Learning and rambling a little bit

I am still trying to learn about blockchain tech, so I am sure I may be wrong on some things, but when Algorand increased block size doesnt that mean increasing hardware requirements? I know participation nodes are what handle consensus, but if Algorand wants to increase decentralization with relay nodes didn’t increasing block size defeat the purpose?
I’ve read post on this forum saying it cost around $2500 monthly to run a relay node and Algorand doesnt incentivize to run nodes. I hear a lot from the Algo community about wanting to run relay nodes, but as much as I hear people crying about Algo’s price, I wonder can the average retail investor afford to run one whether they incentivize or not.

As Algorand continues to build out it’s ecosystem, wouldnt it be wise that every dapp run a relay node? As Algorand ecosystem grows, so would decentralization with relay nodes. Maybe dapps could have a max amount (to somewhat control centralization) of participation nodes pool with their relay node and pay them out in that dapp’s token. (example: Algofi pay out in BANK)

I know Silvio is against sharding for security reasons, but couldnt Algorand have L2’s use sharding for scaling (maybe someone wants to build a dapp that needs high scalability) which wouldnt affect Algorand. Like what if the shards are decentralized with VRF wouldnt that help out somewhat?

Another way to help with interoperability could be using zk roll ups like Milkomeda did but write them in other forms of code like Rust, which would make them compatible with Solana or Near, right? That way if devs want to leave Solana, they dont have to learn a new form of code and they can try out a new chain.

If anyone is out there, say something.

Sometimes I feel like I am Will Smith in I Am Legend, searching, desperately waiting to hear back from the Algorand community. The zombies (people against my thoughts/ideas) are welcome to attack me as well (though i feel most of them are on the prowl for poor Staci at the moment. haha. just kidding)

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I could be wrong, but I think relay nodes are grant recipients or major stakeholders with a vested interest in the blockchain, and therefor are being rewarded in some fashion? Not entirely sure. I would like to see more developers in the community dedicating a % of their revenue to consensus participation/relay if possible. That being said, I setup a participation node over the weekend for free. It’s the participation nodes that actually perform consensus as I understand it, and having more of them in private user hands (imo) is more valuable than having a couple more relay nodes up and running. We won’t decentralize the relay nodes overnight, but we could easily shift participation in a more favorable direction if we had a node running webinar or NFT giveaway associated with a big event to onboard people into setting one up. Maybe John Alan Woods or Fabrice could be on hand to take questions from people live in chat as they setup together?

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Ciao Domenico,

I’ve read post on this forum saying it cost around $2500 monthly to run a relay node and Algorand

Actually recommended system specification for relay nodes is:

  • 16 vCPU
  • 32 GB RAM
  • 3 TB NVMe SSD or equivalent
  • 30 TB/month egress
  • 1 Gbps connection with very low latency

I don’t think such server costs $2500 a month…

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