Privex is now running a public STEEM RPC Server to help the community
Last month, @jesta stopped maintaining STEEM.WS - the first public public RPC node.
For those who don't know what an RPC node is: - An RPC Node is a server which allows applications to interact with the STEEM blockchain. When you use Steemit.com, your browser connects to the RPC node ran by Steemit Inc. (wss://steemd.steemit.com), which gives it information such as posts, upvotes, whether your log in is valid etc.
Example: An RPC node is used by applications such as Steemit.com, AnonSteem, Busy.org, and other software built on the STEEM platform. They require a lot of resources to run (currently requires 104GB of RAM and rising every day).
While Steemit.com runs a public one now, it has shown to be unreliable at times, and so we needed more, to allow for less centralisation, as many projects depend on Steemit Inc's server.
We're now running our own public RPC node to help the community out.
We've added it to the STEEM.CENTER Public Websocket Server list
Server Specs
| CPU | 6 core/12 thread Xeon |
|---|---|
| RAM | 256GB DDR4 ECC |
| Disk | 2x500GB SSDs |
| Network | 1gbit/s from Germany |
Example usage for developers
Below is an example of using it with @xeroc's Steem Piston for Python
>>> s = Steem('wss://steemd.privex.io')
>>> s.info()
{
'last_irreversible_block_num': 14859862, 'average_block_size': 7965,
'current_aslot': 14919325, 'vote_power_reserve_rate': 10,
'recent_slots_filled': '340282366920938463463374607431768211455', 'total_vesting_fund_steem': '182912559.617 STEEM',
'id': 0, 'max_virtual_bandwidth': '5522640076800000000', 'pending_rewarded_vesting_steem': '140917.569 STEEM',
'sbd_print_rate': 10000, 'current_witness': 'pfunk', 'current_reserve_ratio': 418, 'sbd_interest_rate': 0, 'total_reward_shares2': '0',
'total_vesting_shares': '377320641918.431436 VESTS', 'confidential_supply': '0.000 STEEM', 'time': '2017-08-24T16:46:15',
'num_pow_witnesses': 172, 'maximum_block_size': 65536, 'confidential_sbd_supply': '0.000 SBD', 'total_pow': 514415,
'head_block_id': '00e2be6ab125cd49024e201a6b76b083a798bc46', 'virtual_supply': '256893632.509 STEEM',
'head_block_number': 14859882, 'current_sbd_supply': '3465411.913 SBD', 'total_reward_fund_steem': '0.000 STEEM',
'pending_rewarded_vesting_shares': '291265727.299673 VESTS', 'participation_count': 128, 'current_supply': '254121302.979 STEEM'}
THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE FUNDED THIS PROJECT
MSP Logo by @malicered
A big thank you to everyone from the @minnowsupport project, including @aggroed, @followbtcnews, @reggaemuffin, @swelker101, as well as those outside of the project such as @lukestokes and @timcliff (who will be pledging an amount each month to keeping it online).
You can join the Minnow Support Project discord at: https://discord.gg/2HQU5sj
20 days ago Receive 100.000 SBD from lukestokes To support your work putting together a full API node. (to @someguy123)
24 days ago Receive 30.000 SBD from swelker101 RPC node donation
24 days ago Receive 100.000 SBD from minnowsupport NVME server
24 days ago Receive 75.000 STEEM from reggaemuffin For the RPC node, you guys got our support :)
24 days ago Receive 50.000 STEEM from followbtcnews followbtcnews for server for blockchain node
24 days ago Receive 100.000 SBD from aggroed NVME server
23 days ago Receive 20.000 SBD from dimitrisp RPC node donation
SPECIAL OFFER
Want to run your own RPC server? Need a server provider that accepts crypto (inc. STEEM and SBD)?
We're now selling this exact same 256GB RAM server on our website for a very low price (it'll probably be going up in the next few weeks, so grab it while it's cheap!): https://www.privex.io
In other words, less than 24 hours of a top 20 witness' pay. The top 20 witnesses should be more responsible and ensure there's no lack of RPC nodes for the Steem network.
I did notice 1 top 20 witness supporting the other top 20 witness get this up and running. Ironically I don't believe you're voting for them. You may not realize, but $350 of the money raised is from the Minnow Support Project. Also, @netuoso and @someguy123 who are two witnesses running these are both leaders in the Minnow Support Project. You should come visit us some time. We're doing good things for Steemit.
Vote me to top 20 and I will make sure I do that
You already have my vote... we need responsible witnesses
I'll raise you 5 RPC nodes if I'm top 20 😎
What are top 20 witness paid a day ?
Witnesses from 1-20 receive around 0.1 SP per block. With 1 block per minute that equals to roughly 144 SP per day. But please do mind that this is SP (Steem Power) and is locked in to the account and requires a power down process that pays 1/13th of the total amount per week.
you are correct
I've ran a quick benchmark (fetching 100 blocks) against online nodes, and steemd.privex.io's results are not in line with the rest.
It might be nginx or steemd configuration issue.
Any response to this? Was it a temporary thing, or still a problem?
we need this , thank you
Awesome! I've added your node as a default in my benchmarking tool over at https://bench.steem.vc
But it is behaving a bit differently than the other nodes, getting errors for the
get_follow_countcall.Thanks for your contribution. Just curious - by registering it on steem.center, will steemit.com users automatically start utilizing it?
Normal users will never deal with this information. This is mainly for developing applications and pointing them to an API server. A user might have to select a new server if one goes down, but at the moment such functionality doesn't exist via SteemIt. (it does in eSteem. hopefully @good-karma will update eSteem with the new nodes available)
Privex, you rock..keeping steemit secure and stable 100%
Very good news Thanks for taking this initiative to further add resiliency to this growing community. Highly rEsteemed.
Why would we want to run a RPC server? does it earn STEEM?
It supports the entire network and makes using applications possible in the first place. Why would YOU want to run it? You would be the only person that can answer that question.
As for me ... I chose to run my own RPC node because there are very few of them and I am an active witness and STEEM based developer that is trying to get more known. I contribute a lot of time and effort, and provide my skills as a system administrator capable of running, updating, and scaling a server such as the ones required for this undertaking.
Having a server with 100+GB ram at the very minimum becomes quite costly when using cloud hosted providers. It is far more affordable with personally owned and managed equipment, but this comes at a cost of having fire monitoring systems, redundant internet connections, power failover, physical space, and network bandwidth in tip-top shape.
So what do you choose? How much do you have to spend? What is your technical background?
All of these are necessary questions one must ask themselves when hosting production level servers for thousands of users.
It could if you ask for donations or support to run it...
I just ask for witness votes
That's good. Really good. Keep up good work.
Upvoted
this is very important for this community, thx for the information and for sharing it!