Community Call Questions and Answers
Introduction
For the last community call, some questions were asked ahead of time in the forum and live in the chat. Due to the limited time we had, we couldn’t cover all questions. We’d like to answer those unanswered questions now!
Next week please stay tuned for more details about TF Grid 3.14 including a GEP (DAO vote).
Questions and Answers
What does commercialization mean to the average farmer and how can they have a deeper involvement? How can we get 3nodes faster here in the US?
Commercialization means that there will be much more utilization, and this will lead to more reward. This means that farmers will also need to meet certain standards related to reliability for commercial-level workloads.
Regarding getting 3Nodes faster in the US, for now, we recommend reaching out to existing vendors on this topic. Anyone can apply to become a vendor and ship in the US, and we expect that, as the project grows, more vendors will come on board.
Note: we still need to discuss how the certified node program might change in v4.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a GPU to place into HostService NL and Duck Farm Data’s Peking?
As a general rule, if the GPU model fits in a Cooler Master NR200, it will fit in the Peking. More on the Peking here and here.
Note from the vendors: Starting from now on, Duck Data and HostService will concentrate on providing high-quality NUCs 3Nodes and the Peking will be discontinued. Larger servers with the capacity to add a GPU will be sold if there is demand.
Will the additional income streams be detailed out so there is an ease of setup?
TFT Rewards for farming are clearly outlined here
To set additional fees, check here.
This type of information will be updated as the project evolves.
What is the real value of the $TFT token if ThreeFold isn’t a crypto project and you don’t see it as a product that you will make marketing for it ?
TFT is a crypto project for sure. When this was said, it meant that we are not focused solely on crypto. ThreeFold utilizes crypto, but it is much broader than crypto – we use blockchain, but also other innovative technologies to create a decentralized autonomous cloud.
Note there will be active marketing on a launch of ThreeFold on multiple platforms this year. We are currently talking to a major Layer 1 project for a ThreeFold launch.
What kind of marketing do you do for Threefold, how do you plan to bring more Users ?
We will make a marketing effort as mentioned above, but right now our focus is on the technology and creating new partnerships to increase utilization. Our partnerships will increase visibility and attract communities (of users) from different projects and avenues.
Can you imagine listing the TFT Token on Centralized Exchanges in the future for more liquidity or is this something that is a no-go for ThreeFold?
We are open to exchanges wanting to add TFT to their offering. ThreeFold right now doesn’t have the funding yet to be on a CEX. If anyone knows how to get us onto a good CEX without funding requirements, that would be great.
How would one (Farmer) know if they need to update their Farmerbot or if they even have one?
If you don’t know whether you are running the Farmerbot, it most likely means that you do not have one.
To set the Farmerbot, follow the Farmerbot quick guide here.
If you are running the previous Farmerbot version, read this to move to the new Farmerbot version.
When a new release of the new Farmerbot version is available, we will announce it within our different communication channels. You can upgrade to the newest release by following the steps here.
Can you guarantee that there will never be more than 1B Tokens in the future or can your opinion change later?
We can guarantee that there will never be more than 1B TFT on the Stellar Blockchain.
Can you create nodes that are outside the specs provided on the documentation?
The basic rule is that any 64-bit hardware with an Intel or AMD processor chip can become a 3Node. For more information, you this section of the manual.
We shall move to the new Farmerbot, but it is still possible to run the old one, right?
You can run the old Farmerbot, but our recommendation is to update at the earliest as there have been a lot of new features that you wouldn’t see in the old one. Most importantly the old Farmerbot did have a few bugs that were fixed in the new version. So please update as soon as possible (link above).
Who owns the hardware and how is TFT truly decentralized?
People all over the world own the hardware that they decide to set up as ThreeFold nodes. The farm which is owned by ThreeFold is smaller than many of the private farms around the world. It is truly decentralized as the network of these dispersed 3Nodes (set up and owned by individuals) creates a peer-to-peer Layer 0 decentralized cloud and internet infrastructure which can scale infinitely across the globe.
Are IPv4 addresses not important at this stage?
For many workloads IPV4 is still relevant, but we have gateways where IPv4 can be used for many customers at once, so there are workarounds for the IPv4 shortage in the world.
Most DePin projects are hungry for IP addresses and very good internet connectivity… Even though I cannot see any change in reward system for farmers to promote farmers to have a better connectivity and public ip addresses
Farmers adding a valid IP address get farming rewards from IP utilization. Farmers can earn when their IP address is rented and also for traffic going over it.
What does it take to become a guardian? What are the benefits and rewards? What are its duties?
The basic concept of a grid guardian is that you can host your own stack of the TF Grid. We are working on finding the guardians of the grid. More on this will be shared soon.
We understand that there can be confusion with one page of the manual concerning guardians deploying their own grid stack. We will adjust the manual in that regard.
For more information on the guardians, read this documentation (work-in-progress).
Why isn’t there more details coming about about needed capacity and expected rewards on certain GPU nodes?
In terms of expected rewards, farmers can set additional fees for their GPU and that is the only reward for GPUs. In that sense, farmers should set their price in relation to the market.
In terms of capacity, read the next question.
I keep on hearing that a lot of capacity is needed. How much capacity is needed for projects and partnerships?
That is hard to tell, we are trying to get more info here. What we can say for now is that we definitely need more!
The main complaint from companies and IT specialists are that we can’t trust home and kitchen nodes for uptime and redundancy. How are we going to address that?
You’re right. Commercialization means a certain level of expectation from customers. We are working on a new GEP to increase the grid reliability, notably when it comes to node uptime.
By now it should be super simple to use technologies like qsfs or other technologies to make it unbreakable for John Doe. Is it the case?
Today, technologies like QSFS are intended for developers creating solutions on top of the TF Grid.
The manual covers the steps to use QSFS (Javascript client, Go client). If you have specific recommendations on how it can be improved, please let Mik know. There are partners that want to use QSFS in their offerings.
Is it planned to have some sort of temporary cap on new 3Nodes on the grid?
No. We believe it’s not needed because there are quite some partner projects coming to life as part of our commercialization phase and we need the capacity. We actually don’t have enough capacity, especially in certain regions.
Do note that the future remuneration model is more based on utilization.
DDR3 is now thoroughly outdated. It will hold back utilization. Obviously DDR4 should be banned on V4. But as above, if far away, a ban on new DDR3 on V3?
Indeed, we are considering this. Engineers are telling us though that this might not be the right criteria. Other possible suggestions are being worked on.
What action is taken to prevent farmers to turn off their 3Nodes when there is utilization?
There are three solutions being worked on.
- We are working on an upcoming GEP to incentivize farmers to leave their 3Nodes on during utilization.
- Uptime will be an important part of selection criteria for users.
- There is a possibility for farmers to agree on an SLA with the TF cooperative (TF DMCC) in such an SLA there will be a penalty for not achieving enough uptime.
What is the ThreeFold position with paid cellular network wifi offload with XNET?
We would love to work together with them. Let’s connect on this. Please send an email to info@threefold.io and they can pass it on to the right individuals.
In the future could there be a way to become audited to be a certified farmer with DIY nodes ? (for proper servers farm, or data center hosted farms)
V4 won’t have certification. Your data center nodes will be high quality and will attract utilization, giving you way more than certification ever would have.
There are SLA’s being implemented.
Is there a way to make a bridge to Solana? Are we going to move to another chain like Solana?
We are exploring this possibility.
I’d hate to see monthly farmer selloffs plague us again like it did previously. Ways to address this have been discussed at length. Could any of the possible solutions be implemented before momentum is lost?
We believe this will resolve itself as the TFT price will continue to go up. Either way we only mint until 1B TFT on Stellar, as will be proposed in the newest GEP
BSC is difficult for USA users. The ETH LP is very small and high fees. XLM is considered by many to be a dead chain. What is the status of a new home network?
We are considering this avenue. For now we can’t say more but we will share as we can.
What is the TF position with liquidity?
We as ThreeFold don’t have funding for liquidity pools right now, but we certainly understand that improving liquidity is important. Of course, it would be good if the community is willing to put more money in the liquidity pools. For instance, a community member started a liquidity pool on BSC and many members contributed, see here.
What is the status of Ourworld, Ourphone, venture creators, coops, farming pools and funding?
The OurWorld Venture Creator has been formally created in Mauritius. We are still in the process of fundraising for those specific projects.
The coop and the farming pools project is still being worked on. It would come alive in a future phase of the grid.
We want more capacity. At the same time data centers are considered to be bad these days. TF talks about new TIER Z data centers better equipped for GPU nodes, what is this status?
See https://info.ourworld.tf/datacenter this is the commercial offering from company TF9 (the previous TF Tech), which is the company creating the open source software of the TF Grid.
We do know TF9 is working on some Tier S data center projects, but at this time we have no more information.