• Ardor and Nxt will launch a reward program to incetivize full nodes and increase the total number.
• The partnership is also intended to strengthen the cooperation of developers from both projects.

This week, Ardor and Nxt, two blockchain networks operating under the umbrella of Jelurida, a software development company focused on enterprise blockchain adoption, have provided users with details about their node reward program that strives to increase the number of nodes on their networks.

These additional nodes are necessary to further distribute their network, support block and transaction propagation and validation, and to incentivize community involvement. This essential expansion serves as a boon for users, who earn a portion of daily node rewards in exchange for validating transactions on the network.

Ardor and Nxt incentivize growth

To accommodate the growth, the platform plans to allocate 10,000 IGNIS tokens per day to compensate users for their efforts. Ignis is the first child chain to be created on the Ardor multi-chain.

Currently, users create and operate an API node on Linux VPS, Windows or Mac. New validators are required to complete a registration process before a contract automatically and randomly selects nodes to submit a reward transaction.

In total, Jelurida is striving to double the number of nodes on the blockchains, inspired primarily by enterprise demand for the platforms’ services.

As Lior Yaffe, Director and co-founder of Jelurida, commented,

Due to increased enterprise demand, we have an urgent need for more API nodes that can be used to connect client applications operating on the Ardor and Nxt chains. We encourage the community to participate by running a full node, and to share in the daily rewards that are available.

Indeed, blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms have seen a surge in interest since the technology burst onto the tech scene in 2017. Several major tech companies, including IBM, Microsoft, and Alibaba, already have significant blockchain initiatives underway. At the same time, a survey by PwC found that 84% of companies are “dabbling” in blockchain. This reality reflects both the strong interest in the technology, but also the support that many companies need in bringing it to fruition.

In a recent report by the global IT research and consulting firm Everest Group, Jelurida’s Ardor blockchain was listed alongside several prominent enterprise blockchain platforms, including IBM and Microsoft, who have strong crossover appeal with legacy enterprise systems. Perhaps as a result, Jelurida has seen a significant uptick in enterprise interest, which necessitated the creation of new block rewards to increase the number of nodes.

Incentivizing network participation

Of course, to maintain decentralization, a prominent selling point of blockchain technology, growing platforms need to create and enact an incentive structure that empowers users and encourages continued participation.

The recent controversy surrounding STEEM, a social blockchain project, is a reminder of the preeminence of this priority. After a takeover by Justin Sun, the platform’s new owner, infighting inspired a hard fork that split the blockchain and divided the community. In some ways, this problem was exacerbated by the platform’s consensus mechanism that over-empowered a small number of users who enacted significant platform alterations.

In contrast, enterprise adoption has to be defined by stability and predictability, both at a technical and community-based level. By developing incentive structures that appeal to a broad user base, enterprise-focused blockchain platforms based on public blockchains can provide both, ensuring a truly decentralized experience that supports the demands of enterprise use.

It’s estimated that the enterprise blockchain space will exceed $13 billion by 2024, a five-fold increase in just five years. With their latest announcement, Ardor and Nxt have taken meaningful steps to achieve this. Since enterprise use is soaring, it could be the just-in-time initiative that encourages new levels of platform participation through node creation.