how-to-become-a-new-validator

Introduction

Atlas is a chain that utilizes the Proof of Stake (POS) consensus algorithm. Here's how it works:

Stake MAPO to become a validator
Validators vote to select the validators for each epoch's validation block
At the end of each epoch, rewards are distributed based on the voting results

Prerequisites

Hardware Requirements:

Machine Configuration MAP is a Proof of Stake network with different hardware requirements compared to Proof of Work networks. Proof of Stake consensus is less CPU-intensive but more sensitive to network connectivity and latency. Here is a standard requirement list for running a validator on the MAP network:
- Memory: 16GB RAM
- CPU: Quad-core 2.5 GHz (64-bit)
- Disk: 256GB SSD storage with an additional auxiliary HDD
- Network: At least 100Mb input/output Ethernet with fiber internet connection, ideal redundancy connections, and HA switches
Amount of MAPO Your account needs to have at least 1,000,000 MAPO.

Software Requirements

Building Atlas requires git, Go (version 1.14 or higher), and a C compiler. You can install them using your preferred package manager.

How to become a new validator

To ensure the security of your assets, we require you to set up some necessary identity verification parameters to become a validator. We also have corresponding thresholds to filter out those who are truly committed to contributing to the chain. Of course, we will reward those individuals accordingly. The following steps are considered your initial setup as a validator, as you only need to perform these steps once to become a validator. You do not need to perform these steps a second time unless you unregister as a validator or cancel the corresponding operation to avoid wasting your gas fees.

Step 1: Create Account

In this step, you need to store your identity information in the corresponding management contract, which will manage your account, keys, and metadata. The purpose of this step is to ensure the security of the locked MAPO by authorizing alternative keys for signing proofs, voting, and validation. By doing so, you can continue to participate in the protocol while maintaining access to the keys that store your locked MAPO. You need to use the createAccount command to perform the above operations. For more detailed information about the createAccount command, please refer to here.

Step 2: Authorization

Authorize an address to sign consensus messages on behalf of your account. This authorized address is called the signer. As the name suggests, the signer is only responsible for signing, and your rewards will not be issued to the signer but to the account created in the previous step.

Step 3: Lock MAP

The threshold for becoming a validator is to lock 1,000,000 MAPO into the corresponding management smart contract. This locked MAP will be used for future penalties and is one of the conditions for election. You need to use the LockedMAP command to perform the above operation. For more detailed information about the LockedMAP command, please refer to here.

Step 4: Validator Registration

This step is a key step in registering as a new validator. You need to use the register command to perform the above operation. For more detailed information about the register command, please refer to here. At this point, you will have successfully registered as a validator. Next, you can try to vote for yourself. For more information on how to vote, please refer to here.

Step 5: Voting

A validator must have at least 0.001 proportion of the total votes to be considered for election. Therefore, a validator cannot have zero votes. We can either vote for ourselves using our validator account or have other validators or voters vote for us. Since we have locked 1,000,000 MAP in Step 3, it is wise to vote for ourselves.

Example

Start Your Node

Before starting the node, you need to build Atlas. Please refer to here for instructions on how to build Atlas.

You will need two keystore files, one for the account used for staking, called account, and one for the signer used for signing consensus blocks.

If you want your Atlas node to run in the background without hanging, you can use a combination of nohup and &, or tools like screen. Below, we will demonstrate using screen.

account.json: keystore file for the account signer.json: keystore file for the signer

--miner.validator: specify the address of the signer --port 30321: make sure the port is open on the firewall

./atlas --datadir ./node --syncmode "full" --port 30321 --v5disc --mine --miner.validator 0x98efa292822eb7b3045c491e8ae4e82b3b1ac005 --unlock 0x98efa292822eb7b3045c491e8ae4e82b3b1ac005

INFO [08-01|16:15:45.369] Bumping default cache on mainnet         provided=1024 updated=4096
INFO [08-01|16:15:45.370] Maximum peer count                       ETH=50 LES=0 total=50
INFO [08-01|16:15:45.371] Set global gas cap                       cap=50,000,000
INFO [08-01|16:15:45.371] Allocated trie memory caches             clean=614.00MiB dirty=1024.00MiB
INFO [08-01|16:15:45.371] Allocated cache and file handles         database=/Users/t/data/atlas-1/atlas/chaindata cache=2.00GiB handles=5120
INFO [08-01|16:15:45.722] Opened ancient database                  database=/Users/t/data/atlas-1/atlas/chaindata/ancient readonly=false
......

> net
{
  listening: true,
  peerCount: 6,
  version: "22776",
  getListening: function(callback),
  getPeerCount: function(callback),
  getVersion: function(callback)
}

......

INFO [08-01|16:40:40.796] Finalized                                func=Finalize        block=1 epochSize=50000 duration="333.422µs" lastInEpoch=false
INFO [08-01|16:40:40.797] Imported new chain segment               blocks=1 txs=0 mgas=0.000 elapsed=5.391ms mgasps=0.000 number=1 hash=62d029..14f4c1 age=1mo4d23h dirty=7.07KiB
INFO [08-01|16:40:51.790] Finalized                                func=Finalize        block=2 epochSize=50000 duration="106.969µs" lastInEpoch=false
INFO [08-01|16:40:51.790] Imported new chain segment               blocks=1 txs=0 mgas=0.000 elapsed=4.913ms mgasps=0.000 number=2 hash=c2b741..35869d age=1mo4d23h dirty=10.79KiB
INFO [08-01|16:40:53.892] Finalized                                func=Finalize        block=3 epochSize=50000 duration="104.285µs" lastInEpoch=false
INFO [08-01|16:40:53.893] Finalized                                func=Finalize        block=4 epochSize=50000 duration="105.568µs" lastInEpoch=false

After starting the node, it will connect to the network through built-in bootstrap nodes and synchronize block data.

Create an Account

./marker createAccount --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io --keystore ./account.json --name "validator"

INFO [07-08|14:54:28.097] Create account                           func=createAccount address=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33 name=validator
INFO [07-08|14:54:28.097] === create Account === 
INFO [07-08|14:54:28.102] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =0  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|14:54:28.103] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0xa8d9dfb5b74720a940e904972784225d605ebb111fe92b87184ccb3a54ffd452
INFO [07-08|14:54:30.726] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=9
INFO [07-08|14:54:30.726] === setName name === 
INFO [07-08|14:54:30.731] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =1  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|14:54:30.732] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0xf26f4f8b4a7f6ab44a70fe474162fe22b1bcd7694b4c1a42ed0b1a70d062d5ee
INFO [07-08|14:54:35.779] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=10
INFO [07-08|14:54:35.779] === setAccountDataEncryptionKey === 
INFO [07-08|14:54:35.784] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =2  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|14:54:35.785] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0x430533536a6305b603c9abd6282a4fec359c7f42b8dbd78cf4d3f340ec9bf31b
INFO [07-08|14:54:40.224] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=11

Authorize

signer`s account：0x98efa292822eb7b3045c491e8ae4e82b3b1ac005 signer's private key：8df920b696ef3f5fdcf01624405ea8236b2b4907766ad61d42ce877df05f8bca

./marker authorizeValidatorSigner --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io --keystore ./account.json --signerPriv 8df920b696ef3f5fdcf01624405ea8236b2b4907766ad61d42ce877df05f8bca

INFO [07-08|14:55:00.015] === makeECDSASignatureFromSigner === 
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.015] === signer  ===                          account=0x98EFA292822eB7b3045C491e8ae4E82B3b1AC005
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.015] ECDSASignature                           result=0x712c3f5deaf6d5012ff94dc6a8c3f5bd3d5570ba1f878343fd48767f88fb317d76d39ca33e274eb245d617252d7a44cf048d8579cd896440183f5fbe9f65ca8800
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.015] authorizeValidatorSigner                 func=authorizeValidatorSigner address=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.015] === authorizeValidatorSigner === 
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.032] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction  TX data nonce =4  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|14:55:00.032] Please waiting                           func=getResult                 txHash =0xb73a1376e661d523e44b87c37e2e03cc36534d3a550808245f263aaad358b0ad
INFO [07-08|14:55:05.078] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                  block Number=16

Locking MAPO

./marker lockedMAP --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io --keystore ./account.json --lockedNum 1000000

INFO [07-08|14:54:49.141] === Lock  gold === 
INFO [07-08|14:54:49.141] Lock  gold                               amount=1000000000000000000000000
INFO [07-08|14:54:49.148] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =3  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|14:54:49.150] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0x698140b0ad8677706a4d10d3c5c72f15a8e143623be84a6ed514990fe3f5e5f3
INFO [07-08|14:54:50.765] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=13

Register validator

./marker register --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io --keystore ./account.json --signerPriv 8df920b696ef3f5fdcf01624405ea8236b2b4907766ad61d42ce877df05f8bca --commission 150000

INFO [07-08|15:09:53.230] === Register validator === 
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.230] === commission ===                        commission=150,000
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.233] === getTotalVotesForValidator ===        admin=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.234] === getTotalVotesForValidator ===        result=0
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.237] === makeBLSProofOfPossessionFromsigner === 
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.420] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =7  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|15:09:53.421] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0xfb0487e7196df7489e90ab91217251da5fc7d07b2bc2d2f4ea67966a506a4cd6
INFO [07-08|15:09:55.241] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=194

Verify

After completing the registration steps for a validator, let's now verify if you have become a validator.

./marker getTotalVotesForEligibleValidators --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io

INFO [07-08|15:10:03.301] Validator:                               addr=0xeA9efaA232A4567EaC21C8C096f8BfF84595A244 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:10:03.301] Validator:                               addr=0x6ACdC02223100189d82A958d888F54fA27d60e8A vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:10:03.301] Validator:                               addr=0xA53516D49A72019692Ac69cB42641942597654f6 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:10:03.301] Validator:                               addr=0x5d643Dfb9ae372ce4Fdbc80890156E2CD8290846 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:10:03.301] Validator:                               addr=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33 vote amount=0

Voting

The number of votes cannot exceed the locked votes.

For more information about voting and elections, please click on the following links: Voting Elections

Now let's vote for a validator. The voting command is as follows:

./marker vote --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io --keystore ./account.json --target 0x73bc690093b9dd0400c91886184a60cc127b2c33 --voteNum 1000000

INFO [07-08|15:11:13.693] === vote Validator ===                   admin=0x73bc690093b9dd0400c91886184a60cc127b2c33 voteTargetValidator=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33 vote MAP Num=1000000
INFO [07-08|15:11:13.709] TxInfo                                   func=sendContractTransaction TX data nonce =4  gasLimit =4,500,000  gasPrice =101,000,000,000  chainID =1,098,789
INFO [07-08|15:11:13.710] Please waiting                           func=getResult                txHash =0x8ec67797871ea313f7beea33900db8f680ddf2d01f35894c65e1212151729747
INFO [07-08|15:11:15.123] Transaction Success                      func=queryTx                 block Number=210

Validating the Vote

Now, let's validate if the vote is valid.

./marker getTotalVotesForEligibleValidators --rpcaddr https://rpc.maplabs.io

INFO [07-08|15:21:45.881] Validator:                               addr=0xeA9efaA232A4567EaC21C8C096f8BfF84595A244 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:21:45.881] Validator:                               addr=0x6ACdC02223100189d82A958d888F54fA27d60e8A vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:21:45.881] Validator:                               addr=0xA53516D49A72019692Ac69cB42641942597654f6 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:21:45.881] Validator:                               addr=0x5d643Dfb9ae372ce4Fdbc80890156E2CD8290846 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
INFO [07-08|15:21:45.881] Validator:                               addr=0x73bC690093b9dD0400c91886184A60cC127b2c33 vote amount=1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

From the results, it appears that I have successfully voted for myself, but it's not enough. We need to call the RPC in the next epoch to ultimately determine if we have been selected as a validator eligible for block production. Here's how it looks:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","method":"istanbul_getValidators","params":[],"id":1}' https://rpc.maplabs.io

# Output
{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": 1,
    "result": [
        "0x5d643dfb9ae372ce4fdbc80890156e2cd8290846",
        "0xa53516d49a72019692ac69cb42641942597654f6",
        "0x6acdc02223100189d82a958d888f54fa27d60e8a",
        "0xea9efaa232a4567eac21c8c096f8bff84595a244",
        "0x98efa292822eb7b3045c491e8ae4e82b3b1ac005" # our signer
    ]
}

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