Bitcoin rewards miners, but full nodes also contribute to the network by validating transactions and relaying blocks.
I've been experimenting with a Bitcoin-inspired blockchain that includes protocol-level rewards for node operators.
I'm curious what Bitcoiners see as the biggest problem with this idea.
Is it Sybil resistance? Economic incentives? Added complexity?
Interested in hearing arguments both for and against.
I think I’m not the best person to answer this because I’ve always wondered why node runners aren’t incentivized already.
Every time I asked people said: “oh merchants would just run full nodes to reap faster transactions and stuff”.
Seeing as even setting up a LN node is deemed “too complex” for said merchants… yeah I don’t know if that argument holds.
But I also wonder: what motivates people to run unpaid nodes today and why hasn’t the network collapsed yet.
That's exactly what made me interested in this topic.
Bitcoin has operated for years with thousands of unpaid nodes, which suggests that financial incentives are not strictly necessary.
At the same time, I'm curious whether protocol-level incentives could increase the number, geographic distribution and long-term reliability of independent nodes.
I'm not convinced rewards are needed, but I think it's an interesting hypothesis to test.