When the countdown to ETH2.0 starts, how to provide convenient node construction and staking services for small and medium investors may become the next hot spot in the industry track.
Written by: Dabei
In the recently discussed publicity of Polkadot and ETH2.0, people will see the name “Ankr” in ecological partners. The project has entered the blockchain industry since 2018 and has always been well known for its blockchain cloud services. Recently, Ankr has integrated its cloud service and node service business. In addition to “efficiency” and “performance”, it has begun to pay more attention to user experience, with the new goal of reducing user entry barriers.
From Pow to PoS, from cloud mining to node professional users
When it comes to trillion-dollar cloud computing, most people think of centralized Internet companies such as Google, Amazon, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud and other giants. But in the blockchain industry, related cloud services mainly refer to the construction and maintenance of public chain nodes. The reason why Ankr can obtain ecological cooperation with many popular public chains and DeFi projects is that it proposes a one-click business of building nodes on the basis of mature cloud computing services.
The PoW consensus public chain represented by Bitcoin is based on mining nodes that are rewarded and responsible for block production. When mining becomes more professional and requires complex knowledge such as electricity and mining machines and large capital investment, cloud mining emerges, that is, a service that shares a part of block rewards by renting computing power with small capital investment.
As Ethereum turns to PoS consensus, and many new public chains such as Polkadot adopt PoS-like consensus algorithms, staking has become an increasingly mainstream business. At present, if individuals and small and medium players want to staking, they generally need to do it in a mining pool, wallet or exchange. If you want to maximize the benefits of staking, it is still a good choice to build a node personally.
Setting up a node may seem simple, but the threshold is still high. Not only need computer and network operation and maintenance knowledge, but also constantly update public chain knowledge, from consensus rule upgrades, to staking distribution mechanisms, and even the latest trends in Dapp…In short, the gameplay is endless, and node maintenance is not something that you can participate in with money. At this time, Ankr has become an indispensable choice.
In the field of cloud services for node deployment, Ankr has now developed more maturely, and it is focusing on integrating cloud computing with node building services. In addition to the Polkadot and ETH2.0 mentioned above, Ankr has supported the deployment of more than 100 types of nodes in more than 50 projects. For example, OKchain, EOS, Tron, Compound, Kusama, etc. all have ecological cooperation with Ankr.
Ankr’s killer feature: build nodes with one click
Generally speaking, nodes can be divided into “Developer Full Nodes” and “Pledge Nodes” according to their types. There are some hard requirements for the construction of nodes: “technology”, “cost” and “security”, as well as certain requirements for the number of users holding coins
Ankr’s one-click build node just solves these problems:
Lower the technical threshold
It avoids the problems of requiring individuals to purchase servers, parameter settings, and node upgrades in the traditional model. Let people who don’t understand technology but want to participate in the node to get benefits can quickly participate.
For example, in the current Polkadot cooperation, it can be seen that Ankr’s service to Polkadot supports the operation and maintenance of managed servers. Polkadot’s validator mechanism and need to hold a certain share of DOT, build nodes to earn commissions, and the commission income is currently very objective. But Polkadot’s upgrade mechanism is not backward compatible. Therefore, it is difficult for individuals to build Polkadot nodes, and Ankr directly circumvents these problems through technical and commercial solutions.
cut costs
As mentioned above, Ankr itself is a relatively mature cloud computing service platform. Idle computing power can become Ankr’s supplier, and the supplier can obtain token incentives while renting out idle computing power, so under the same configuration , Ankr’s node construction cost is about half of Amazon Cloud.
Safety
As a decentralized computing power service platform, decentralized computing power service providers reduce certain risks and ensure that the hosting service will not affect the entire node hosting business due to a problem with one service provider.
In the second half of the year, ETH2.0, Layer2, etc. are worth paying attention to, and their revenue is related to nodes. “One-click node building” like Ankr will likely get more users’ attention.
“Micro Pool”: Small funds can also participate in Staking
Ankr’s one-click construction of dozens of different nodes reduces the technical threshold to a certain extent. Stkr aims to lower the funding barriers for staking. Stkr is a decentralized pledge agreement platform, which is fully supported by Ankr, and Ankr escrows and pledges nodes, which reduces the threshold for participation and simplifies the participation process. Stkr is not a new token, it is 100% dependent on ANKR token.
In the pledge rules of ETH2.0, 32ETH is a starting point. Below this number, you will not be able to participate in the pledge. This sets up a certain investment threshold. Stkr is equivalent to doing a crowdfunding, lowering the entry standard. Users can deploy ETH2.0 nodes on Stkr. The Stkr infrastructure proposed a concept called “Micropool”, that is, investors with a small amount of ETH (<32ETH) can form an investor group holding more than 32ETH. For example, if a user pledges 1 ETH in the "micro pool", he will receive 3.125% (i.e. 1/32) of all rewards obtained by the verification node.
This is very different from other Staking-as-a-Service platforms in the current market. The first batch of PoS blockchains such as Cosmos and Tezos limited the number of validators on the platform, which will cause the node pledge market to favor validators with more coins or higher stability. With the release of Polkadot, ETH2.0, Avalanche and other protocols, these ecosystems need to rely on a large number of validators, so how to get more people to participate is an urgent problem to be solved.
Currently, DPoS can also meet the needs of small investors, but Stkr provides the decentralized pool function for the first time. In addition to ETH2.0 staking, users can also apply the Stkr protocol to implement decentralized staking on other PoS blockchains, such as Polkadot, Binance, EOS and Cosmos.
Stkr’s goal is to allow millions of small investors to be connected and become an important part of the ecology of the Staking platform. To achieve this goal, Ankr, which can support individual users and users with no technical background to quickly get started deploying nodes, has more advantages. According to existing news, the Stkr protocol is expected to be launched together with ETH2.0.
It is foreseeable that as the Polkadot parachain slot auction approaches and the ETH2.0 upgrade enters the countdown, more and more project parties will begin to plan to lower the threshold for node construction and compete for small capital investors. Who on this track can be selected by the market to become the leader is worthy of our long-term attention.
