Discovery Node

In order for a fan to discover content on the network, SoundProtocol needs a mechanism for indexing metadata that is efficiently queryable by users. Based on the philosophies of the SoundProtocol project, this index must be:

• Decentralized

• Efficient and straightforward for user clients to consume (promoting accessibility)

• Provably correct and transparent, eliminating profit incentives to manipulate the results returned to users

• Extensible, so that the SoundProtocol community can explore different ranking and searching methodologies.

These requirements rule out the most decentralized options due to usability and efficiency issues, e.g. users replicating the SoundProtocol ledger locally and querying their local dataset. This section outlines a protocol for a class of discovery nodes to form operated by the SoundProtocol community, serving this function in a way that meets the above requirements.

Discovery node operators earn revenue by registering a node with an active network stake, letting them earn part of the ongoing SoundProtocol token issuance and aggregated fee pools. Fan clients select discovery nodes to query from via the content ledger’s node registry.

Discovery nodes are read-only. Clients can use them to fetch a fan’s feed, a playlist, song and artist metadata, search the corpus of SoundProtocol entities, and execute other queries about the network. Anyone can register a discovery node if they meet the requirements outlined in this section.