Thanks for the follow up and hoping that my response here helps to shed more color and light on the thought process as well as answering some of the questions you’ve raised.
There are currently 9 MPC node operators:
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NEAR One
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HOT
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Aurora
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Everstake
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Node.monster
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Staking4All
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Luganodes
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Stakin
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Black Sand
Historically, these node operators were recruited to help bootstrap the system using grants and thus far they have been performant despite having no established incentive for doing so. The goal of this proposal is to establish the basis for an incentive structure that can be used to recruit proven infrastructure partners into the system.
Please keep in mind that the proposal is simply for budget allocation and the actual utilization of funds is on a ‘look-back’ basis for actual performance. If the system does not scale to 21 MPC nodes, the full budget will not used. The ‘slashing’ logic for nodes who do not adhere to performance requirements are described in Exhibit 2.
In regards to the hardware and software requirements, these are documented in the section below explicitly.
The current state of the proposal is defined to define a budget allocation, rather than explicit funding in order form an incentive structure that would attract MPC node providers to engage.
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The goal of establishing a budget allocation is to form as the basis of a recruitment process for nodes to join and run them. In the current form, the MPC nodes are distributed across geography and physical footprint security models in different data centers
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See the detailed documentation below which covers the hardware requirements with variable costs based on the provider. The software costs and resource costs for the other line items in the response above are variable based on tooling selection and specific resources.
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Previous compensation: NEAR One, HOT, and Aurora haven’t been compensated at all; the other 6 received grants which covered infra costs only without considering overhead
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The rationale for transition to 21 MPC nodes is to scale the system to increase both decentralization and resiliency of the MPC node which will become increasingly important as Intents continue to grow and institutional flows begin to come online.
I hope this is helpful in addressing the points above and also happy to answer any questions.
MPC Node Hardware Requirements
The following hardware specifications and cloud provider recommendations apply to all MPC node operators participating in the network following the upcoming upgrade to the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) MPC architecture.
Hardware Requirements
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CPU: 5th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable or Intel Xeon 6 (TDX-enabled)
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CPU cores: 16 or more
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Memory: 64 GB*
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Disk: 1 TB or larger NVMe SSD (or equivalent performance)
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BIOS: must have TDX support
* At least one DIMM must be installed in slot 0 of each memory channel. All memory channels must be symmetrically populated.
Networking
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Firewall: allow inbound traffic on port 80 (MPC) and port 8080 (web interface)
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IP address: a public static IP is required
Cloud Providers
The following cloud providers have been verified to offer hardware configurations compatible with TEE deployment. Other providers may also be capable of meeting these requirements. We recommend confirming TDX support with your existing provider before migrating to a new one.
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Hivelocity.net (will require a custom configuration)
Alternative Hosting Option
Server colocation remains a viable option at any data center that offers colocation services, provided that the hardware meets the requirements listed above.
Additional Information
Refer to the Intel Hardware Selection page for additional information.