Flopper1 on Nostr: Obviously, total cost of participation in this dimension will come at a cost to ...

Obviously, total cost of participation in this dimension will come at a cost to decentralization and consequently security of the blockchain.
In contrast to the above, the requirements for Signum node providers are very modest. A setup of only 2 vCPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB HD is necessary for a full node, which corresponds to an initial investment of only USD 140 (Source: Signum Hardware). If rented, the setup would incur monthly costs of only USD 11 (Source: Essential Signum). This of course makes the technology very inclusive, i.e. accessible to people in lower-income regions, which in turn fosters decentralization and hence security. This is a (sometimes forgotten) core principle of the blockchain concept in general.
The root cause for the predicted collapse of the currently dominant blockchains lies in their fundamental technological concept. In short, the logic is as follows:
* Tokens are not native elements of the platforms. They are created and managedthrough smart contracts. Every smart contract needs to be deployed on-chain. The original code takes up space and needs to be stored forever on every node. The result: a tremendous amount of duplicated code is deployed and stored on the blockchain.
* Handling simple operations like a token transfer by smart contracts leads to a huge increase in required blockchain space and effort when interacting with tokens.
* The result: blockchains get overloaded very quickly and/or the technical requirements to run a node become very high (which can lead to centralization).
In addition, there are operational and economic downsides:
On the operation side, the big problem is that specialized software engineers are needed to review and deploy the smart contracts. These developers are rare, expensive to hire, and hard to keep. Furthermore, there are numerous challenges around quality control as every contract is developed individually. On top, trust is an issue as the code is not easily reviewable by the publisher, e.g. with regards to back doors. And this is not just a theoretical problem: With a little research, everyone can see that in the past 12 months there have been many cases of token fraud or alleged hacks (recent example click here).
From an economic perspective,these technical and operational complications result in high costs of operating tokens. The whole token creation process (including hiring, coding, etc.) requires a substantial investment of time and money. Because one transaction is run per token and holder, transaction fees rack up very quickly. Attempting to mitigate these risks is very costly, as there are no ready-to-use tokens and complexity can increase quickly (not to mention the token hacks that are frequently reported).