What is Nodes-as-a-Service and which NaaS projects are worth looking into?
DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance and is an emerging financial technology. This system and the money within it is not controlled by banks or any other institutions. Within the general space of DeFi there are constantly coming up innovations and new sectors. There are DeFi protocols that identify themselves as DeFi-as-a-Service (DaaS), Nodes-as-a-Service (NaaS) or Farming-as-a-Service (FaaS).
Nodes-as-a-Service (NaaS)
Nodes-as-a-Service projects allow investors to own their own blockchain nodes. Since running a blockchain node can be really challenging for investors without proper blockchain and programming knowledge NaaS projects try to offer a solution for this issue.
NaaS projects mainly offer investors to buy RPC nodes with the native token of the project. The purchased node offers a fixed yield and the rewards are payed out in the native token of the NaaS project.
RPC nodes are nodes that connect the blockchain and decentralized applications (dApps). RPC nodes help the dApps to communicate with the blockchain in order to access information and make transactions.
Sustainability
The vital point of NaaS projects comes down to the sustainability of the project. The rewards are regularly payed out in the own native token and this can lead to a constantly sell-off of the token.
Projects are pursuing different strategies to avoid such big and regular sell-offs. These strategies include:
- integration of a treasury (similar to Farming-as-a-Service protocols)
- incentives to hold, like increased yield or sale taxes
- major partnerships with other blockchains
- ongoing innovation
Interesting NaaS projects
The following projects are not listed in any specific order.
StrongBlock ($STRONG)
StrongBlock (STRONG) is a Nodes-as-a-Service protocol deployed on Ethereum offering Nodes that run on Ethereum, Polygon, Sentinel. Nodes on Fantom are said to be coming soon.
Numbers (as of Feb. 2022):
- fully diluted market cap: ~ $132 million
- nodes: ~ 350,000
- rewards: ~ 0.92% a day
Thanks to @BitcoinComExch for the great interview with @WithoutTheRope on #StrongBlock, #Blockchain, #DeFi and $STRONG! https://t.co/oEF2hM2T5L
— strongblock.io (@Strongblock_io) October 22, 2020
VaporFi ($VPND)
VaporFi (VPND) is a Nodes-as-a-Service protocol deployed on Avalanche.
Numbers (as of Feb. 2022):
- fully diluted market cap: ~ $36 million
- nodes: ~ 34,000
- rewards: ~ 1% a day
When your creative team gets a hold of your @BoredApeYC #BAYC and starts to dress him up in VaporFi gear...$VPND pic.twitter.com/SPQl6V54VE
— VaporFi (@VaporNodes) January 27, 2022
Atlas Cloud ($ATLAS)
Atlas Cloud (ATLAS) is a Nodes-as-a-Service protocol deployed on Fantom.
Numbers (as of Feb. 2022):
- fully diluted market cap: ~ $370 million
- nodes: ~ 5,000
- rewards: 1% a day
Our first AMA is now live on YouTube!
— Atlas Cloud (@AtlasCloud__) December 19, 2021
If you were not able to make it to our first AMA session, don't fret! This will be a weekly/bi-weekly event. 🌎https://t.co/NxWjbPDuJm
Future of Nodes-as-a-Service
We find the NaaS sector really interesting and innovative. We are also keen to see if projects can achieve long term sustainability. There are constantly coming up new projects within this space. That is why you should always make sure to do your own due diligence before investing in already existing and also upcoming projects.
How do you buy ETH, AVAX or FTM?
One of the easiest ways of buying ETH, AVAX or FTM is by using exchanges like Kucoin, Coinbase or Binance.
If you do not want to use a centralized exchange you can use a decentralized exchange.
