In the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry, network nodes play a major role of importance. The more nodes are online, the more secure the network has become in the process. As far as IOTA is concerned, the team has introduced a new solution which could be quite interesting. Known as Chronicle, it is a permanode solution which can introduce a lot of positive changes.
Running Nodes on IOTA
It is evident any cryptocurrrency network with many nodes will see some of its node operators run into issues sooner or later. In the case of Bitcoin, running a full node requires increasing amounts of storage due to the blockchain size growing rapidly. For IOTA, a similar problem persists. Considering how this venture is designed to revolutionize the Internet of Things, any node-based issues need to be addressed sooner rather than later.
It now seems the developers have come up with a more permanent solution. Although the goal was to make local snapshots solve most of these problems, it is evident that a more permanent fix is in order. Although snapshots allow node owners to delete old transactions without causing network issues, it is good to see the developers look for other solutions regardless.
The Permanode Solution
Earlier today, the IOTA team unveiled its permanode solution, dubbed Chronicle. It allows node owners to store all IOTA transactions in a scalable and distributed database. That latter word will undoubtedly irk a lot of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, as this technology is very different from traditional databases. That said, it is a good analogy, as this data flow of the Tangle will be made queryable.
Additionally, the permanode will offer – in theory – indefinite storage of the Tangle’s history and makes it easily accessible to boot. From a scaling point of view, this is a concept which could have positive repercussions for the IOTA ecosystem as a whole. It would even become possible for node owners to earn money if they start offering data queries as a service.
Public Release Needs to Wait
Despite all of the promising signs Chronicle seems to bring to the table, there is still a lot of work ahead for the developers. First of all, there needs to be a third-party audit of the code as a whole, which is expected to occur in the weeks to come. It would make no sense to launch a piece of code which could have bugs, exploits, or other shortcomings. Once the audit has been completed, the permanode will become production-ready.
It also seems additional functionality will be added to this project in the near future. The IOTA Foundation is willing to offer grants to those who develop and expand the permanode concept. If this venture proves to be successful, it wouldn’t be unlikely to see a similar permanode solution pop up across other cryptocurrency and blockchain networks in the future. For the time being, the project’s repo can be found on GitHub. This marks a prominent development in the history of IOTA, with a lot more progress waiting to be unlocked.
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