> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://aiachain.gitbook.io/aia-chain-pos-ai-and-financial-payments/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://aiachain.gitbook.io/aia-chain-pos-ai-and-financial-payments/aia-chain-economic-model-overview/operational-requirements.md).

# Operational Requirements

Operators should be able to run nodes using standard cloud-hosted virtual machines, such as an Amazon AWS instance costing $100 per month or a Google Cloud instance with 1 high CPU-4 configuration (possibly using less powerful hardware). Validators who expect to maintain a significant balance and participate in many shards simultaneously might consider investing in more hardware (and redundancy) to handle the additional storage, bandwidth, and computational load.