Since today, all DAppNode users can find the package to install Vipnode in their machines.

DAppNode has the mission to help decentralize the infrastructure behind blockchains and web3. Vipnode is meant to be an incentive structure that allows nodlers — using DAppNode or any other full node — to be paid for running these nodes!

Let’s see 1) how the ecosystem will benefit from it and 2) how nodlers will.

Why does it matter for the ecosystem?

For convenience, most people usually use a light client to interact with the Ethereum network. This presents a scalability issue because light clients need to connect to a full node to broadcast their activities, and there are not so many people running these nodes. In peaks of usage light clients might be unable to connect to a node for hours.

Among many people trying to find solutions for that was Andrey Petrov (@shazow on twitter), who also formed a ring within the fellowship of Ethereum magicians focusing on solutions for Constrained Resource Clients.

Intuitively enough, with more nodes there would be more slots for light clients, but running full nodes is expensive and relying on the goodwill of the people that are paying to maintain their nodes is not sustainable in the long term. His vision was to, as an immediate solution, economically incentivize the use of full nodes and create a model where people can pay for priority access to these nodes. Hence, Vipnode was created!

DAppNode was in turn born out of the idea that it should be easy for people to run their own nodes in order to censor-proof the network and truly decentralize access to web3 and DApps without relying on nodes owned by centralized parties or hosted in centralized systems like VPSs.

It doesn’t take a genius to see how our ambition to create a more resilient and decentralized network with more nodes made for a partnership made in heaven!

Why does it matter for me as a nodler?

This is the first incentive layer included in DAppNode. You already can give access to your devices, friends, family and community easily through your DAppNode, but now you can do so externally by setting up Vipnode and join the pool. When a client connects to your node with priority access, you can receive cold hard (rinkeby, for now) ETH!

In order to install this you will have to go to your installer tab, find Vipnode, input your payout address (or you can do that after installation), click install… and it’s done! What? Yes! Didn’t we promise you that we would offer you one-click easy installs for your favourite DApps?

More broadly, this is the first incentive scheme that we include in DAppNode, but there will be more coming up very soon. Ideally, a DAppNode should be able to pay for itself after a while!

Vipnode now and then

Vipnode is in 2.0 thanks to a grant from the Ethereum Foundation and a partnership with Infura.

In the words of Andrey:

“I’m very happy with the progress, and getting this far has revealed a lot of new and interesting paths that are available for Vipnode’s future.”

Today, Vipnode is in the planning phase for v3.0 and Andrey is trying to procure financial support for the upcoming work. In order to cover the maintenance there’s a Gitcoin Grants page: check it out and donate if you can!

We asked him about what’s coming next and he replied:

“Given the current state of the Ethereum network, an unexpected focus for v3.0 is turning out to be infrastructure tooling related. I want to make Vipnode a must-have companion for all people who run full nodes by providing many useful and easy-to-use utilities like notifications if your node is misbehaving. For people who run multiple nodes, Vipnode v3.0 pools will include a load balancing feature as well as a “mini-Infura” Web3 frontend API so that you can use any Web3-compatible wallet (such as MetaMask) to query a cluster of full nodes.”

To all nodlers out there, go ahead and install Vipnode! If you are not a nodler, you can start running DAppNode in your machine or you can wait for our preinstalled dappnode servers which will go on sale at the end of the month!

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