There are a few weeks to go until we will run the first of several Brubeck Testnets. If you’re interested in running a node you can sign up to the waitlist right now! During these first testnets we want to trial the Network’s capabilities, before opening up the Brubeck mainnet to our community and beyond.
Sign up here
Here are some frequently asked questions:
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🌐 What is the Streamr Network?
The Streamr Network is a decentralized, topic-based publish-subscribe system. Each stream or pub-sub topic has its own peer-to-peer overlay network that is built and maintained by a set of BitTorrent-like trackers. Development is still in progress, with Brubeck as the current milestone.
💸 Will there be rewards?
Absolutely! The community just approved SIP-5, a proposal to create a DATA mining rewards pool of up to 2M for the Brubeck testnets. Unutilised tokens (tokens that are not earned via mining the testnets) will never even get minted. To be eligible for rewards you’ll need to successfully run a Broker node and have sufficient uptime in the testnets.
👛 How do I receive rewards?
DATA rewards will get distributed on the xDai sidechain. We recommend a Metamask wallet or hardware wallet that can be connected to Metamask. Exchange deposit addresses cannot be used.
🤑 How can we increase rewards?
The rewards will be based on a bonding curve; the more nodes in the testnets, the more rewards earned by each node. This incentivises existing participants to tell their friends about the testnet and encourage them to participate too. However, ultimately the profitability of running a node depends on external factors, such as the price of DATA and your cost of running the node.
👷 How can I run a node?
People can participate by downloading a special testnet release of the Streamr Broker node software and run it for the lifespan of the testnet. Sign up to the waitlist to be amongst the first group eligible to run the Streamr Broker node software. There will also be video guides and tutorials made available, to help you through the process of setting up your own node.
⚙️ What kind of hardware will I need?
The great thing about the Streamr Network is, unlike blockchains, mining rewards aren’t created by solving hash functions, an activity which requires top notch hardware, but instead by sharing your bandwidth. Therefore, you should be able to run it on an idle laptop, or even a device such as a Raspberry Pi. In the future, we may also collaborate with hardware partners on devices that come with the node software pre-installed.
⌛ How long will the testnets last?
There will be at least two testnet rounds – the first testnet will have a lifespan of 3 days, while the final testnet will run for 14 days. Additional testnet iterations may be added to the schedule, depending on whether any problems arise in the first testnets.
🤓 Where can I learn more?
You can talk to the team on the Streamr Discord server.