On 27th of October I wrote this post on Universa https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@draiden/universa-blockchain-worth-investing-in-the-next-ethereum explaining what it does and whether it would be worth investing into this ICO.
Throughout the post I was taking a look at the whitepaper and had a few doubts regarding various aspects that were written down in the whitepaper like the "trusted nodes" or masternodes.
It's almost a month ago and I've done some additional investigation which I would like to share with you through this post.
Disclaimer: i'm not a financial advisor and you have to define your own opinion whether or not to invest.
Licensed/Trusted nodes or masternodes
Universa, as other Proof of Stake/State coins have master nodes that secure the network by staking coins. With Universa this means you have to stake 1 million UTN (1.000.000 UTN) in order to start a master node. Next to that, information has been given out on the technical specifications of running the master node and, unfortunately, this can't run on your calculator or Raspberry Pi.
The masternode requires 16 cores and 32GB accompanied by a 256 GB SSD. Whether it are 16 cores or 16 threads (8 physical cores and 16 threads through hyperthreading) is not yet known.
This means the initial investment for running a masternode is quite steep as 16 core CPU's can't be bought at the local supermarket. In order to get this running you have three options:
- Renting a dedicated server at Amazon AWS, Google Cloud or Azure or similar.
- Building your own system/server/rig and keep it turned on 24/7 in your house.
- Building your own system/server and co-locating it in a data center.
Let's walk through these options.
1. Renting a dedicated server
Let's cut to the point immediately. Running a masternode in a cloud service isn't a good idea. The price for an Amazon AWS hosted dedicated server starts at about 2000 euro a month which, with the current unknown like the ROI, doesn't make it a good option (unless you're doing a first test for a couple of hours).
2. Your own system
Building your own system and running it in your own house is a better option as you have a decent resale value on the hardware and only have the costs of electricity. You do have to have a static IP address though and network stability is also very important.
Still, requiring a 16 core CPU is a big initial investment as we don't know the expected ROI yet.
3. Your own system or server in a co-located environment like a datacenter
Although the initial costs of building a rig that's living in a 1U server case could be a bit more costly than a regular PC Chassis, it does allow you to get the guarantee of a stable internet connection with a static IP address somewhere outside your house. This means you can pay a monthly fee which doesn't have to exceed 50 euro.
Worth investing?
I believe Universa is worth the investment as it does allow for a better approach than Ethereum in various aspects such as transaction speed and true smart contracts.
Universa, however, does show a lot of comparison with EOS which tries to do the same thing. Offer very fast transactions, at no transaction fees (Universa does have transaction fees) and build a platform.
Although EOS doesn't have transaction fees, they do reward the "block producers" with rewards. EOS block producers are hosted on servers in a data center similar to (possibly) Universa. How the block reward works is still unknown.
The aim for EOS is that they want to create a decentralized operating system which might make it's true technical adoption harder due to existing systems and exactly this is why Unversa seems more appealing for the current world, addressing a problem which is existing now and requires to be solved, now. Instead of in 5 years.
That's why Universa is a good investment according to my opinion.
Universa's current price tag is $0.012 and moves to the next tier at 2 December, to $0.0125.
Want to be part of the Universa journey? You can invest today using this link: https://check.universa.io/-3DJweh
Have a good day!
Draiden/Stefan