Is it possible to measure the cost of running a full node?
You could put an electric meter on the plug of your node and measure it's consumption I guess.
I get that. I meant is it possible to create a trustless measure, something that Bitcoin itself could refer to for example in calculating an appropriate block size limit.
I vaguely recall Gavin was toying with the idea of trying to measure technological development trustlessly by, for example, having full nodes report how long it takes them to verify a block. Unfortunately, this system was open to abuse.
I didn't keep up with this line of inquiry and learned that eventually Gavin turned to simply estimating future technology trends (e.g. BIP 101). I can't prove to myself that a dynamic approach is impossible so I decided to think out loud here. I guess what I'm looking for is for someone to show me how to abuse the idea above; this would definitely help me hone in on the problem. If no-one breaks it then I'll expand the idea and flesh out a draft proposal to catch more eyeballs.