Node Providers support the Internet Computer blockchain by running independently owned "node machines," installed within independent data centers, which are under the control of the Network Nervous System (NNS). Node Providers are critical to the Internet Computer ecosystem, providing compute power to support the rapid growth of dapps, open internet services, DeFi, pan-industry platforms, and secure enterprise systems running on the Internet Computer.
Node providers are onboarded to optimize for the following network goals:
- Total expansion of node providers
- Geographic diversification of data centers
- Sustainability/proof of offsets
- Diversification of the corporate owned data centers
- Diversification of the corporate fiber owned network providers
- Diversification of network pathing