Node Application 10566509037, submitted 2019-03-02 20:57:39

Respondent Id 10566509037
Application Date 2019-03-02 20:57:39
Application Language English
Applicant City Tanushimaru
Applicant State/Province Fukuoka
Applicant Country Japan
What languages do you speak? English, Japanese
What is your occupation? Taking online classes for web development full stack
How many years experience in your field? 1-3
What is the highest degree or level of school you have completed? Master’s degree (for example: MA, MS, MEng, MEd, MSW, MBA)
Please describe your experience in the Crypto/Blockchain space, if any? I entered the space by buying some Bitcoin and Ether in late 2016 and had the fortune to exit much of my position in early 2018 (which has afforded me the chance to change my career to software development). Since 2016, I have gotten experience in running a few masternodes and a personal mining set up. Also, I have been interacting with, reading, and learning how to write Ethereum applications. I would consider myself generally knowledgeable about the space and am gravitating towards the decentralized application side. I have experience doing things via command line, so as long as if I have a rough tutorial or guide, I can usually get nodes up and running and fix any problems that arise. Furthermore, I am studying web development, so my grasp of interacting with computers and programming them is growing by the day.
Are you an individual or a group? Individual
Node City Tanushimaru
Node State Fukuoka
Node Country Japan
For which networks Have you ever operated a node? Bitcoin (BTC, BCH, etc), Ethereum (ETH, ETC, etc), Monero, Phore, Pivx, Grin
What kind of improvements would you like to see in Elixxir nodes vs. previous the previous nodes you have supported? Definitely to try to limit the state bloat of the Ethereum blockchain. Their nodes are hard to run, are prone to crashes, and take ages to sync.
What are potential setbacks preventing you from operating an Elixxir node? The only thing that might prevent me is periodic travel. But I should be able to remotely monitor and intervene in the system.
What is a reasonable maximum connection speed on which you could operate a BetaNet node in your geographic region? (Where 0 = 10 Megabits/second, and 100 = 10 Gigabits/second) 50
What is a reasonable uptime estimate you can provide for your BetaNet node? (As a percentage) 95
Please estimate the cost of electricity in the geographic area where your BetaNet node will be running. . $0.14 /kwh
On a monthly basis, how much time can you publicly commit to dedicating toward governance if you were selected as a BetaNet node operator? (Where 0 = 1 hour/month, and 100 = 20 hours/month) 87
If you were selected to run a BetaNet node, would it run on your own hardware or be deployed to cloud-based servers? Hardware
In what type of environment would this server be located? Personal Home
Do you have past experience deploying hardware servers in a datacenter? No
Do you already own sufficient hardware to meet the published Elixxir BetaNet node specifications? Yes (Please list specs)
Yes (Please list specs) Ryzen 2700x, GTX 1080Ti, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD, 3TB HDD
Do you have hardware you would like to use but does not meet the stated BetaNet node specs? If so, please provide specs on that hardware below:
Do you have past experience deploying servers to cloud-based services? Yes (please specify)
Yes (please specify) I operate a Phore masternode that is deployed on Linode. I had played around with other master nodes deployed on vps for now-defunct coins too.
Why do you want to be a node? Obviously for the financial incentive, but beyond that, I'd like to contribute to an exciting upcoming platform. Also, being in Japan, I thought that my geographic location would serve the network well.
How did you originally hear about Elixxir? Word of Mouth
Which current Elixxir communities are you a member of? Discord
Are you an active member of those communities? No
What specifically, interests you about the Elixxir platform? I got a tip to check out your project, and from reading the technical brief, I thought that your system was intriguing as it solved the privacy and scalability problems currently plaguing current blockchains while still having the ability to make decentralized applications on it.
Outside of Elixxir communities, are you an active participant in other node or developer community groups? If so, which ones? I am an active participant in the Phore discord, the 0xChan discord, and the Team JUST discord.
Have you ever attended a blockchain conference? If so, which one(s)? no
As part of growing the Elixxir community, are you willing to create content as part of operating an Elixxir BetaNet node? Examples would be node setup & on-boarding review vlog post, bi-weekly twitter update, medium review of on-going node operational process, etc. Yes (how much content on a monthly basis?)
If yes, how much content on a monthly basis? I would be fine with creating node setup guides given my understanding and ability to do so. I would also be willing to do a bi-weekly updates on Twitter.
What is the difference between decentralized networks and distributed networks, and where on the decentralization spectrum do you sit? Decentralized networks refer to the quality that there is no single point of failure. Instead of just one point, there could be from a dozen to thousands of nodes. Despite this, there could still be a lot of centralization in a centralized system, because the nodes could be centered around a few defacto large hubs (like LN) or specially endowed supernodes (like TRON/EOS). A distributed system has the qualities of a decentralized system but is spread across many more users. Bitcoin is the ultimate decentralized distributed system due to the vast number of miners and individual validators. Another quality of a distributed network is that it is much harder to make protocol changes to it because you have to get a vast majority of the nodes to adopt the changes. This makes it so no one group (whether it be miners, developers, or node operators) can make changes without overwhelming consensus to do so. On one hand, I love that Bitcoin is as distributed as it is because it gives a great deal of confidence that its monetary policy will not change and that it will adhere to Szabo's law that code is law. That said, I think I am more towards where Ethereum currently stands, in that it is largely decentralized and distributed (not quite to Bitcoin levels though), but allows its very loosely organized community to more effectively advocate for and implement change in the ecosystem because there are a few thought leaders that have enough clout to herd the cats, so to speak.
As best as you can given currently available information, please describe the value proposition of the Elixxir platform and how it differs from other current blockchain solutions. From what I understand, Elixxir distinguishes itself from other blockchains in a couple of ways. For one, it solves the privacy issue in a very satisfying way. The last thing I want is my friend to look through my transaction history because I revealed my address by sending a transaction. Additionally, the fact that this privacy is maintained in decentralized applications is also very exciting as this prevents many people and institutions from using them due to such privacy concerns. The speed is also good for using Elixxir as a payments rail and for application interactivity. The one thing that has me most excited, however, is the fact that the consensus algorithm allows for unmatched security. What separates Elixxir from Tron, EOS, or some other DPoS system, is that it would require ALL nodes to collude in order for there to be a failing -- a situation that is far less likely than even a massive 51% attack on Bitcoin. That way you can preserve Szabo's law even in a somewhat less distributed system than a PoW type network.
Privacy by Default is a goal of the Elixxir Platform. In your opinion, why is Privacy by Default critical for the future of the internet? For p2p transactions and dApps, shielding your financial information is crucial. Imagine someone being able to see your bank account at all times --uncomfortable at best, dangerous at worst. But perhaps more insidious than an individual having access to your finances is a tech giant or government having that information. From the egregious abuses by Google, Facebook, the NSA, and the like, we have begun to see that our data is being used against us and for others profit. Some of the AI algorithms that were trained with our data are warping society all in the name of increasing engagement on social media platforms. Furthermore, our data is being used to manipulate us, whether politically via Cambridge Analytica, or through marketing. On top of that, as evidenced by China's social credit score, powerful bureaucrats are using our data for social engineering and control. Many people haven't woken up to this fact, but our data is a super valuable resource, and we should have a choice of if we want to keep it private or to benefit from monetizing it. If everything is private by default, then it will put power back into the hands of the individual. If we keep on going the way we have been, I would expect larger degrees of social engineering, more economic inequality, social upheaval, and a loss of freedom.
Tags Individual, Japan, English
3 Likes

wonderfull, good individual for beta node and mainnet , u have my vote

More geographical diversity glad to have you on the team.

Well written. You got my vote too. Best of luck to you.