There’s one aspect of Hive that many of us, myself included, aren’t paying enough attention to, and that’s being a Node Operator. Hmm… I’m a content creator like most of us here on the Hive blockchain, so I completely understand if anyone scratches their head and wonders what I’m talking about, LOL. That’s totally understandable because that’s exactly what I was thinking when I saw the BeeDevs team’s presentation during the recent HiveFest.
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In case you missed it, they discussed it around the 48th minute of the Conference Day 1 livestream video, and I highly encourage everyone to check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/live/H3qC5N_MDf0?si=p02cHvXYxwuWj4kH
What was mentioned in the presentation is that the BeeDevs team has significantly improved the hardware requirements for running a node. From an original cost of around $2,000, they’ve managed to bring it down to about $100 using a Raspberry Pi Node. I understood the benefit of the cost reduction, but I didn’t really know what a Pi Node was, so I did some research to find out what Ola was talking about in her presentation.
Honestly, I wish I had been at HiveFest to personally ask Ola about it and check out the Pi Node she was carrying around, which looked really cool, by the way. Fortunately, there are plenty of online sources and blogs about it, which helped me understand how important a Pi Node actually is.
To give you a bit of context, I want to compare the Pi Node with a Witness Node because at first, I thought they were the same thing, and I felt pretty silly realizing they’re not. Running a Witness Node is a much more complex task that requires advanced infrastructure, technical expertise, and deep knowledge about block production, definitely beyond my current skill set.
So let me break it down into simpler terms to share what I learned about Pi Nodes and their relationship with Witness Nodes.
What is Hive?
I like to visualize Hive as a massive notebook on the internet. It’s huge because everything about the blockchain is written in it. All transactions, posts, comments, token transfers, and basically every activity on Hive are recorded in the blocks produced by the Witness Nodes.
Can you imagine how heavy of a task that is for the Top 20 Witnesses and the backup Witnesses to handle every single day? It will only get heavier as Hive continues to grow in the future.
That’s where the Pi Nodes come in to help.
What is a Raspberry Pi Node?
If the Witness Nodes are the official writers of every page in Hive’s giant notebook, then the Pi Nodes are like librarians who help organize and distribute those pages.
Pi Nodes check, verify, and share pages with other Pi Nodes to speed up transactions and lighten the load on the Witness Nodes. So if you’re running a Pi Node, you’re essentially assisting the Witnesses, helping prevent missed blocks, and ensuring Hive runs more efficiently and smoothly.
To clarify, a Pi Node is not a Witness Node, but rather a supplementary piece of infrastructure that helps secure and future-proof the Hive blockchain.
What Are the Financial Perks of Running a Pi Node?
Unlike running a Witness Node, running a Pi Node doesn’t come with direct financial rewards. There are no Producer Rewards because Pi Nodes don’t sign blocks or write entries in the Hive “notebook.”
So Why Run a Pi Node Anyway?
Even without direct financial rewards, I want to emphasize how important it is to have more Pi Nodes running on the Hive blockchain. Here’s why:
- They assist the Witness Nodes and make Hive a faster and more reliable experience for all of us, both content creators and curators.
- The Hive blockchain becomes more robust. More Pi Nodes mean more helpers ready to take over when others go offline. More nodes = a stronger chain!
- The network becomes more decentralized. As more Pi Nodes verify and share data, it becomes much harder for any single entity to control the chain. That means Hive stays fair and free for everyone.
- More nodes create a snowball effect, it becomes easier for new nodes to join and grow the network even further.
- Running your own node gives you a private, independent Hive experience. You no longer rely on other nodes to read or interpret the blockchain because your Pi Node keeps a verified copy of Hive’s official ledger every time it runs.
Running a Pi Node may not bring direct financial rewards, but its value to the Hive ecosystem is truly priceless. Each additional node strengthens Hive’s foundation, improves performance, and enhances decentralization for everyone involved. By supporting the network through a Pi Node, we help ensure that Hive remains fast, reliable, and truly community-driven for years to come.
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