We recently presented the staking model and the option to run a COTI Full Node. We held an AMA shortly after to let our community ask everything they want to know about Full Nodes. Here is the recap of the AMA.
Here is only a description of ubuntu. What about Windows users?
Windows environment is less stable for this purpose, therefore not recommended. In addition, we do not provide a manual for running nodes through Windows. It is currently recommended to use ubuntu or centos 7.
Is the minimum requirement 16GB memory? 8GB is not enough? Vultr has only one option that supports 16GB, which supports 6vCPU cores. The team asked for 4vCPU.
Yes, 16GB is the minimal requirement.
It is recommended. Node app can work with less memory, but the lack of memory can lead the app to crash. We recommend not less than 16GB and strongly not recommend using nodes with less than 8 GB.
What if I enter a fee of 5%?
In this case, most if not all of the merchants will choose not to transact through your full node and you won’t get any fees collected.
How do node users choose the desired node?
Users are choosing the node by selecting it manually through the wallet based on the node trustscore and fees. In payment request the node is selected randomly. The probability of selection depends on fee and Trustscore. — the merchant defines the range he would like to use for his transactions.
If a node sets for example 0.01% fee, that node might get almost all of transactions? Guess a typical criteria users setup is to autochoose the one with lowest fee. So how will it be balanced? Will it be a lowest fee limit? E.g. 0.05%? Some node operators might just battle to get most transactions?
The probability distribution is shaped so the node will have the maximum expected income is at the recommended fee level. If a user set the fee lower than recommended, he will have more transactions but less income in total. Also the probability is low for low fees, so if a user would set very low fee, such node will almost never be recommended. Zero-fee node can be chosen only manually.
If the Advanced Node receives 25% of fixed income per year, it is 2% of fixed income per month. If a coti user can choose a node, how would he choose a cheaper node? How can an Advanced Node get a fixed monthly income of 2%?
The probability of a node to be selected depends on the stake. If Advanced Node has its stake 2.5 times more than standard Node, the probability is 2.5 times more and return rate is the same. If the return rate is less than 25%, COTI compensates the difference.
Is staking also required for running a node on TestNet?
No. TestNet is used as a sandbox environment on which you can install the node and experiment with the environment.
Guess a merchant with high TrustScore is running its own huge node(s) and sets the transaction fee to zero to attract customers. Operational costs for nodes are not crucial for big merchants and may be calculated into the retail price. Merchants are focused on doing business.
Other participants of COTI-network may also select these cheap nodes for their transactions. So other nodes with even low fees will not get any transaction to be processed.
Will this lead to network centralisation or bottlenecks?
It is not a problem for several reasons. At first, a Full Node has to do PoW. It limits the throughput. Second, if a merchant wants zero-fee full node, it is not reasonable for that merchant to serve all users for free and overload the Full Node. We suppose that such node will filter requests, give it’s fee and process transactions for this merchant only.
I read: “ In the current development stage, Full Nodes are the only available nodes that can be run by network users. DSP Nodes and Trust Score Nodes will also be operated by users as the network matures. “ Why do your team have a this decision why not at the same time?
DSP nodes are validators, they are voting for transactions. In all similar consensus systems, becoming a validator is long and expensive way (Ripple, Libra, EOS, etc) because of subtle consensus mechanics and great responsibility of validators. It is not like PoW systems like Bitcoin. COTI is going this way step-by-step with all needed carefulness.
“In August 2019, the COTI network processed transactions equating to 225M COTI (an equivalent of about $5M USD).” Can you tell me your team’s goal the COTI network processed transactions for 2020?
We plan to do at least $25M a month by the end of 2020.
Try to estimate a share that you can take out of it. assume an average transaction of 100$ and go from there. Obviously the averages can change.
By the way, do you know who will be the first to run a node? Winston from Wolf Crypto!
Your team note: “ COTI ambassadors may run up to three Advanced Full Nodes “ so how can an individual become a coti ambassador?”
You are invited to read the ambassador program details here and sign up if this is relevant to you: https://forms.gle/4m3CwsaF6CQeubfh7
What are the incentives that customers receive when running full notes?
Full Node fee from processed transactions
Will COTI provide demo coins to staking node on testnet?
You won’t need demo coins to run in the test environment.
What is the Node Calculation based on? How Full Nodes collect fees? How large merchants get involved if server throughput is limited?
All COTI transactions include a dedicated payment for the full node fee. In order to create a transaction, the transaction originator (user wallet or merchant app, if the transaction is a payment for goods or services) has to request from full node how much it wants to be paid. If there is no fee payment (or it is not correct), the Full Node will not process the transaction.
Very large merchants can use several full nodes.
Is there no guide for Windows? So should I use ubuntu? Most use Windows. You should first guide ubuntu instructions.
It is not recommended to use windows so yes you should use ubuntu or centos 7.
What currency will compensate the difference? (COTI coin or dollar..?)
COTI Coin
I would like to understand at what time will we be able to run nodes? I understand first on testnet and only trusted members (team, etc)but when will I be able to do it? will it still be on testnet it will it be already on mainnet?
If all goes well in the tests then probably November.
Why don’t you offer staking for the mess?
That’s November, Ron. things like dpos will be next year
What is this advanced node? Not sure I understood
A node that gives you at least 25% annual return. technically, it’s like a basic node.
Will COTI incentivize history nodes as well? What role will history nodes play in COTI?
The History Nodes keep the earlier parts of the Cluster after the Clusterstamp process is complete.
Full account history can be retrieved from the History Nodes. So with history nodes the full nodes only need to store the current cluster in their storage and not the full history of the network and by that overcome the storage challenge which exists in most blockchain solutions. The fees collected by history nodes are received from the network fees and in the future it will be possible to also run a history node instance by users.
Can locked coins from community presale be used for staking as these COTI are already (b)locked and can not be traded?
No, it is not possible to use locked coins to stake.
“Dsp nodes and trust score nodes will be operated by users as the network matures” . What does the COTI team mean by this?
DSP nodes are validators, they are voting for transactions. In all similar consensus systems, becoming a validator is long and expensive way (Ripple, Libra, EOS, etc) because of subtle consensus mechanics and great responsibility of validators. It is not like PoW systems like Bitcoin. COTI is going this way step-by-step with all needed carefulness.
For any question you have, feel free to contact us on our Telegram group.
COTI Resources
Website: https://coti.io
Github: https://github.com/coti-io
Technical whitepaper: https://coti.io/files/COTI-technical-whitepaper.pdf
