🔗Meet Project Internet Capacity

We are thrilled to introduce the Internet Capacity project, a promising new extension of our mission. Building on years of dedicated work by team and community, this project is the fourth generation of the ThreeFold Grid and introduces the $INCA token (more on that below). With this project, ThreeFold is ready to become a base layer for the DePIN ecosystem.

On our most recent project update community call, we were grateful to hear from Michael Wellesley-Wesley, the founder of Green Edge and prominent farmer on the ThreeFold Grid since 2017-2018, who introduced the project to the community.

The Internet Capacity project is rooted in three major objectives:

• Reliability: Achieving service levels that allow edge and AI workloads to run efficiently.
• Community: Establishing scalable community and communication systems for vast communities at both the farming and user levels.
• Growth: Expanding the grid to a million nodes in order to see out the vision of a truly global decentralized cloud infrastructure and ecosystem.

🔗Mission and Vision

As an extension of ThreeFold, the Internet Capacity project promotes a decentralized, community-driven, and inclusive cloud network, providing secure, private, and autonomous access to computing resources for all. The technology ensures a resilient, censorship-resistant infrastructure that protects data integrity and privacy, fostering innovation, digital sovereignty, and a more equitable internet.

The vision is to provide a cloud engine for a decentralized internet where users control their data and digital interactions. A global network of interconnected servers and nodes known as the grid, will democratize access to computing power and storage, forming the backbone of a new digital era of sovereignty, security, privacy, and inclusivity. The token supports a robust ecosystem, enabling the free exchange of internet capacity among cloud service providers, builders, and users on the grid.

🔗What to Look Forward to with the Project?

The project introduces several exciting elements for farmers and users alike:

• The most significant technological advancement is the Mycelium network, offering unbreakable connectivity and efficient routing, which is crucial for scalability – including for any DePIN protocol or project running on top of our grid
• Hosts (farmers) will be able to earn on utilization as well as hosting rewards, and set their own competitive prices within certain limits
• A marketplace of capacity will make it easier for users to find and rent capacity
• To attract serious cloud customers at a commercial level, robust uptime and performance guarantees will be ensured through Service Level Agreements, KYC will be introduced for reliability, competitive pricing will keep customers happy, and simplified products and approach will make for a better user experience
• A quality-based reward system will motivate cloud hosts to provide reliable service, while the flexible earnings model makes hosting more appealing
• A new token will launch on a high profile blockchain

All in all, there are a variety of elements coming together to ensure a sustainable and healthy ecosystem to grow decentralized cloud and Internet capacity around the world.

🔗The Team

An experienced team has been gathered around our DePIN launch, complementing the existing core team members. This combination of talent has a range of backgrounds and a collective understanding of how the $INCA token can bring a strong ecosytem for all stakeholders. This will be the natural evolution and continuation of what has been built by the ThreeFold team and community until today.

• Michael Wellesley-Wesley: Team lead, co-founder of Green Edge and a long-time member of the farming community.
• George Olver: An expert in the DePIN space, providing day-to-day leadership.
• Nick Hawkes and Max Gold: Partners under Gold Hawks, proficient in scaling DePIN ecosystem and historically part of the Helium and Solana communities.
• Quentin Issele: Formerly of OKEx, specializing in liquidity and marketing.
• Rob Beland: Founder of DePIN Connect, with vast marketing and influencer connections.
• Theo Chapman: Managing Director of Zonaris, coordinating execution within group.
• Mariza Wellesley-Wesley: A well-versed lawyer overseeing regulatory and legal aspects, co-founder of Green Edge.
• Sabrina Sadik and Mik Perrault: Our vital connectors between the Internet Capacity and ThreeFold teams.

🔗The $INCA Token

Many questions have risen about the introduction of a new token to the ThreeFold ecosystem. $INCA should be seen as an extension of $TFT. It will co-exist with $TFT, both convertible and usable across TF Grid 3 and TF Grid 4. The primary differences are:

• Higher Profile: $INCA will likely have a more prominent presence, especially on Solana.
• Tokenomics: $INCA will support app development, marketing, and community growth grants.
• Max Cap: Both tokens share a four-billion max cap, with $INCA providing an opportunity to double $TFT holdings (one $TFT converts to two $INCA).

🔗Benefits for $TFT Holders

For $TFT holders, the benefits are clear:

• Swapping: Each $TFT converts to two $INCA (during 2024), enabling easy entry for token holders.
• Market Presence: $INCA’s launch in the DePIN sector on Solana positions it in a visible and attractive market.
• Limited Supply: The initial supply of $INCA will be limited, which could drive demand and price up.

🔗Together We Build

In conclusion, while the Internet Capacity project brings a new chapter, it is really a continuation, simplification, and amplification of the ThreeFold journey. We anticipate exciting developments as we prepare for the TF Grid 4.0 launch and the introduction of the $INCA. We are happy to address any questions you may have on our forum or our main chat, keeping in mind that we are still refining many aspects of this project.

Onward! Keep building, friends.

In our last post, we started to explore what it means to test the ThreeFold Grid by highlighting the key processes and the benefits or reasons. Now, we continue our discovery path through the detailed testing process. In this post, we go deeper into two different ways of testing: Manual and Automation. Each is important, combining to ensure a strong and dependable TF Grid.

🔗Manual Testing

The thorough manual inspection of components using the Testlodge tool is at the core of our testing process. This tool acts as our guide, leading us through an array of test cases customized for each grid component. We guarantee comprehensive coverage of all grid components by organizing tests manually in specific test suites.

When a release candidate arrives from the development phase, our manual test executions come into play. Through meticulous examination, we confirm the smooth operation of each component. Any inconsistencies found during testing are promptly recorded using GitHub issues, facilitating quick resolution in future iterations.

Components such as Dashboard & Deployments, Mycelium, TF-Robot, Terraform, TF-Grid-Client, TF-Grid-Proxy, TF chain, Caprover, Kubernetes, and Farmerbot are examples of what undergoes our scrutiny.

🔗Why Manual Testing is Important:

Any new changes added to the grid should first undergo manual testing before going through automation testing. The fundamental principle of testing is that “100% automation is not possible” which makes manual testing necessary.

The main idea behind manual testing is to make sure that the grid is free of errors and that it is operating following the stated functional requirements in the manual and documentation. Additionally, it ensures that developers fix reported faults and that testers retest them.

Also, manual testing simulates the real-time behavior of the end user and how they think when they use our TF Grid solution, which allows us to do better UX design to meet everyone’s expectations.

🔗Automation Testing

Automation scripts are essential in strengthening our testing capabilities and our manual efforts. By utilizing GitHub actions, we run automated scripts daily to gain early insights into the health of the TF Grid. Our in-house automation tool, TF-Robot, leads the deployment process on the grid with exceptional efficiency.

TF-Robot is a cornerstone of automation, streamlining the deployment of various virtual machines across the ThreeFold Grid. With its capacity to manage large-scale deployments and offer multiple retries for unsuccessful attempts, TF-Robot enables users to navigate the grid seamlessly. Additionally, we leverage its functionalities to ensure the viability of registered nodes by deploying on active nodes regularly to confirm their suitability for deployment.

We use GitHub Actions to run our automated tests. These tests – ranging from testing solution deployments, to the status / health of all nodes, to the dashboard UI – are triggered by certain behaviors or activities:

• Any code change triggers certain tests
• Tests also run during code reviews
• Some tests run every day, like the Grid Client Nightly and Grid Client Tests
• Other tests run every 6 hours, like Mass Deployments

🔗Why Automation Testing is Important:

Automation testing speeds up the testing process significantly compared to manual testing. Automated tests can run anytime, including nights and weekends, allowing for continuous testing and faster development cycles. This reduces testing time and labor costs, making it a cost-effective approach in the long run. Automation helps identify issues and defects in the software early in the development process, making them easier and less expensive to fix. Automated test scripts are reusable and can be used throughout different phases of development, even if there are changes in the software’s user interface.

Sometimes, a node may be misconfigured or have defective hardware. In our automation testing, we run tests like Mass Deployer or TF-Robot, which loop over all online nodes and attempt deployments on them to detect problematic nodes or misconfigured ones early.

Additionally, nightly test runs for different test suites (dashboard UI, TS client) can detect incorrect code deployments early and alert developers to fix the pushed code that may affect unexpected parts of the project.

🔗How to Report an Error/Issue/Bug Found While Testing:

All errors found during testing are reported on GitHub. Based on findings, the repository has two templates to choose from: Bug Report and Feature Request. Follow these steps:

1. Click on the provided GitHub link.
2. Choose “New Issue.”
3. Select either of the templates and fill it out accordingly.
4. Click on “Submit.”

One of our developers will then work on resolving the issue. We have already fixed over 1,200 issues to date.

Testing is a key aspect of maintaining a reliable cloud infrastructure. Because testing is such a thorough process, we can catch and correct bugs before they make their way to mainnet, our “production” environment. A big thanks to all those who have contributed to testing the grid to date, and we invite anyone to join the testing community and take part in ensuring a smooth and reliable ThreeFold Grid.

🔗But first – why is testing important?

Testing upgrades as they’re developed ensures we have a stable operation of the TFGrid that is constantly optimal for our community. It lets us see what works well and what still needs fixing. By the time our community gets these upgrades, they’ve been tested many times to make sure they’re top-notch.

When it comes to testing the developments on the ThreeFold Grid, we need to be careful, especially when we’re doing separate tests from the different networks. If we don’t focus on testing the developments independently, testing can become a lot slower and more complicated.

Different networks for testing: We test on 3 different networks before we release anything on Mainnet.

🔗Testing all Networks sequentially

Our journey through these networks follows a well-defined path.

First, verification starts on Devnet with the dev team leading the validation process. Once the development team approves, we release the grid to the Qanet for further examination.

The QA teams conduct iterative test runs within Qanet, leading to a Bug Assessment Meeting to address reported issues. If the release is deemed ready for deployment, it moves to Testnet for an extended observation period.

Following two weeks of rigorous testing on Testnet releases advance to Mainnet once a community vote approves a Grid Enhancement Proposal, indicating readiness for widespread adoption. As the release enters Mainnet, QA teams begin new test iterations to ensure a smooth transition for user accessibility.

Testing is done both manually and automated:

Manual testing: At the core of our testing process is the thorough manual inspection of components using the advanced Testlodge tool.

Automation Testing: We also run Automated scripts on GitHub actions daily; to give us an early indication about the TFGrid.

We will go through these two types of testing further in part two.

🔗Conclusion

The testing journey within the ThreeFold Grid is intentionally and necessarily thorough, a delicate balance between manual precision and automated finesse, all designed to provide a strong and reliable cloud infrastructure for our users. Next time, stay tuned for more updates on how we conduct these tests and how they help us improve the grid’s reliability. Join us as we strive for excellence and continue to advance in the world of decentralized technology.

The ThreeFold community consists of many different roles creating a whole ecosystem that contributes to the growth of the ThreeFold Grid and makes it more reliable and stable. Today, we’re spotlighting the farming community, the backbone of the ThreeFold Grid.

🔗Who are the farmers and what exactly do these farmers do?

Think of a ThreeFold Farmer as a digital pioneer who connects their capacity to the ThreeFold Grid, becoming a cloud service provider. They come from all corners of the globe, driven by a common goal: to contribute to the growth of ThreeFold’s decentralized cloud infrastructure. Currently, we boast approximately 950 farmers running an impressive ±2500 nodes. This translates to a whopping capacity of:

• Cores: 64,290
• RAM: 434.85 TB
• SSD: 8.46 PB
• HDD: 20 PB

The farming community keeps the digital gears turning. Whether they purchase a 3Node from the marketplace or build their nodes, they’re providing essential capacity to the ThreeFold Grid. In return for their contributions, they’re rewarded with ThreeFold Tokens (TFTs), the currency of the ThreeFold ecosystem.

Farmers are rewarded based on their uptime—the number of hours, minutes, and seconds their node has been online. This data is meticulously tracked by ThreeFold’s blockchain, TFChain, and used to determine their monthly rewards. However, we’re always evolving and we just passed a vote on the ThreeFold DAO where we decided that, in the future, farmers would be rewarded based on their utilization.

ThreeFold Farmers not only provide capacity but also take the opportunity of ThreeFold being an open-source project to develop scripts and tools like a Python script for minting, a telegram for liquidity pool USDC/TFT, and Telegram channels for their local community where English is not their primary language so that they can get help when they need it, and much more.

The ThreeFold farming community is an integral part of our decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). A farmer’s participation in the DAO discussions and proposals is pivotal as we chart the course for the grid’s evolution, from our current version 3.14 release and beyond. Together, we’re actively building the grid’s future, thanks to our dedicated farmers’ collaborative efforts. Join us, share your ideas, and let’s shape the future of the ThreeFold Grid together.

🔗The Future of the Farming Community

🔗The TF Cooperative

ThreeFold is transitioning the management of TF Grid to a cooperative, empowering all of us to work toward our common goals more effectively. This shift represents a step towards a more collaborative and inclusive future for the TFGrid. As we enter the commercialization phase of the project, a cooperative model also brings a trusted form of decentralized governance and will enable us to bring more reliability to the grid.

The formation of the ThreeFold Cooperative (TF COOP) brings several planned changes for farmers and their interaction with the TFGrid:

• Democratic Governance: TF COOP introduces a system where farmers can vote on decisions based on their TFT holdings (1 TFT = 1 vote), giving them a voice in the cooperative’s direction.
• Farming Rewards: Farmers will continue to earn rewards based on the quality of their nodes and network uptime. This encourages high standards and benefits both farmers and users.
• Compliance: Farmers must follow KYC/AML (Know Your Customer/Anti-Money Laundering) rules for transparency and accountability.
• Service Level Agreements (SLAs): Larger farmers may sign formal contracts with DMCC or TF COOP, providing stability and predictability.
• Capacity Resale and Utilization Rewards: TF COOP will resell capacity and distribute profits. Farmers receive 50% of the revenue from their node utilization.
• Node Information and Transparency: Farmers can benefit from tracking more node data in the explorer, helping potential users select quality nodes.
• Governance Involvement: Farmers, as cooperative members, can impact management and operations, aligning their interests with the TFGrid’s success.

🔗Farming Pool

Farming Pools are a new feature planned for version 4.0 that helps improve trust and quality in our network. Farmers join these pools and agree to standards like uptime and response time. They can set their prices for services like storage and computing power. By staking tokens, farmers commit to these standards and risk losing some of their stakes if they don’t meet their promises. This keeps the network reliable and fair while allowing farmers more control over their services.

These pools can also act as hubs for supporting farmers with training and help them understand if their nodes are working well. Sales of preconfigured hardware is an additional optional function of the pools, while all pools operate as a business that takes a margin on the farming rewards of the farmers belonging to the pool. Beyond support, the added value for the farmers is that pools ensure a level of service and quality that can attract users and bring additional revenues to the farmers, including the potential of active marketing of the pool’s capacity.

🔗Conclusion

The farming community plays a key role in the smooth operation and growth of the ThreeFold Grid. These farmers shape the grid’s future by offering the capacity for a more decentralized digital world. Their work goes beyond earning rewards, as they contribute nodes to a global network and share resources and tools that strengthen the community, which will be showcased in our upcoming blogs. Thanks to their efforts, the grid is thriving and paving the way for a fairer, more connected world.

🔗Get involved:

• Join our farmer’s chat to talk with the community

• Learn about expanding the grid or adding on top of it.

• Stay updated with news and community discussions.

🔗Be a cloud service provider, not just a cloud consumer.

With ThreeFold’s autonomous technology, anyone can be a cloud service provider without any technical expertise. You can be the Internet, for yourself and for those around you.

Being a cloud service provider is a thrilling opportunity to tap into a market worth trillions of dollars – which today is being shared by a relatively small number of companies. This calls for change – a chance to level the playing field and allow more players to benefit from this lucrative industry. But it’s not just about financial gain. By entering the cloud services space, you become a catalyst for change. You’re not just providing a service; you’re creating connections, bridging gaps, and fostering inclusivity. The people around you benefit, too. Lower costs, improved performance, data sovereignty and greater privacy are just some of the advantages they’ll enjoy with your services.

Finally, by contributing to a more sustainable edge cloud, you’re not only ensuring a better future for yourself, but also for the planet. The adoption of a decentralized autonomous cloud reduces energy consumption and minimizes the environmental impact of data transfer, contributing to global sustainability efforts and a greener future.

Best of all, you’re not just investing in technology - you’re investing in a sustainable, connected and rewarding future, powered by the people, for the people. It’s ultimately good for you, good for the people around you, and good for the planet.

🔗How to become a cloud provider?

ThreeFold enables you to become a cloud service provider by hosting a 3node, bringing local capacity where people need it most and providing compute, storage and AI capabilities. After setting up this node, being verified and sharing capacity on our grid, your contribution is rewarded.

Join the movement and Become a Host!

🔗Participate in the ThreeFold L2 Validator Program

The ThreeFold Blockchain records transactions that happen on the ThreeFold Grid, including Internet capacity (farming), Internet capacity provisioning (smart contract for IT), identity, account metadata and more.

Validator nodes support the network by remaining in sync with the ThreeFold Blockchain and recording the chain’s data while validating and/or injecting transactions. Essentially, a validator stores and validates transactions aka, mining blocks.

With about a hundred L2 validator nodes to join the network, clients will be able to rely on a distributed, peer-to-peer network instead of relying on centralized services.

Many people and organizations rallied to run validator nodes using computing and bandwidth resources – but more are needed to allow ThreeFold to continue to grow. The rest of this post describes how you can help and what’s in it for you.

🔗Why run a ThreeFold L2 Validator?

L2 Validators store the records of the ThreeFold Blockchain, the ThreeFold DAO and the development of side chains on the ThreeFold Grid. There are only 50 in the first batch and 37 have already been verified – meaning there are only 13 spots left! Running an L2 validator requires 2,000,000 TFT staked in order to begin validating. This 2,000,000 TFT is the minimum bond needed to begin validating blocks. A validator also earns voting rights in the ThreeFold DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), which is responsible for the operations of the ThreeFold Blockchain and ThreeFold Grid.

Running a validator node on a computer isn’t a complicated task. For many of us who love ThreeFold, we want to support the decentralization of the peer-to-peer Internet, and running a validator node is a great way to do that. Also, it is a unique and revolutionary project to have in your room or office. Running a validator node requires little electricity, close to zero technical knowledge, and no real time commitments. 

🔗Validator Node Rewards

For their commitment, and as an incentive for their continued participation, validators are rewarded with a share of the ThreeFold Grid’s revenue. By helping the network reach consensus, validators also earn rewards for processing transactions into new blocks or checking the work of other validators because that’s what keeps the ThreeFold Blockchain secure. A minimum of 5% yield is foreseen in the next 2 years.

🔗Join the Peer-to-Peer Revolution

ThreeFold is realizing the initial promise of an open-source, peer-to-peer Internet owned by the people. Anyone can become a validator and participate in the decentralization of the Internet economy. If you are interested in running one, just follow these simple steps:

• Step 1: Create an account (wallet) with the ThreeFold Connect app.
• Step 2: Buy the required amount of TFT to reserve your validator. Find all TFT buying options here.
• Step 3: Log into the ThreeFold Forum using ThreeFold Connect and go to the L2 Validator Signup category.
• Step 4: Follow the registration instructions to become a L2 Validator, and review the checklist of your application before submission.

Someone from the ThreeFold community will get in touch with you within the next few days to welcome you to the ThreeFold universe. We’ll have a brief call to verify your identity and wallet treasury to confirm your application. The successful verification process secures your spot as a ThreeFold L2 Validator.