Pros & Cons of Operating a Node

What Are The Benefits & Risks?

Ok, so you’ve learnt a bunch about Gala Games and the Founders Node.

Let’s jump into the upsides and the potential risks of owning and operating a Founders Node.

High long-term value -the most interesting aspect for most – the return on your investment could be very high, alongside you  being able to run your node and earn GALA long after you’re paid the original investment off.

It’s easy to set up – for something so technical, and cutting edge, the Founders node is easy to set up. Check out my guide for the few simple steps it takes.

Great pedigree – it’s not often you get to be part of a company that has people with such strong experience and success behind them.

The people steering the ship some of the most successful individuals in the games and cryptocurrency worlds.

Eric Schiermeyer – a co-founder of Zynga, an extremely successful mobile games platform.

Wright Thurston – an early adopter i the blockchain space, famous for holding multiple patents on blockchain technology

Michael McCarthy – the Creative Director on projects like Farmville 2 and Words With Friends

Nodes are still relatively cheap – right now, the node licenses are still quite cheap. 

Every 100 nodes that are bought, the price goes up, and there are a total of 50,000 nodes.

If I’ve understood correctly the final 100 nodes will cost $33,000 each. The time to move is now!

You can sell your licence on at a later date – It’s going to be possible to sell your license on to other interested parties in the future. 

Gain voting rights for the ecosystem – one of the unique aspects of the Gala Games ecosystem is that it’s owned by the players and operators. 

As a node operator, you’ll gain voting rights to help shape the future of the company!

Get in early – I don’t know about you, but I considered Bitcoin in 2014, I considered Ethereum in 2016, I considered so many well known companies, but didn’t pull the trigger. 

But with Gala Games, you’re able to join an ecosystem that holds incredible potential.

Now potential is not always realised, and that’s why its awesome to get in early. 

If I’d have put $100 into BTC in 2014… let’s just say I could buy even more Gala nodes!

It’s similar with Gala Games. We’re in the early stages of what could be a phenomenal business, so even if it doesn’t reach crazy success, it’s ok because the stakes are lower right now.

Risks

This is not an investment into the company – its more like you’re buying the right provide computational power to the blockchain

I personally see this as halfway between a business opportunity and a long term investment. 

That’s because I’m not in control of the business as a node owner.

If the company falls apart, closes or other problems arise, my node may become worthless and I’m not able to make decisions to protect against that.

However the people behind Gala Games have an impressive list of experience and success under their belt.

My take on out, is if anyone can make this succeed it’s the team at Gala Games.

ETH gas fees are still extremely high – at the time of writing, to mint your NFT rewards and redeem your GALA, you’ll need to use the Ethereum network. This costs what’s known as a Gas Fee. Think of it a little like a transaction fee at a bank.

Currently, because of the flaws in the Ethereum network, those fees are a bit wild (can range from $2-200). 

There are two simple solutions, however. First, Gala themselves are working on using a different network soon – fees should be tiny in comparison.

Second, you can wait to save up a lot of GALA, then redeem – Gas Fees don’t scale with the amount you’re trying to redeem. Also, try to redeem in the early hours of the morning, as I’ve found fees to be more reasonable then (sometimes as low as $2USD, instead of $80USD!)

I expect it to take around 18 months to pay off the node cost – that’s mainly because the ecosystem is very young, and there are not enough players/users to create high demand right now. 

But as Mirandus, and other games come online (there are reportedly 10 games in the short-medium term pipeline), player base could skyrocket

GALA rewards decrease every year – this probably won’t be a problem, because it’s a classic blockchain strategy to make sure the token isn’t subject to hyperinflation. Supply, currently is planned to be finite (ie there’s a set number of GALA), this is great news for the price of the coin increasing – making your investment more valuable over time…. However

The price of GALA token may fall – there are many reasons why the price of GALA may fall. The company may fail. Players may not be as excited about the games as we’d hope. There may be a crash in the crypto markets. 

That will suddenly mean your saved GALA rewards are worth much less.

I personally find those scenarios unlikely, but I’m prepared to deal with it if it does happen. I think for all the reasons in the ‘pros’ section above, the Gala Games project has a very strong chance of success, but we’ve got to be sober minded about it. Beware of Hopium!