Thanks so much for your comments.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev] Is there a long-term solution to the ever-growing data on chain? Can it possibly grow unbounded forever?

The core devs would implement this, yes, but we can discuss the various options. I may have missed it, but I don’t remember seeing any EIPs related to this. It ties in with the next item.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev] Can the nodes provide better fine-grained control of what data is stored by the nodes?

Again, I don’t see any EIPs concerning this issue. As an example, I can choose to run --pruning archive or not and I get either 1.5 TB or much, much less. Can I have pruning archive:4000000 ? In other words, archive, but only back to block 4,000,000. It’s obviously possible because you can go from no archive to all archive. Can we get partial archive? Or how about '–pruning archive:six weeks back` where the node constantly keeps six weeks of full history. In that six week (or ten, or 52, or whatever), the user can extract whatever data they want from the node, and be able to reclaim space that is needlessly kept now. This group can help the CoreDevs understand how useful this would be. Obviously, they don’t see that given the lack of any EIPs related to something like this.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [Global] Is the community in danger of being “captured” by efforts such as EtherScan, Infura, Google Big Table, CloudFlare which are fully centralized?

==>unclear what danger do you mean

Most of my concerns are about the data after it’s been extracted from the chain, as is done with the recent Google Big Table effort. Google may be building that database for the world out of the kindness of their heart, but my guess is that they hope people will build applications on that data. Over time, the more people rely on using convenience tools such as APIs built on off-chain data, the more Google has the potential of capturing those applications making it impossible for them to move to other solutions. Google’s pitch: Check out this amazing data, it’s been agreed to by the entire world, ignore the fact that it’s only available through our APIs due to the astronomical size of the data otherwise.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [Oracles?] Can off-chain data providers be forced to prove they’ve not manipulated the data they deliver?

Again, I’m referring to off-chain data. (I think of Oracles going the other way from outside to in – I’m talking about inside to out.) . For example, I can use EtherScan’s API to retrieve a list of transactions on my account, but they simply send that data to me. I might build an accounting or auditing solution on that API, but how do I know that EtherScan has not made a mistake or is purposefully altering the data? And, getting back to the ‘capture’ issue, if (as is true of EtherScan) they make additions to the data (for example adding is_error flags to transactions without being explicit, moving your app to another API will that much more difficult. If instead, APIs that provided off-chain data were explicit about how they derived that data, moving to other providers would be easier. In the best of all worlds, the nodes themselves would be easy enough to run and the access to the data from the node would be useful enough that we wouldn’t need third party APIs such as EtherScan and Big Table.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [DataRing] What minimum data requirements do different types of users need:

dApp devs

These users want deep analytics on everything that happens on thier dapps across test and main nets.

Regular everyday non-dev users of smart contract

This user wants to know where their money is and wants to keep a (potentially close) watch on the smart contract she interacts with.

Everyday users who don’t use smart contracts

This user just wants to know where their money is.

Auditors / Accountants

This user wants full details of everything including all incoming and outgoing transactions (both internal and external) as well as all events.

Industry analists

This user wants cross-block summary statistics, etc.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [DataRing] Does each different user type need the same or different solutions?

==> You mean different client?

I mean different users have different needs. As a way to increase the number of people who run nodes (which would be beneficial to everyone), the nodes could provide more options to different types of people.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev] What happens to existing solutions (blockchain explorers) when the chain shards?

Does anyone see any conversation anywhere about this issue? Whenever I ask people (in person) they literally say “Don’t ask.” How is EtherScan preparing for sharding? How is Infura preparing for sharding? How are the other open source blockchain explorers preparing or sharding? How about privacy-laden transactions when we start incorporating Z-cash like transactions?

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev] Will solutions we build apply to multiple different chains (Polkadot, Plasma)?

Why core devs? I’m talking about blockchain data. If things work out as they seem to be headed, everyone’s data is going to be coming from multiple sources. Does anyone actually think that’s going to work?

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev, DataRing] Will each Plasma chain have its own explorer?

==> I think, yes. DataRing can aim to establish common data interchange standart

Is this Polkadot? (I’m not sure.)

[quote=“Ethernian, post:2, topic:1438”]

[DataRing] Does it make sense to have different solutions for different standards (i.e ERC20 explorer, 721 Explorer)?

==> What do you mean by solution?

[/qutoe]

Will there (or should there) arise different explorers/data solutions for the different standards? I.e. will there be different solutions for 721 land records vs. 721 game assets vs. 721 artwork vs. whatever? Would 721 explorers be different (or should they be) than ERC20 explorers?

Ethernian: Ethernian: [DataRing] Are there viable business models for providers of already consented-to data?

Are there viable business models for providers of already consented-to data? Should there be business models and/or ‘data marketplaces’ or does that lead to haves and have-nots?

==> Question unclear

The two previous questions try to get at the idea of a common good or community good. Is the consented-to data a community good? Should the community, who’s spent all these resources to achieve the amazing feat of coming to agreement on world-wide data, allow themselves to end up in a place where they have to pay for the very data they created? Does the value of the data disappear if the only way we can get to for accounting or auditing purposes it is through a third party such as EtherScan or Google? This is particularly true if Google captures us and doesn’t prove to us that they haven’t manipulated the data. For me, it almost gets to the point where I ask why we’re coming to agreement on the data anyway if we have to ask Google for accounting-quality data.

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev] How can the nodes be improved related to (a) lessening storage requirements, (b) deliver more useful data, (c ) easing extraction of data for specific uses.

The core devs aren’t doing this. I think they don’t see it as a problem (this is based on the fact that we see articles arguing why 1.5 TB is not a problem).

Ethernian: Ethernian: [CoreDev, DataRing] Can the RPCs be improved? New end points? Missing or extraneous params to existing end points. Are the RPCs on all clients consistent? Are the RPCs well documented?

==> DataRing can create a spec and let implement CoreDev adopt it.

The one thing here that I think would be a good place to start is to try to get the Parity and Geth RPCs related to tracing to agree. If you want to build audit-quality or accounting-quality data, you really need traces. Parity’s traces are pretty good here, Geth’s not so much.