This second phase of NEAR Stake Wars will try to break the delegation of tokens to Validators. Validators still have to properly run their nodes infrastructure, and get familiar with the activities below:
- Professionally deploy and run the node
- Update the node software
- Deploy the Delegation smart contract
- Enroll your Validator
- Update the Delegation smart contract
- Pull
nearcore
from https://github.com/nearprotocol/nearcore. To run on BetaNet you have to checkout on thebeta
branch - Build
nearcore
launchingmake release
- Install
nearup
from https://github.com/near/nearup - Run the node from your compiled binary, properly using
--nodocker
and--binary-path
- Monitor your node performance, by measuring
num_expected_blocks
andnum_produced_blocks
from thevalidators
method on the JSON RPC - here more info - Design and build your own redundancy/availability solutions for your nodes
Heads up: running a node is up to your experience, these are not requirements. As an example, you may build your own docker image, or avoid using nearup
completely.
- Download and deploy the weekly release of
nearcore
from thebeta
branch. It is normally merged by NEAR core team on Monday at 5:30pm Pacific and deployed onDevNet
. - In case of a planned hard-fork, restart the node with the new release at the programmed time
- Update the node without missing more than 10% of the
num_expected_blocks
(to avoid being kicked out in the next epoch) - Promptly Re-stake if your node misses the target and will be kicked out
Heads up: BetaNet goes through frequent updates and hard-forks, set to every Monday at 5:30pm Pacific. TestNet is using a less tight schedule, with releases that can be deployed up to once every four weeks. Please use the stable
branch of nearcore if you are running a node on TestNet.
More details can be found in the documentation pages at docs.near.org/validator/staking-overview
- Deploy your Staking Pool using the
staking-pool-factory
from the Initial Contracts repo - Deploy the contract with
near-cli
- Configure the contract with the exact node id and its validator public key
- Stake delegating your BetaNet funds to the contract
Once your contract is ready, you can issue a pull request to the file VALIDATORS.md, including your information at the bottom of the list. This file will automatically enroll your node in the Stake Wars 2.0, and will help users to find your staking pool.
Stake Wars is an opportunity to explore the potential of smart contracts for delegation. Ideally, every Validator could release its very own staking pool contract, with unique features in terms of:
- Lock duration and liquidity
- Variable validation fees
- Compounding rewards
- Governance and community voting
- Bounties and community projects
- Rewarded custody services
Our goal, as validators, is to make end-users used with this new way of staking tokens. Their actions will be quite basic:
- deposit and withdraw tokens
- lock and unlock tokens in the staking
- measure their rewards
Please note that Stake Wars 2.0 is not rewarding any basic scenarios, as they were already tested and rewarded during the first phase. At this stage, we suggest participating Validators to test the delegation via smart contracts and, once ready, leverage this opportunity to join the MainNet Restricted along with their users.