Hi @Joera. Yes, I encourage you to start a space/thread discussing roles for validators. I believe actively participating in Gnosis DAO governance and this forum is one of these, so I’m pleased with the level and amount of engagement lately!
How many unique validators are there, honestly? What can be said about distribution, value, etc? There is many Gnosis data hidden deep inside Dune. Can someone from Gnosis dig that up, present it?
Much of this data can be found on the Gnosis Chain metrics page, specifically this one here on client distribution. This dashboard is based on transport-level information, similar to data we used for an interesting privacy assessment of P2P validator sniping before I joined Gnosis. TLDR: there are somewhat under 400 individual peers on the network that serve Gnosis Chain information to other peers. Not all of these are validators, but I consider this an upper bound of people who are actively running nodes for Gnosis Chain.
First, it’s important to point out that you can (and should) still run your node when Gnosis Chain transitions to an L2. This will give you local Gnosis Chain state, without relying on RPC providers or other centralized data sources. However, validators in the PoS sense won’t exist in Gnosis’ L2 vision, so those node runners who are currently also validators will sadly see that effort come to an end.
If people are looking for other ways to support the Gnosis ecosystem as a node runner, Gnosis VPN could indeed be a viable option, as @ernst alludes to in the GIP.
I spearheaded work on Gnosis VPN, as outlined in GIP-98 for a PoC, GIP-122 to bring it to market (ongoing) and GIP-127 to set up its legal framework and there are multiple roles that Gnosis Chain node runners and validators can play here.
Recently I demoed Gnosis VPN at Dappcon and made the case for why Gnosis needs a VPN. In brief: all Gnosis products and users benefit from the privacy and freedoms granted by an uncensorable VPN, and Gnosis gains a further stream of revenue and users by tapping into one of the world’s largest software markets.
What that talk didn’t cover is why the VPN needs Gnosis, or rather why Gnosis was chosen as the network where we build this thing. We’ve always known that Gnosis has many caring and engaged node operators who are capable of running crypto economic infrastructure at scale. That’s exactly Gnosis VPN and the underlying network need.
Gnosis VPN leverages the HOPR mixnet for its strong anonymity properties. The HOPR network currently comprises just under 400 peers and is thus of similar size to Gnosis Chain in terms of peers. A HOPR node relays data packets for others, mixing them up to prevent anyone from tracking flows of data. Nodes earn tokens for this work thanks to HOPR’s proof-of-relay mechanism – an innovation in the mixnet space. There is also stake-based earning from cover traffic, a mechanism which provides an additional blanket of anonymity for the whole network. Anyone who is interested in joining that set of nodes can already do so today. Check out our docs for convenient ways of running a HOPR node on a broad range of devices. Like Gnosis, HOPR is friends with DappNode, so validators with DappNodes will find dedicated HOPR DappNode packages in the DappNode store.
That’s the HOPR network. But Gnosis VPN also needs dedicated exit nodes which serve as connectors between the fully anonymous HOPR mixnet and the current internet. In addition to the standard relay rewards, exit nodes earn tokens for making their IP address available for Gnosis VPN users to access the internet, although it should be noted that the reward and risk profiles differ from vanilla node running. I invite people and organizations interested in running exit nodes to get in touch with me to explore possibilities, concerns and requirements.
Ultimately, Gnosis has always built resilient infrastructure and products that empower the individual. Gnosis VPN falls into that category as well and is bringing users, revenue and new use cases to the Gnosis ecosystem in a proven and multi-billion dollar VPN market. I mention these numbers to highlight that the potential for revenue distribution via a network of nodes, operated by the Gnosis community, is a serious one that we need to start building towards now.
Gnosis VPN will officially launch in Q4 but anyone who’s interested can already contact me to test the latest version or learn more about node running.