes. It ensures that transactions are promptly broadcasted throughout the peer-to-peer network, eliminating restrictions imposed by others or any delays. That is, if you are able to maintain up-time. But we will discuss this in a bit.
A third advantage centres around privacy and security. Utilising a public node carries the risk of exposing personal information, including IP and wallet addresses. In contrast, a dedicated node allows for secure interactions with the blockchain, safeguarding personal data. Transactions are locally verified, minimising vulnerability to malicious activities.
The above arguments all have their merit and if someone wants to go all out and strengthen decentralisation, be censorship resistant and have their privacy protected, running your own node is the way to go. This will come with some challenges though, so let’s discuss the disadvantages next.
The Disadvantages Of Running Your Own Node
Lots of work is being done by major blockchain developers to make running home nodes less of a nuisance. But right now, that is mainly future talk. Many of us have at least tried running a node once in our lives, getting either lost in the setup, lack of documentation, or never make it to syncing their node to the newest blocks. And even if you do, good luck with all the technical issues and errors that pop up. There is no way of sugar coating it. Establishing and maintaining your own node demands a significant investment of time.
Another hurdle will be the investment of a financial nature. Maintenance will entail substantial resources, including dedicated hardware with ample storage capacity and a high-speed internet connection capable of handling the blockchain’s demands. Running your own node will never be as sufficient as larger parties who have scaled up and specialised into Infrastructure-as-a-Service for blockchains.
When you do get your node up and running, you might think you can take a breather. However, nodes run into errors and often encounter various issues, such as CPU spikes, disk problems, memory leaks, inconsistent peering, and transaction broadcasting challenges. Reliability becomes a concern. Blockchains do not follow office hours. It needs constant monitoring or else you could lose precious up-time which can lead to data loss and financial penalties in networks like Proof-of-Stake.
These financial risks plus needing up-time to deliver whatever blockchain data your project needs to be live generally means your team would need a dedicated team member or engineer to maintain the node. This introduces the risk of knowledge gaps and potential downtime if they leave the project. The search for replacements and subsequent training further amplifies costs and time investment. But even if your team member stays on forever, it will mean dedicating time to constant R&D around node maintenance.
While being a cypherpunk is admirable, most of us can’t afford to spend so much time on infra. Your main concern should be running your DApp project, not running a node. Could there be a middle ground where you maintain ownership and support the network while not having to deal with maintenance and up-time risks?
Liquify Offers the Best of Both Worlds
As seasoned Infrastructure Providers, we at Liquify have mulled over everything that has been mentioned so far. We are happy to say that we have come up with fitting solutions to all of it! We offer fully-managed nodes, enabling you to enjoy the advantages of running a node without the complexities of infrastructure setup and maintenance.
Not your keys, not your coins. We understand this as no other. Therefore at Liquify we are completely non-custodial. You always remain in charge, we just help you with the infrastructure side of things. Liquify‘s’ bare metal servers are self owned, so no reliance on big cloud companies either! We are spread out over the world and are able to provide dedicated nodes for your needs in areas close to you such as the USA, Europe or Asia.
Pesky issues with up-time and scared of slashing events? We got you covered, literally. Most providers promise up-time numbers, but in practice will still falter. Liquify however guarantees 99.95% up-time, under SLA. Always ensuring seamless interaction with the blockchain, and enabling smart contract operations, transactions, and data requests whenever needed. In the highly unlikely event of slashing, Liquify pledges to cover it.
Among the many different public node providers and their privacy trade offs, Liquify is proud to say it is one of the largest infrastructure providers within the Pocket Network. Pocket consistently scores well on multiple metrics, among which Privacy is an important one.
Research shows that it takes a lot of OpSec to stay anonymous on public blockchains. Just your RPC endpoint or node will not do the full trick, if you are truly dedicated to privacy, you will need to take additional measurements, regardless of running your own node.
Service providers like Liquify handle all tasks necessary for maintaining a functioning blockchain infrastructure, eliminating your need for an in-house team dedicated to node operation. By offloading the maintenance responsibilities to Liquify you can allocate more engineering resources to developing decentralised applications, serving customers and growing your ecosystem.
We live and breathe Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Whereas many people struggle with lacking documentation and guidance on how to run a node, Liquify is actively supporting chains with creating better docs. We have most of our team dedicated to our nodes and making sure we are always up to date on the latest developments.
Liquify is running nodes on 50+ chains and more are in the pipelines. This means minimal waiting time for your project to onboard and start reaping the benefits. At Liquify we are the marathon runners of running nodes.
Running a node provides builders and users alike with an up-to-date copy of the blockchain, safeguarded against censorship. However, while setting up and managing one’s own node is feasible, it can be both costly and time-consuming. Consequently, many builders opt to leverage infrastructure providers like Liquify, enabling them to focus on product development and community development, all while maintaining custody over their own keys.
While exploring the balance between autonomy and the technical challenges of node operation, it’s crucial to understand the role of Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs). For an in-depth look at how Liquify is revolutionising RPC performance, click here.
About Liquify
Founded in 2021, Liquify Ltd is a certified UK based Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) company servicing institutions and foundations. We have over $100M in staked assets and do more than 500M RPC requests per day.
In need of a reliable validator partner? Looking for an RPC provider that has guaranteed uptime? Contact us here.
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