A New Low Forces a Node Operator to Revisit the Cost

XIP-1 had been delayed over the Safe issue, and Xai Play had just announced March early access, but the chat’s fear had not receded with the announcements. The Night Watchman also had to account for his Sentry node’s electricity bill. He had calculated earlier that its monthly returns, converted to dollars, covered less than half that cost.

XAI touched a monthly low of $0.075, a new low since its listing. The Night Watchman had meant to set the node’s costs and the price aside for a day, but the quote sent him back to his accounts. He would not treat a single day’s low as a reason to shut down. Instead, he decided to write down how long he was willing to bear the cost, then ask other operators how they organized their shifts.

The low turned continued operation from a habit into a decision he had to make deliberately. It also made the voting delay harder to regard as a mere scheduling change. The Night Watchman had not decided whether to change his node arrangements; he still needed responses to the cost question and news of the Safe fix and a new voting time.