A: Yes, but keep in mind a difference between running a node and running a validator (given topic of "nodes")
DAppNode is an easy way to spin up a node.
DAppNode hardware/software can be used to set up an Ethereum node
DAppNode is one way to stake
Avado is a fork of DAppNode - same deal, rough feature parity
Best way to stake is to be a solo staker (deposit ETH to official staking contract and run own hardware)
Solo staking = max sovereignty over funds, privacy and control
Comes down to personal choice - you trade convenience for control
A Depends on the type of node. There are advanced setups that minimize the hardware requirements - e.g. Ethereum on ARM on Raspberry Pi. You could run a EL/CL combo on a normal laptop, but it is going to use up some of the RAM, storage and bandwidth that will affect the normal usage of the laptop, and the chain will have to re-sync every time you power down or reboot your personal computer. Ideally you wouldn't run it on a general-use laptop. There is dedicated hardware available e.g. NUCs. Chain currently ~1TB, so requires a 2TB SSD at a minimum (4TB if you want more flexibility and future proofing).
A No, as long as you have backed up your passwords and keys! You could run in the cloud e.g. on an AWS instance but it's not great for decentralization, ane puts you at increase risk of being part of a larger outage (which can result in higher penalties) if AWS goes down.
If your hard drive dies (mine has before), you'll just be offline until you repair the problem. In my case the hard drive failed. I purchased a new SSD, loaded DAppNode, started syncing EL/CL chains, regenerated the keys I needed from my backed up mnemonic, and loaded them into my validator client.
Total down time was maybe 2 days. Negligible in the long run.
A Computers that run Ethereum client software allowing them to exchange Ethereum information p2p. "Places where data stops". An independent participant in the network. Running a node is "getting back to how the space started".
A If you're non-technical, these solutions (ie. DAppNode) make it easy - the updates are just automatic or can be easily triggered through a web app/gui. Even a node built from source is easy to update - just turn it off, pull the latest image and restart.
A yes, when light clients are ready!
This is a huge goal of the industry. The original crypto wallets were also nodes on the network, as they would download a copy of the chain to verify the balance of its addresses/accounts. Desite moving away from this method on our desktops, we also have seen a rise in mobile wallets over time, which make running a full node generally not possible, without some work arounds. One goal with light clients is to eventually be able to verify the state of your accounts using your own wallet again, even from a cell phone, without needing to download and hold the entire history of the chain, but also while minimizing/eliminating any trust to a single third party.
A Do you ever check your account balance? If so, you probably would prefer this to be done privately, securely, and by validating independently. We self-custody our keys but then ask someone else what our balance is, or ask someone else to submit our transactions.
This can also allow you to interact with dapps with the same privacy. This can sometimes be more complex, but with some dapps it just a matter of using your own node as the RPC from your connected wallet.
A Yes! definitely! It's just a convenience tool!
MetaMask is just one of several wallets that exist. This one specifically was previously fully open source and was forked by the Tally community to create their own version of this wallet software.
A fundamental principle of the Ethereum blockchain is that is is permissionless to interact with. Since anyone is able to participate, anyone is free to create any software they'd like to interact with the chain, including wallets.
A
Personal benefit - privacy, censorship resistance, enables you to stake your ETH while holding onto your keeps. Blockchains are designed to have distributed copys amongst its users. With a personal copy of the chain, you'll end up with a convenient link called an "RPC endpoint" which you can put into many wallets, such as MetaMask. You then have the ability to look up your own balances, interact with dapps, and submit transactions all to your own node. You don't have to mine the block yourself or ask Infura to submit your transations, you just pass your tx to your own node and it gossips this our in a mix with every other valid tx it encounters.
Network benefit - network does not work without independent node operators - it is only distributed network if many people participate by running full nodes. By contributing to the decentralization of the network, you're helping strengthen the resilience of the network.
By chosing which software to run, you're chosing which rules of consensus you're supporting. Any malicious transactions being propogated on the network will land at your node, be processed, promptly shredded, and not propogated further.
If you're not running your own node, you're not able to chose which rules of consensus are being used by the provider you're relying on.
Remember, if you're an ETH holder, supporting the network supports these holdings.
A No, multiple validators can run on a single node. Just adding more ETH to the same keys does not add to you return. You have to accrue another 32 ETH to run a separate validator (which could be attached to the same node).
"Validators" ultimately are just a pair of public/private keys that are used by your validator client to sign off on chain data*. You only need to run one chain (execution layer plus consensus layer), and one validator client which only takes one computer. That validator client, much like a wallet, can hold any number of key pairs.
Just like how you wouldn't need five computers/nodes to look up the balance of five different MetaMask accounts, just one copy of the chain will do for multiple sets of validator keys.
*A pair of keys (validator) is given that privilege after a 32 ETH deposit is made, and 32 acts as the voting power for that set of keys, which can never go above this (rewards above this don't add to a validators voting weight)
A
They are based on a number of things, but yes, rewards will be directy correlated to uptime. Your rewards are dependent on how much stake you have backing your attestation (effective balance, up to 32), how quickly your attestations are seen by the rest of the network (inclusion distance), and if a majority of the network agrees with those attestations. And of course, whether you made the attestation in the first place.
You are also rewarded for proposing a valid block when the protocol calls upon your validator to do so. These opportunities are not an every day occurance, and are unpredictable in timing. If you're offline when that opportunity comes around, you will miss out on that opportunity and those rewards.
tldr: The more uptime your node has, the more rewards your node will receive.