Sounds good right? Luckily you can also have a part of the cake.

Running a Chainlink node might not be a walk in the park for the average individual. Especially ones who are not software developers, or have prior technical knowledge. Fortunately, Chainlink created a guide to setting up a node.

However, it is important to factor a number of aspects if you intend to run a node, and understand the various projects already available to help you with the process:

API Sources - What do you bring to the table?

Chainlink nodes are not the conventional “stake and forget” nodes that we are used to from various Proof of Stake (“PoS”) coins, which require little to no participation once you have staked them. Chainlink nodes need to offer information which is provided via an API (Application Programming Interface).

This means that besides having the node running, you also need to know what you are aiming to offer with your node — which API source you are going to offer data from. There may be some APIs that are offered for free, which can be in demand, but competition from other nodes will be higher due to the low barrier to entry. It is likely that most API sources that will have demand will be the ones you need to pay for — usually annual/monthly purchase of the API keys. Keep in mind that re-selling data via a third party API without an agreement is generally against the Terms of Service of the API, and may result in the API provider cutting your access to the API, which can lead to penalty payments for your node.

clcg.io — “Your partner for a trustless future”

External Adapters - can you even connect?

The Chainlink node can support fulfilling requests for open APIs out-of-the-box using Chainlink’s core adapters, without additional configuration. If you would like to provide data from an authenticated API (Read: most of the API sources that’ll be used), you need to add an external adapter to enable connectivity through the Chainlink node.

The Chainlink node passes the details of the request to be made to the external adapter. The external adapter combines the request details and the API key, and makes the request. Then, the results are passed back to the Chainlink smart contract.

An external adapter needs to be developed and configured for each authenticated API. These external adapters can be operated on the node machine, but also on a separate machine. CLC Group’s Honeycomb provides external adapters under a software-as-a-service model: in plain English, it means you do not need to create any external adapters if you use Honeycomb, CLC Group does it for us.

But what about the data?

CLC Group’s aim is to lower the technical and financial barriers for running a node, which is why they’re creating the Honeycomb Marketplace:

A catalog of authenticated APIs, as a venue for API providers to make their data visible

• external adapters by CLC Group — developed, operated and maintained. Designed to be user-friendly and easily accessible, So you don’t need to know how to code, which might be necessary when you need to update the API (e.g. some kind of change in the data format from the API provider’s end).

• Per-call pricing for both node operators and API providers: you can pay in Cryptocurrency straight from your ERC20 wallet, goodbye annual or monthly subscriptions!

• Portfolio UI to allow node operators to easily manage their API portfolio and payments through a graphical user interface.

clcg.io — “Your partner for a trustless future”

Through Honeycomb API marketplace, APIs will be available to Chainlink node operators with per-call pricing and serverless external adapters. Thus, within minutes, Chainlink nodes will be able to connect to any API listed on CLC Group’s Honeycomb.