Guide #3: Creating Nodes
StrongBlock 101
Things you need to know before you start…. and more
Guide #3: Creating Nodes
Congratulations! You’ve stumbled upon StrongBlock and are ready to start earning some passive rewards. Below you will find some helpful hints, tricks, and pitfalls to help you successfully start building your node army. Some of these will help you to minimize fees, others will help you with the process, and some will guide you through issues that may occur along the way.
First, it is critical to understand how the protocol operates, since nodes across many blockchain networks are supported, as this impacts how you interact with the StrongBlock ecosystem and the associated fees/gas that you will encounter.
When StrongBlock began building the backend systems the ETH network was much less congested. Gas fees were not an issue at this point, and since ETH was the ‘go-to network’ it was the logical choice for which to build the systems. As we all know now, ETH’s success has come with its problems. Namely the cost of processing transactions. A transaction that cost $3 when the StrongBlock was built may now cost in excess of $100 during even moderately congested periods, and ‘cheap’ transactions are now rarely under $30.
All back-end operations are still conducted using the ETH network, the same as when it was originally built. Regardless of whether you are creating, or performing interactions, with nodes such as AVAX-MATIC-Fanton-Sentinel-etc. the backend operations are still operating on the ETH network.
Due to the massive increase in costs associated with ETH transactions many alternatives to ETH have gained popularity by offering much lower costs. In response the StrongBlock team has been thoroughly researching many different options, including creating a dedicated ‘StrongChain’ network solely for the StrongBlock ecosystem. While there is no definitive date that any change would be implemented we are hoping to see this the first half of 2022.
Tip #1: When you first create a node you will encounter two different wallet authorizations.
The first is what we call a ‘Spend Auth’. With this you are allowing StrongBlock the authorization to take 10 tokens from your wallet for the node. If you plan to create more nodes in the future you can ‘edit permissions’ on this transaction and increase the # of tokens you allow for your future nodes.
Once the “Approve” transaction completes you will need to the do the “Create Node” process.
Tip #1: if you speed up a transaction the system may not recognize when it has completed (since it was replaced). Check the TX in etherscan.
Tip #2: Your node name, date & description may not save exactly as you enter it. The name & description information may be edited, but not the date.
Tip #3: If you decide to ‘speed up’ your transaction in your wallet, know that the system will be awaiting a verification from the original slower transaction, and you will likely have to refresh your page, or check the replacement TX in etherscan.
Tip #4: Once you have submitted you node you will see a “Success” message, but your transaction may still be pending to be included in the blockchain. It may take several minutes (hours+ at times) after the transaction has completed until it appears in the ‘My Nodes’ list of the website. If this was your first node in the wallet you can confirm it was created by seeing if rewards are accruing toward the top of the page, or if the # of nodes has increased.
Tip #5: At times a node creation may take your tokens & eth but not create a node. To fix this you can simply redo the creation process (pick any name, description) and submit. If it goes through without asking for additional tokens you now have a node. If it does ask for tokens, simply cancel the transaction and this means you already have a node setup and need to wait for it to appear.
