On November 1st 2019, the seed of an idea traveled 2,750 miles to Mexico City where it was sown. It was there, in a city of 8.8 million people, that the seed was nourished until it sprouted into something with global reach. This sprouting idea is one that I believe will continue to grow and evolve into a significant source of momentum for Stellar. A source of independent unity that may just help Stellar change the world for the better. The idea I’m writing about is Public Node and it was brought to life by the Stellar community at Meridian.
Public Node’s beginnings story and the launch of this website are proof that Meridian, the first Stellar conference, was a remarkable success. With what I witnessed and the energy I felt when at Meridian, I’m certain Public Node is but one of many Stellar-based ideas that will have a genesis trackable to those two short days in Mexico City. I get excited just thinking about what Meridian fostered for Stellar’s future.
First focus on the basics
Excitement for other projects aside, it is time to write about the future of Public Node and what we aim to accomplish. In short, everything we work on will be in support of our mission – to provide a trusted and meaningful public voice within the Stellar network. To deliver on our mission, we will first focus on the basics. This means that we will work towards:
Reaching a sustainable level of membership. We need to ensure our membership grows to a point where monthly revenue is equal to or greater than the cost of running our full validator nodes.
Streamlining membership voting until it becomes routine. An important part of Public Node is the opportunity for members to vote on proposed Stellar protocol changes. At the time this blog was written, we had not yet run a vote and our initial plan for casting and tallying votes is rather manual. As we gain more experience, we plan to refine our approach until it becomes an easy and predictable process.
Herculean Long-term Vision
In the long term, our vision is much more grandiose, potentially even herculean. We want Public Node to evolve from a Stellar-community-pooling-of-resources initiative to an industry-leading nonprofit organization providing for the Stellar network what Public Broadcasting Service provides for radio, television, and people. And with that statement, you now understand what we mean by “herculean.”
I look forward to the day we all look back and reflect on all that we did to get us to our long-term vision, but that is some time away. Until then, we must remain focused on the basics and build from there. With hard work and dedication, Stellar and Public Node will mature together. Regardless of what the future will bring for Public Node, it is certain to be one epic journey!
