How many collators should a new parachain have if it doesn't have much load on it? What should be the analysis criteria to decide how many collators we need for our product. Can you share some thoughts on it?
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I'd say you need at least 2 (to ensure some degree of decentralization).
Having more or fewer nodes will not provide you with better performance, since performance is limited by the size of the block and the number of actions that the same block can support. I'd say having more nodes is useful when you want to provide high availability of the service and low latency (if nodes are in different regions).
Even if you have 100 nodes, the transactions will be replicated to the adjacent nodes consecutively, so in reality they are all analyzing the same amount of information to reach consensus.
Additionally, I would also analyze the usage of read-only nodes, that is, nodes that sync all the information and can propagate transactions with the chain but do not participate in the block production/finalization process.
They can be used as entry points for 3rd party apps that interact with the chain, thus leaving the collators to deal only with the production of blocks.
I'll be happy to see more answers, I think you have asked a good question!
