Cryptocurrency custody firm Casa has announced the launch of a service that’ll reward users for maintaining their Bitcoin nodes online and help secure the Bitcoin network.
According to the company’s announcement, the new service is called Node Heartbeats and is a way “to privately, quickly and securely check that your Casa Node is working properly from anywhere in the world.”
The firm is also launching a “Heartbeat SatsBack Reward Program” that’ll reward users for regularly using Node Heartbeats with roughly $1 worth of bitcoin for running at least five checks per week.
The announcement reads:
If we're going to make Bitcoin nodes a foundation for everyday computing, we have to make sure there are better ways of keeping personal nodes up-to-date and online. Node Heartbeats now make security checks easy – providing a clear way to do a daily check-up of your device. The checks are 100% private (using Tor!), very quick, and they can be sent from anywhere in the world.
It details that to check on a user’s node Casa makes a “very brief connection” from its server to the node, and that for it to possible the node has to be synced, with Tor activated. Casa notes it plans to “continue these Heartbeat SatsBack rewards for a long-time to come” in order to incentivize node growth on the cryptocurrency’s network.
Casa nodes are just like regular full nodes, which means they help secure the Bitcoin network by validating transactions and blocks. Ensuring more users run a node is important as it ensures the network remains decentralized.
As covered Casa has earlier this year announced the launch a lightweight mobile app meant to attract new cryptocurrency users and bolster the adoption of bitcoin and lightning network nodes. The app allows users to manage their nodes, while also giving them rewards.
