Fogo isn’t a “cheap VPS and chill” chain. If you’re aiming to run a serious node, think closer to a performance server: ~24+ fast CPU cores, AVX512 support (this is the silent deal-breaker on a lot of machines), around 128GB RAM (ECC strongly preferred), and NVMe that’s actually fast under constant load. Add a separate OS disk, stable 1 Gbit bandwidth, and a modern Linux setup. This is built for speed, and the hardware bar reflects that.
The part people miss: it’s not only specs on paper. Recent validator changes have touched low-level behavior—config getting stricter, networking tweaks, and memory-related realities where fragmentation/hugepages can bite you if you’re running close to the edge. Translation: you don’t just need a strong box, you need to run it like you mean it.
And that’s the decentralization tradeoff in one sentence: when the minimum “reliable validator” setup looks like datacenter-grade gear, the network naturally favors operators with budget + ops experience. The upside is consistent performance. The downside is fewer truly independent validators.