From China to Antarctica: The Importance of Geographical Diversity in Blockchain Node Distribution

From China to Antarctica: The Importance of Geographical Diversity in Blockchain Node Distribution

Blockchain technology has revolutionized the way we transact and store data. However, there is a significant problem with the current blockchain networks: the nodes are not well distributed across the globe. This means that if there is a geopolitical or natural calamity risk, the nodes in a specific region can be compromised, which could potentially compromise the network's data security and availability.

For example, in the case of the Bitcoin network, more than 60% of miners hash rate located in China and the USA. Similarly, Ethereum and Solana have only ≈10000 and ≈3000 nodes respectively, with most of them being located in the same region or hot zones. This makes these networks more vulnerable to geopolitical and natural calamity risks.

In addition to that, in Ethereum for example, three major cloud providers account for 69% of hosted nodes on the Ethereum Mainnet, with over 50% of that coming from Amazon Web Services (AWS), over 15% from Hetzner and 4.1% from OVH. In addition to this, US and Germany controls 58% of all Ethereum nodes globally.

To address this problem, the Archethic blockchain network has been designed to ensure that the nodes are distributed across multiple geographical zones (multi-continental). The network's transaction validation and storage are both done among nodes that are in at least three different geographical patches to prevent any group of nodes from falsifying the nodes. This ensures that no geopolitical or natural calamity risks can compromise or tamper with the Archethic p2p network and its data security and availability.

Archethic's Solution:

Unlike other blockchain networks, where there are specific requirements for nodes, Archethic is an open public blockchain network where any PC, computer, or smartphone can be a part of the network and participate in the mining or validation of transactions. This provides a highly decentralized and open approach to the blockchain ecosystem.

The Archethic network natively has geolocation patches divided across the globe, and nodes are split among these patches based on their geolocation/IP address. The network's full consensus is called ARCH Consensus, and it ensures that during a transaction validation election or during transaction storage, the nodes randomly selected are equally distributed across the globe to prevent any group of nodes from falsifying the transaction.

The Archethic network applies the principles of gamification to incentivize nodes and geolocation patches' distribution. The gamification is applied in various ways to incentivize nodes and ensure a decentralized and secure network. Here are the different types of gamification used and their importance:

  1. Nodes Joining Preference: This type of gamification is designed to encourage nodes to join the network from underrepresented geographical areas. The preference is given to geolocation patches with less density of nodes than high density patches, which enables nodes from rare patches like Greenland, Antartica, and Australia to join the network. This type of gamification is important to ensure that the network is decentralized and not dominated by a few geographical areas.
  2. Geolocation Incentives: This type of gamification is introduced to provide or enable equal node distribution across all patches. The nodes in less dense geographical patches are awarded more than nodes in the higher density patches. This higher reward encourages better node adoption across geolocation patches. The importance of this gamification lies in ensuring that the network is spread evenly across the globe, making it more resilient to geopolitical risks and natural calamities.
  3. Node’s Performance Incentives: This type of gamification is applied to the performance of the node. If the node is always available, then the node receives higher incentives, but if the node was offline for some part of the time or if the node had many disconnections, then the node is compensated accordingly. Other parameters such as bandwidth and hardware requirements are also taken into account. The importance of this gamification lies in ensuring that the nodes are reliable and stable, thereby maintaining the network's data security and availability.
The gamification is already incorporated into the tokenomics of the Archethic blockchain through the Gamification & Geo Incentives wallet to reward nodes in parts of the world that are not yet on the network and to reward the network participants for being hooked on the network.
Gamification is at the heart of achieving all the above objectives.
Gamification Native Tokenomics

Hence, gamification is an essential tool in the Archethic blockchain network's design. Each type of gamification plays a vital role in ensuring the network is decentralized, evenly spread across the globe, and the nodes are reliable and stable. By incentivizing nodes to join the network, encouraging them to be distributed evenly, and rewarding good performance, Archethic ensures a secure and stable network for all users.

Conclusion:

In summary, the current distribution of nodes in many popular blockchain networks creates a single point of failure, leaving them vulnerable to a range of threats. However, Archethic blockchain network provides a novel solution by implementing a decentralized approach that distributes nodes across multiple geographic zones, ensuring the security and availability of data in any situation. What's more, Archethic's innovative use of gamification incentivizes node adoption and performance, creating a decentralized, secure, and inclusive network. With Archethic's design, any laptop, computer, or smartphone can become a node, making it accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Overall, Archethic represents a significant step forward in the evolution of blockchain technology, and its unique approach is sure to inspire further innovation in the field.


Source:

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Validator Health Report: August 2022
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Archethic Public Blockchain

Archethic is a Layer 1 blockchain that seeks to empower people over data ownership, decentralized applications over slow internet, and cost-effective energy solutions over expensive carbon emissions.

Due to the use of a new consensus called "ARCH," its blockchain architecture is the most scalable, secure, and energy-efficient solution on the market.

With the addition of an internal oracle, time-triggers, editable content, and interpreted language, Archethic smart contracts broaden the capabilities of developers and builders!

Archethic provides an open and interoperable ecosystem for all blockchains with native integration for Defi, NFTs, and decentralized identities.

Let us work together to empower {Human; Nature; Apps} era of Web3

https://www.archethic.net/

Archethic Foundation Non-profit to manage decentralized governance of the public blockchain


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