Blockchain nodes are the foundation of the Web3 industry. Think of them as the pillars of decentralization that form the infrastructure for the internet of the future. However, running a node requires a lot of technical expertise and regular maintenance work. That’s where Ankr comes in, reducing the whole process to a few clicks.
This article attempts to cover any inquiries a beginner might have.
Pick a blockchain — and the type of node
Before you get started, pick a blockchain that you want to run a node on. Ankr supports direct access to 30+ nodes, so there’s plenty to choose from depending on your wishes and conditions. We strongly recommend all users to do extensive research before picking.
Once you know what blockchain you want to run your node on, head over to app.ankr.com/apps/market and choose it from the list of supported Nodes.
Next, you’ll have to choose the type of node. In most cases, you get to choose between spinning up a full node or a validator node.
The main difference between those is that validator nodes are only required to have knowledge of the current state of the blockchain, while full nodes maintain historical information about the state of the blockchain (therefore requiring much more storage space).
Full nodes constantly synchronize with their upstream nodes, revalidating and replaying all the transactions committed by validators. Running a full node allows its owner to scale read traffic, which might be important for Dapp development, among other things.
Validator nodes, in turn, get to validate transactions on the given blockchain, forming its backbone. Hosters of validator nodes are normally entitled to collect a commission fee, although conditions might vary significantly depending on the network.
Set your node up!
Once you’ve chosen the network and the type of node that best suits your needs, follow four simple steps.
First, you can configure the infrastructure for your network depending on its scale. If you’re not familiar with this, we suggest you to simply choose the basic option offered by Ankr by default.
Then, choose the server location, the project name and the node name (the latter will be displayed publicly).
Finally, select the payment method. Please note that we accept credit cards, USDT and ANKR tokens for all prepayments, but can only accept credit cards for daily billing. Also, if you want to extend the node’s run time, you can add funds at any time.
That’s the fun part where Ankr takes over, carefully maintaining your node. You can monitor its performance, and reach out to Ankr’s support team in case you have any questions.
Follow Ankr here
Website | Twitter | Telegram Announcements | Telegram English Chat| LinkedIn | Instagram | Ankr Staking | Discord
