This is a foundational building block to HIVE and PeakD ... it's something that many sites have in the background unseen and unknown but presently PeakD has in the forefront. Allowing different parties to be a part of the information delivery system is truly a unique aspect of HIVE and PeakD.
MANUAL FOR NOW... AUTOMATIC COMING SOON
First of all https://peakd.com/ and other interfaces are working to make the switch of nodes automatic so that users like yourself do not have to know about this or think about this. But for the time being this post may be important. Even with automatic switching some users will find it interesting to know what API NODES do.
In simple terms they are the servers that process all the posts,votes,comments etc being added to the public repository we call HIVE... and then those servers spit out the results to our website.
- So if the API NODE is not working = you get no posts.
- If the API NODE is slow = then the site seems slow to load.
DECENTRALIZATION
There are presently 5 people or companies running public nodes for sites like ours to use. This gives some decentralization for you and our site. Meaning if one of the servers is down we still have options.
WARNING FEATURES OF A NODE
Also nodes can mute abusive accounts or give PeakD users warnings about accounts that are suspected of anything from fraud to spam to abuse of the rewards pool. You can turn off those warnings however when choosing a node you are choosing their mute list there is no option once you choose the node.
Even though we would like to autoswitch nodes for when nodes go down... presently it's manual.
This means PeakD gives you the option to choose your own node. You can do so in your PeakD settings. (Pictured below)
ADVANCED DATA (You don't need to know)
There is some advanced information in the node switch area... you don't need to know about it but we share for full disclosure. You'll see what accounts that node mutes or gives a warning about. You can even see who runs it and maybe donate to those users or show your appreciation for keeping hive decentralized.
AN ADVANCED TOOL
You can even see which node is fastest based on where you live in the world. Note nodes fluctuate speeds based on how many are using them.
https://peakd.com/me/tools/benchmark
ABOUT PEAK FAQ PROJECT
- All articles are posted in this Hive community
- This document will be updated with links to all FAQ articles.
- Project ran by @peakd. Main authors presently: @jarvie
- Please submit more questions here.
Please follow up this post with any other questions you have for this topic