The Run A Node Grants Round aimed to engage varied users investigating blockchain, gaining knowledge, building community initiatives, and conducting research. The objective of this round was to foster the exploration of a wide array of concepts for operating nodes beyond just functioning as a validator, such as enabling data queries for research, analyzing node performance in extreme conditions, or improving node user experience. Applicants could opt for a Dappnode or provide specifications to receive funding for a tailored build.
We garnered a total of 243 submissions. From all applications we scrutinized, we chose 35 recipients from 23 distinct nations to receive assistance to operate nodes. The eligibility criteria for this round stipulated that applicants must possess fast, stable internet connections with generous data limits, must be capable of proving technical proficiency with nodes and clients, and must commit to operating the node for a minimum of 2 years. In our assessment, we emphasized unique proposals from geographically varied areas, as well as student-led blockchain clubs and educational institutions.
The charts below illustrate the distribution of awarded grants categorized by location, as well as a classification of the types of nodes awarded:
Here is a brief overview of each project operating a node from the proactive grants round.
ETHKL – Malaysia: This node is being utilized to kickstart the Ethereum Kuala Lumpur community by providing both knowledge and hardware essentials for running a complete Ethereum node. Members gain hands-on experience in node maintenance, including but not limited to downtime management, hardware troubleshooting, pruning, and more. The node offers a secure and free community RPC endpoint and acts as a practical environment for university students to learn about blockchain.
SDSU Distributed System Security Lab – United States: Over the last four years, this research team has focused on uncovering and mitigating vulnerabilities and DoS attacks within the Ethereum network via investigation that necessitates running an Ethereum node.
FranklinDAO / Penn Blockchain – United States: This node is operated to offer a readily accessible API to the blockchain for developers and researchers at FranklinDAO – a student-led organization advocating for blockchain adoption at the University of Pennsylvania.
Web3Bridge – Nigeria: Established in 2019, Web3Bridge is a program designed to train web3 developers in Africa, prioritizing education and skill enhancement as a crucial part of their mission. With this node, they provide a hands-on learning experience for those interested in blockchain technology, building technical expertise and nurturing a local talent pool, fostering innovation and community development in Africa.
Champagnat University – Argentina: Champagnat University, through its Faculty of Informatics, intends to utilize the nodes for collaborative research and development; student workshops, trainings, and seminars; and documentation of best practices and node management.
Solo Operator – Brazil: A backend software engineer leveraging the node to execute ongoing research into validator privacy aspects and Lighthouse consensus code.
Solo Operator – Hong Kong: As an adept node operator across various clients, they aim to contribute to the Ethereum ecosystem by utilizing the node to analyze on-chain data, enhance transparency, and pursue ongoing research regarding MEV and node implementation.
SpaghettETH – Italy: The motivation behind SpaghettETH’s operation of an Ethereum node is to support a decentralized and open financial system, investigate innovation opportunities, and engage more actively in the flourishing Ethereum ecosystem. They plan to kick off a “run a node” campaign in Italy and subsequently promote this practice to other local communities. Additionally, they seek to develop Italian-language resources on how to establish and run a node, distributing through social media, zines, and at in-person gatherings.
Solo Operator – China: This node facilitates the retrieval, storage, and sharing of blob data following EIP-4844 as part of the BlobStar initiative, which is dedicated to the eternal storage of Ethereum’s blob data and providing accessible points for others to gather this information. It will also operate on Reth to gain critical insights into the Ethereum network, offer opportunities for synchronizing data and performing benchmarking, and reveal possible areas for enhancement in the Reth codebase that may boost its performance, durability, and user-friendliness.
Stanford University, MIT – United States: This research team conducts comprehensive consensus and blockchain studies focused on the Ethereum ecosystem. By managing their own node, they will establish permanent infrastructure for swift access to the complete blockchain archival data from both consensus and execution clients and will be capable of providing access to other academics.
Solo Operator – India: Managed by a systems security engineer, this node’s objective is to explore potential vulnerabilities by analyzing RPC calls, investigating how exploits can be tackled and neutralized without the necessity for each whitehat/auditor to run their own node for privacy concerns.
Solo Operator – Taiwan: Situated between Taiwan and Canada, this node will be employed by a developer relations expert to create and distribute captivating educational content for individuals interested in operating a node remotely.
CENFOTEC University Foundation – Costa Rica: Researchers at Universidad CENFOTEC will leverage this node to assist Costa Rican universities and innovators in joining the Ethereum community. Projects include crafting educational resources, forming university blockchain groups, gathering data and conducting research across various clients, developing data analytics, economic models, dashboards, and other visual representations.
Ponkila Oy – Finland: One of the few nodes located in Northern Finland and among the most northern nodes worldwide, this node will be utilized for investigating infrastructure internetworking—particularly, NFS and additional host-client storage and computational solutions via SFP+ connections— along with homestaking user experience through the upkeep of HomestakerOS.
Cochin University of Science and Technology – India: Launched at the incubation hub within Cochin University of Science & Technology and managed by students to facilitate student research. This node is being employed to create modules for privacy RPC, offering a mechanism to evaluate the system by exposing endpoints and tailoring the system.
Purdue University – United States: The blockchain club at Purdue University intends to utilize this node for instructing students about decentralized systems and web3 architecture, with the objective of operating a complete validator node for the Beacon chain.
Cryptoversidad – Mexico: This node will serve to enhance network diversity, develop high-quality workshops and live sessions on network decentralization and security in Spanish, and disseminate knowledge within the Mexican community through blog entries and open-source contributions, assisting others interested in operating their own nodes.
Solo Operator – Argentina: Involved with SeedLatam and Ethernaut DAO, this node will be utilized in Argentina for educational initiatives to produce a Spanish guide on node setup, its impact, and the significance of maintaining nodes as public goods. Senior Solidity developers in EthernautDAO will also employ this node to query indexed information.
Solo Operator – Nigeria: Managed by a protocol engineer at Nethermind, this node will support significant projects such as Juno, Starknet’s fastest syncing node, and Voyager, Starknet’s leading Block Explorer. This operator also seeks to utilize insights gained from running this node for educational purposes for other engineers, aimed at clarifying the operational principles of Ethereum, its protocols, and its infrastructure, thereby reducing the barriers to entry into this intricate domain.
Miga Labs – Spain: In partnership with the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Miga Labs plans to use this node to assess the energy consumption of an Ethereum node utilizing multiple EL clients and CL clients, alongside the variations in energy usage while operating hundreds of validators in a test network setting and to showcase this information on a public dashboard that displays the energy usage of the entire Ethereum network. This research is crucial as it illustrates the advantages of migrating from PoW to PoS substantiated by energy consumption data.
101.CY – Cyprus: 101.CY represents a Cyprus-based community dedicated to the research and practice of emergent phenomena in digital culture and rights, information freedom and control, and network geopolitics emphasizing European, Middle Eastern, and African perspectives. They are employing this node to develop a local experimentation node, conduct practical research, and host a publicly accessible Ethereum RPC endpoint. Furthermore, they aim to publish a guide for those interested in operating an Ethereum node through anonymous networks.
SeedLatam – Argentina: The SeedLatam community intends to use this node to evaluate various Ethereum clients and create a benchmarking dashboard that contrasts their performance and features, allowing developers and researchers within the local community to query indexed information on our node for research goals, provide custom RPC endpoints accessible to the public or privately hosted for selected users, and to compose a node setup guide assisting first-time hosts in establishing their own nodes.
Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi- India: Researchers at IIIT Delhi will operate this node to expedite research on blockchain technology across Indian institutions. By managing this node within the university, researchers will inspire students to engage in topics such as MEV, Intents, PBS, and other core domains of Ethereum protocols, and actively contribute to infrastructure-level research.
ETHKipu – Argentina: KipuStakers conducts workshops, generates content, and aims to execute tests around DVT focused on promoting decentralization and educating about nodes in Latin America, while increasing the number of nodes in geographically underrepresented regions. KipuStakers primarily seeks to boost the quantity of (validator) nodes in Latin America, foster awareness regarding the significance of running nodes in the region, support local projects and communities, create new revenue streams, and generate income (e.g., through our own LSD) to fund ETHKipu initiatives.
Vanderbilt Blockchain – United States: The student blockchain organization at Vanderbilt University will leverage this node to launch an educational cohort this year, guiding students from minimal web3 knowledge to skilled blockchain enthusiasts. They aim to establish this node utilizing a minority client to provide a practical example of participation in a decentralized network, assisting the cohort through the setup process collectively.
TUM Blockchain Club – Germany: The TUM Blockchain Club, a student-run non-profit entity at the Technical University of Munich, intends to utilize this node to educate and onboard students at TUM. They plan to conduct targeted workshops and interactive sessions that will offer students a concrete introduction to Ethereum, its functionality, and a comprehensive guide to the procedure for setting up and managing Ethereum nodes. This node will also serve to test various clients and act as a source of dependable data for students interested in blockchain analysis, enabling them to mine, explore, and utilize Ethereum data for academic research and innovative endeavors.
Ethereum Guatemala – Guatemala: The Ethereum Guatemala community, in partnership with La Universidad del Valle, will operate this node to devise educational resources and academic investigations on Ethereum nodes throughout Central America. The objective of Ethereum Guatemala, as a community, is to extend beyond mere education, enhancing the network’s resilience and anti-fragility by running local nodes and validators.
Princeton Blockchain Club – United States: The Princeton Blockchain Club represents Princeton University’s largest student-operated blockchain hub, consisting of over 200 undergraduates,grads, and graduates eager about the frontier of web3. They will operate an archive node to aid researchers in their community, contribute to the general well-being of the Ethereum ecosystem by running minority consensus and execution clients, maintain a local block explorer, and offer an RPC endpoint alongside access to historical state data for our research teams and other groups on campus.
Oregon Blockchain Group – United States: The Oregon Blockchain Group is a student-led organization at the University of Oregon that strives to introduce and inform university students about blockchain technology. They will utilize this node to educate students on how to run nodes, generate awareness regarding client updates and all core development meetings, and build infrastructure and tools to support node maintenance.
ITU Blockchain – Turkey: The ITU Blockchain Club, established at Istanbul Technical University, with over 2,500 members, will employ this node for educational initiatives through the creation of workshops and events designed to teach individuals how to set up and operate nodes, and the significance of nodes for a decentralized network.
University College Dublin – Ireland: The UCD Maker Society at University College Dublin plans to utilize this node to enhance the network’s decentralization, boost education and understanding of Ethereum, and encourage innovative projects that utilize the Ethereum ecosystem. With the goal of transforming University College Dublin into a center for Ethereum research and education, hosting a local node is vital for ensuring that relevant modules are not overly theoretical, but provide students with a genuine understanding of what the network is, its composition, and the collaboration that supports it.
Solo Operator – Italy: This node will be applied in a research project focusing on developing an implementation of a node with RPC endpoints accessible via the LoRa network. The vision is to deliver connectivity to the Ethereum network in remote locations with limited or no cellular coverage. This endeavor seeks to empower individuals in rural regions to access Ethereum for transactions, smart contract interactions, and engagement with the DeFi ecosystem while also devising novel use cases leveraging the DLT infrastructure.
Solo Operator – United States: The main goal of this node is to provide RPC requests and custom RPC requests; these endpoints are particularly beneficial for stakers, builders, enthusiasts, and more. The secondary effect will serve as an archival function that preserves historical blocks and blob data.
Solo Operator – Venezuela: In collaboration with a university in Venezuela, this node will be utilized for research and educational purposes by a broad range of developers and researchers within Venezuela.
