Freedom-Gemini, the v4.0 update of the software for nodes on the OriginTrail Decentralized Network (ODN), has been released on GitHub. It has already been launched on the public Freedom-Gemini Testnet, which enables anyone to join and run a testnet node before Freedom-Gemini is launched on the ODN mainnet on December 26th.

At the same time, the core development team of the OriginTrail protocol has released a new version of the Houston application, a “remote control,” user-friendly interface for managing your node.

Houston Enables Easy Control Of Your Node

Houston is now more powerful than ever. It includes functionalities previously available in the “Node Profile” web interface and additional new functionalities, such as parametric pricing, which enables more control over your node’s ROI. Because of this integration, Houston now requires the use of a Web3 wallet (such as Metamask) for certain features like changing your management wallet and withdrawing tokens, and other functionalities related to smart contracts. As before, you can use any hardware wallets supported by your Web3 wallet interface.

Parametric pricing is the newest feature of Houston and allows everyone to set their node services pricing according to a simple parameter, the Lambda factor. Houston additionally helps users estimate how a specific Lambda setting would reflect compensation by presenting “live” examples that can be used to more effectively set the node’s Lambda factor.

It is important to note that each node can operate as both a Data Creator (DC) and a Data Holder (DH) at the same time (as the network is symmetrical). Therefore, the Houston interface allows two settings for Lambda — the DC Lambda factor value, which the node will use when publishing data to the network, and the DH Lambda factor, used for calculating the price when responding to DC node offer requests.

Each node gets to set its price factors independently, forming the ODN node services market. Setting up the factors requires some care, however. A very high DH Lambda factor can cause your node to be too costly as a DH node (and thus not get a significant number of jobs that might be offered at a cheaper price on the network). At the same time, a low DC lambda factor could cause your DC node offers not to be replicated to the network, as not enough nodes will respond to an inadequate compensation request. An inadequately high DC price factor could be wasteful as your node might be spending too much on services that are effectively cheaper on the market.

Houston has also migrated to a new repository and remains a completely open-source web application. The team invites all node holders and developers to submit feedback and contributions directly to the new Github repository via pull requests.

To download the Houston v4, head over to the Houston Github repo and follow the instructions there.

If you used the Houston app before, you need to download the new Houston. The old app will not be updated and will not work with the new node software

How to Install a Testnet Node

Detailed instructions on how to run the latest Freedom-Gemini v4 testnet node can be found here.

The Freedom-Gemini testnet operates in conjunction with the Ethereum Rinkeby testnet and therefore requires nodes to use a small amount of Rinkeby ETH, which can be obtained through the Rinkeby ETH Faucet.