SEA Community Hub Proposal: Home Operator Hub

Community Hubs
1

Home Operator Hub

Summary of Proposal

The home operator hub will feature education, resources, and one-on-one support for running a node or validator at home. It will be managed by Dappnode, EthStaker, & Ethereum On ARM, and will also feature roundtables, discussion and resources on any protocol that enables a sub-32 ETH validator to participate in staking from home

Motivation and Rationale

There’s a huge community of home stakers, companies that provide resources and tooling for these stakers, and protocols looking to onboard more home stakers who will all be looking to connect with each other at Devcon. This usually results in a wealth of different events hosted by all these parties looking to bring this cohort of people together. There’s an enormous amount of interest in staking and we’d love for people to know where to go to learn more, learn how to evaluate their options, or get support if they’re an existing staker!

This event will be community-led, and invitations to projects to participate in the roundtables will be extended only in their capacity to increase node and validator decentralization and serve the community with tools that increase the economic accessibility of running a validator. A moderator will be present in such roundtables with a big “shill button” that will sound an alarm if the speaker switches to “shill mode”.

Implementation

Productions requirements

  • Power
  • 3 x tables and chairs for 2-3 people to cowork together simultaneously (for one-on-one support)
  • 2 x TV / screen for mini node operator workshops with tables for audience size ~10 people
  • Space for “roundtables” - beanbags, couches, chairs, whatever
  • Optional: Mics and video for recording - no need for livestreaming, but would be good to have

Sample program

  • Day 1:
    • 11am - 4pm: Support: One-on-one node operator troubleshooting with an expert
    • 12pm - 1pm: Roundtable: “Choose your protocol for economic accessibility - Comparing and contrasting the different protocols that allow you to run a validator at home with less than 32 ETH”
    • 2pm - 3pm: Mini workshop: Other uses for Full Nodes beyond staking (TJ Rush)
  • Day 2
    • 11am - 4pm: Support: One-on-one node operator troubleshooting with an expert
    • 12pm-2pm: Mini workshop: Node operator workshop with Stakewise
    • 3pm - 4pm: Roundtable: How can a solo staker advocate for themselves?
  • Day 3
    • 11am - 4pm: Support: One-on-one node operator troubleshooting with an expert
    • 12pm - 2pm: Mini workshop: Node operator workshop with Rocket Pool, Puffer
    • Mini workshop: Mini workshop: Mobile privacy with GrapheneOS (Mário Havel)
  • Day 4
    • 11am - 4pm: Support: One-on-one node operator troubleshooting with an expert
    • 12pm - 1pm: Mini workshop: Node operator workshop: etherfi
    • 1pm - 2pm: Mini workshop: How to truly get the most privacy out of your node (Mário Havel)

Team

  • Dappnode: (Pol Lanski, Chuy Garcia) Open source software and hardware for stakers
    • Dappnode’s mission is to create a network of decentralized infrastructure and it maintains Free Open Source software to make it extremely simple to deploy and maintain Ethereum nodes and validators. We are staunch defenders of decentralization and are constantly fighting to give Home Operators a voice and the tools they need to succeed.
  • EthStaker: (Nixo, Sam Coffey, Lamboshi) Community resource for staking education
    • EthStaker is a trusted community resource with no protocol or product to shill. Our goal is to support home stakers and we’ve been operating since 2020 with that mission in mind.
  • Ethereum on ARM: (Diego, FerC) Contributing to the decentralization of Ethereum by providing ARM64 Ethereum images for SoC boards such as Rock 5B, NanoPC T6 and Orange Pi 5 Plus.
    • Ethereum on ARM are pioneers on running full/archive nodes and validators in the most resource-constrained devices possible, enabling low-cost, energy-efficient and reliable setups.
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Hey everyone! Thanks for putting this together—the proposal looks awesome! Just a quick note:

  • I noticed there’s a node operator workshop in the program. The space for this is about 32 sq m with 20-25 chairs for people to sit and chat. This area is designed to complement the main program happening on the stages, so there won’t be any stages or microphones here. It’d be great to know the format of the workshops with this setup in mind.

General Update on the Process

  • The RFP is open until the end of August.
  • Shortly after that (early first week of September), we’ll announce which Community Hub proposals got accepted. We’ll then work with the accepted teams to fine-tune their proposals/hubs and meet their production requirements.

Thanks!

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Thanks for your reply!

Gotcha regarding the microphones - we discussed previous to the submission and thought it might be cool, but not a biggie if it doesn’t happen.

We have 3 types of activities planned.

  • The workshop itself would be a round circle of chairs, laptop on table or on lap, follow-along kind of workshops
  • 1 on 1 support would be lounging around, grabbing a table, one of us as experts helping out with questions or debugging, we love that the space is big so if we have multiple people with questions we can have enough space to attend to all.
  • Finally, the roundtables are literally chairs on a round shape and a moderator, everyone is in the chair circle so it’s a very participative format. If more people attend than the amount of chairs, it’s easy to accomodate an inner circle of people sitting on the floor and an outer circle of people standing.
1 Like
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Great, thanks for your swift response. The activities all sound good, and well suited for the format of Community Hubs. Excited to see how all this pans out!

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Hi!

Thank you so much for your patience as we review all the community hub proposals. A quick update: We have extended the deadline to submit a community hub application by one week, to the 7th of September 2024 (AoE time). You can now expect to hear from us about the outcome of your proposal by mid-September.

Thank you again! In the meantime, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me.

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Hi there,

Thank you again for putting together this proposal!

We’re excited to let you know that your proposal has been selected as a Community Hub for this year’s Devcon!

What’s next?

  1. Submit a DIP: To confirm your commitment, please submit a DIP in our DIP repository. This helps us track all community initiatives, and your Hub will be featured in the DIPs section of the Devcon website. Please tag proposal with ‘Community Hub’. Here’s an example from last year.
  2. Production details: We’ll collaborate with our production team to prepare a manual covering all the logistics for your space. Expect it within the next week or two.
  3. Program planning: We’ll work with you to refine your program and offer feedback to help create an amazing experience for Devcon attendees.
  4. Communication channels: We’ll set up the necessary channels to stay in touch from now until the end of Devcon.

Thank you again for your initiative—we can’t wait to see your Community Hub come to life at Devcon SEA!

Best Regards,

Shyam & The Devcon Team

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Whoooo! Happy to hear it! Created DIP-50 here: DIP-50: Home Operator Hub by nixorokish · Pull Request #154 · efdevcon/DIPs · GitHub

1 Like