Prerequisites
This guide describes what you are going to need to successfully set up a Chainflip validator node.
Note there is a minimum funding requirement for new Validator nodes: new nodes must have a balance of at least 10% of the current Bond. Please ensure you have access to enough FLIP to run a node before continuing this process.
ETH
You validator will need ETH to pay for transactions fees on the Ethereum network.
FLIP
FLIP is used to pay transaction fees on Chainflip's State Chain.
System Requirements
OS: Ubuntu 22.04 | Our binaries are not compiled on any other OS
CPU: 4GHz+ amd64/x86_64 CPU Architecture | We only support amd64/x86_64 CPU Architecture
RAM: 8GB+
SSD: 50GB+ NVMe (this may increase over time)
Bandwidth: Minimum 400MBps, Recommended 1GBps connection, 100 GB bandwidth combined up/down per monthWe will be deprecating Ubuntu 20.04 binaries after the v1.4 release. This means v.1.4 onwards will have the binaries compiled on Ubuntu 22.04 only.
This machine must be available 24/7 and thus it is recommended that you only try this on machines with a stable and reliable internet connection, such as a VPS or Dedicated Server. If you would like some help picking a server to rent, you can come to the Chainflip Community Discord and ask for help in the 🛠︱technical-discussion (opens in a new tab) or the 💬-node-support (opens in a new tab) channels.
Networking
Firewall
You should ensure that all connections on ports 30333 (TCP) and 8078 (TCP) are not blocked! Moreover make sure your firewall allows NTP outbound traffic on port 123 (UDP)
Some VPS providers enable an all-port firewall by default, but if this is not the case your node will not be able to participate in Keygen / Signing ceremonies and as a result will never become active.
Static IP
To ensure uninterrupted operation of your node, you should setup your server to have a static public IP address. If your server gets a new IP address, you will need to update your node's configuration and restart it.
NTP Daemon
In some cases, the system time will drift causing the authoring or importing of blocks to fail. To prevent this, you should install and enable an NTP daemon on your server. This will ensure that your system time is always correct.
Feel free to use your NTP daemon of choice, but we recommend ntp. You can install it and enable it with the following commands:
sudo apt install ntp
sudo systemctl start ntp
sudo systemctl status ntp
sudo systemctl enable ntpMake sure your firewall allows NTP outbound traffic (Port 123 UDP).