Although ‘Node Sale’ is somewhat of a new concept, it has now become a highly preferred method for web3 and crypto projects to raise funds, achieve next-level decentralization for their network, build community, and more. Earlier, we released a dedicated article on Zeeve’s verifier node launchpad, and since then, the impact of verifier node sales has increased considerably. Considering this fact, today’s article explores top-10 projects that have really set up new benchmarks through the verifier node sale mechanism. We’ve picked these projects based on the amount of funding they have raised in 2024 from the sale of node licenses. The data in this article have been verified from leading analytics platforms like Dune Analytics, Coinmarketcap, CoinGecko, Dunedrop, and a few more.
What projects should launch verifier node sales?
Verifier node sale can be launched by chains that want to add an additional security & decentralization layer to their ecosystem. Hence, verifier nodes are mostly suited for optimistic rollup networks as its security and decentralization relies on fraud proofs and dispute time delay (DTD). There can also be a situation where verifiers can submit incorrect values. With an additional layer of verifier nodes, optimistic rollups can stay confident about the security and network’s integrity, knowing that honest watchers oversee the whole ecosystem. However, Zk Rollups can also opt for verifier nodes. We will talk about this later in the article.
Regarding the type of projects that can launch node sales are DeFi platforms, gaming chains, blockchain infrastructure providers, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), industry-specific projects, as well as web3-focused investors. Note that verifier nodes have different names given by specific projects, such as checker nodes or sentry nodes. Zeeve has a unique name for the verifier nodes: the Sentinel nodes.
Top-10 projects setting new benchmarks in verifier node sale in 2024
Node sale has been one of the hottest web3 trends in 2024. Different projects leveraged this trend for their specific purpose, which is mainly for raising funds or building a strong and highly secure network ecosystem.
Let’s deep dive into top-10 projects that have used node sales. We’ve shortlisted these projects based on the funds they have raised from the sale of verifier nodes:
1- Aethir
Category- DePIN
Fund raised- $153.8M
Aethir, the Arbitrum-based Layer2 offering on-demand GPU cloud infrastructure, is among the hard-hitting players in terms of conducting successful node sales. Aethir raised $153.8Million funding from the sale of over 70k checker node licenses. By doing this, Atheir’s Arbitrum-based Optimistic rollup network has now completely decentralized the control of its GPU DePIN network as the node buyers will now contribute to its security and reliability. As a reward, Atheir is offering 10% of its total token supply for a 4-year timeline along with a 5% bonus.
Verifier node sale has a significant positive impact on Atheir’s growth, resulting in a fully diluted value (FDV) of over $3 billion. Plus, Atheir is now backed by a strong network of 100+ partners ranging from DAOs, launchpads, NFT communities, syndicates, and more.
2- Sophon
Category- Consumer layer
Fund raised- $63.26M
Next name in the list of top node
All the node buyers will contribute to the security and decentralization of the Sophon network and in return, the node operators are entitled to receive rewards for their participation in the consensus. According to the Sophon team, most of their node buyers are the venture capital firms who have technically purchased the license to operate nodes for which the ownership is represented through ERC721 tokens or NFTs. Further, Sophon has introduced a 1-year lock-up concept for their nodes to turn fungible. With this 40 tier-based sale event, Sophon has been greatly benefited to see its FDV growing from $130M to a whopping $3B.
sale projects is Sophon– an entertainment-focused zkSync Hyperchain that has raised $63.26M through the node sale fundraising method. Sophon has sold around 123,554 network nodes worth approximately 20,865 ETH (more than $63M).Also, Sophon All the checker nodes that contribute to Sophon’s network validation will receive 20% of its total token supply through a quarter-to-quarter release scheduled for the time period of 36 months post mainnet launch.
3- XAI Blockchain
Category- Gaming
Fund raised- $48.1M
Let’s talk about XAI, the gaming-dedicated Arbitrum Layer3, which has raised $48.1M funds through the sale of 35,171 sentry or checker nodes, which has resulted in its impressive XAI FDV of $338.72M. We already talked about XAI’s node sale strategy in our previous article, mentioning node count, their reward policies, and more. In 2024, XAI has achieved success from its sentry node sale and is already headed towards setting new transparency and decentralization standards for its ecosystem leveraging the contribution of all the checker nodes.
4- CARV protocol
Category- self-sovereign identity (SSI)
Fund raised- $35.30M
Another gaming-focused project, Carv; the modular data layer for Gaming and AI has maintained a position among top node sale projects with sale of 38,958 verifier nodes as of 2024 while raising around 35.30M funds from both the whitelist and public sale while driving growth of its FDV to around $250 million.
From verifier nodes, Carv refers to lightweight, community-managed verifier nodes that play a critical role in maintaining Carv protocol’s integrity through increasing the security and trustworthiness. These nodes will essentially use their license to check on-chain TEE attestations to verify if the results are reliable and user’s data privacy is 100% preserved. In return, Carv has allocated 25% of its total token supply for its node operators.
5- Hychain
Category- Gaming
Fund raised- $8.25M
Hychain– the Arbitrum Layer-2 owned & managed by popular gaming platforms like Hytopia, is holding the momentum up as it has raised more than $8M through its recent public node sale. Based on official news, the Hychain’s node sale raised around 2,098 ETH during the sale conducted in March 2024, which is equivalent to more than 8M. Now, after the huge success of node sale, Hychain is set to dole out around 250 million TOPIA of worth $17.5M to all the node buyers who are entitled to get a share of 25% in the transaction fee. The project claims to have sold 17,372 nodes as of now and the sale will remain active until the total 50,000 nodes are sold. Following the successful sale, the project has recorded an implied FDV of around 119B.
6- Powerloom
Category- Decentralized data
Fund raised- $3.30M
Despite being a new and innovative OP rollup chain, Powerloom protocol has managed to sell 5,050 checker nodes, thereby accumulating around $3.30 million in funds along with an implied FDV of approximately $30 million. Powerloom is a highly composable data network platform that aggregates on-chain and off-chain data for dApps spanning GameFi, NFTs, cryptos, and more. The project has more than 8,800 backers, including big ventures like Blockchain Capital, CMS Holdings, The LAO, and so on.
7- AlienX Chain
Category- Gaming
Fund raised- $2.76M
AlienX chain; the high-performance Arbitrum Orbit Layer2 driven by next-gen AI technology, has conducted a successful public AI node sale, raising more than $2.76M funds from sale of 20K+ nodes within 3 days of launch with participation value exceeding $20M. AlienX aims to sell all its 50K AI nodes to record an estimated FDV at $318M.
By selling node licenses, AlienX opens the opportunity for all participants to become an integral part of its network and thus contribute in network validation and monitoring so that security and stable operations can be maintained. Speaking about the rewards, AlienX will distribute up to 40% rewards in $AIX to the node holders.
8- Rivalz Network
Category- DePIN
Fund raised- $1.40M
Rivalz network– the modular optimistic rollup Layer2 supporting P2P node infrastructure for modular applications, has conducted multiple rounds of Rivalz zNode sale, making solid arrangements to improve the network’s integrity, privacy, and decentralization while flagging all the malicious actors. The 2024 fundraising insight from Rivalz Network highlights multiple rounds of node sale events: the May round, $224.00K; the June round, $99.86K; and the upcoming node sale, where $1.40M funding is anticipated. This node sale has made Rivalz Network’s FDV reach $23.94K. Speaking about rewards, Rivalz has allocated 20% of the $RIZ token to be paid across the next 30 months. In Q3, 2024- the network will start distributing rewards as soon as their mainnet goes live.
9- KIP Protocol
Category- Decentralized base layer
Fund raised - $50.08K
KIP Protocol, the Ethereum-based chain for facilitating the creation, monetization, and management of AI knowledge assets, is another project that will achieve significant milestones in selling checker nodes. In 2024, KIP raised $50.08K from a node sale round where KIP maintained a record of selling all its 400 nodes in just 2 hours.
With checker nodes, KIP aims to eliminate network challenges like single points of failure and achieve unparalleled decentralization while enhancing network reliability as a whole. For rewards, KIP will allocate 20% of the $KIP token supply for a period of 36 months. According to the KIP team, checker node sale has been a real upgrade for the protocol as it plans to onboard 10+ high-level clients, form strategic partnerships with industry giants like Masa, Rido, and Ta-da. As of July 2024, KIP protocol has around 3,888 NFT minted (owned by 3,033 unique NFT owners) and its market cap reached at $668,177.
10- Wirex Pay
Category- Payments
Fund raised - upcoming
Wirex Pay, the leading-edge decentralized payment network powered by zero knowledge (ZK) technology, has recently announced its upcoming public sale of node licenses. These nodes will play an integral role in validating Wirex Pay Network’s transactions and ensuring security & complete integrity. The node sale will commence before the mainnet launch of Wirex Pay. Official details shared by the Wirex Pay team mention a total of 1,00,000 node licenses, and for rewards, 20% of the network's token supply will be allocated to the node operators. The sale is scheduled to be completed in 40 tiers, with the price for nodes increasing in every tier.
Apart from these top-10 projects of 2024, there are some projects that have conducted node sales in 2023. Gala games, Myria, and Tabi are among the popular projects that have witnessed success in verifier node sales, and some of them have still kept their nodes open for sale.
How is Zeeve simplifying the whole node sale mechanism?
Zeeve has named these additional optimistic rollup nodes as Sentinel nodes, which perform the same job as Checker/verifier nodes. Our specially designed node client software simplifies the entire ‘Sentinel’ node implementation for all kinds of web3 projects. To do this, Zeeve offers powerful, highly optimized node sale-infrastructure-as-a-service that web3 L2/L3 chains can leverage to integrate verifier node layers into their ecosystem. That’s because verifier nodes or checker nodes are not natively supported on a blockchain. Instead, networks need to implement an additional layer.
While we mainly see that optimistic rollups are using verifier nodes, ZK chains can also leverage this mechanism to ensure robust security for their network. For them, Zeeve is offering DA node sale by adding an additional delegation layer into the data availability committee (DAC). Using this layer, Zk rollup chains can closely monitor their network and ensure its 100% reliability.
Once projects have the infra, they further need a node sale launchpad to accomplish their end goal, for example; Seedify, Impossible Finance, ChainGPT, Trustpad, or BSC Pad. Again, for this, Zeeve has a bunch of strategic partnerships with a bunch of popular launchpads so that projects can get everything in one place for a streamlined process.
This means that Zeeve is set to take full responsibility for node sales and verifier node implementation for your network. Additionally, Zeeve offers end-to-end support to keep your network up and running. Check more details about Zeeve’s node sale-infrastructure-as-a-service from this page, or connect with us anytime to get all your queries solved.
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