NEAR

NEAR Validator Mainnet Guide🚀

How to update The node

https://github.com/pinrocks/Node-1/blob/a2afff602c99b4f4f93b2f7ca0b94068d53d4209/Mainnet/NEAR/update.md#L2

Definitions

  • <pool_id> or pool_id - your pool name, for example, nearguild

  • <full_pool_id> or full_pool_id - The full name of your pool, for example, xxx.poolv1.near, where xxx is your pool_id

  • or accountId - Your account name in the format xxx.near, for example, nearukraineguild.near

Setup using NEARCore

Step 1 – Installation required software & set the configuration

  • Before you start, you might want to ensure your system is up to date.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

  • Install Python

sudo apt install python3 git curl

  • Install Building env

sudo apt install clang build-essential make

  • Install Rust & Cargo

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

  • Source the environment

source $HOME/.cargo/env

  • Clone the NEARCore Repo

git clone https://github.com/nearprotocol/nearcore.git

  • Set environment to the latest release tag. For the latest release tag, please check here: https://github.com/near/nearcore/releases. Note: RC tags are for Testnet only.

export NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION=1.36.0
cd nearcore
git checkout $NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION
make release

  • Install Nodejs and NPM

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt install build-essential nodejs
PATH="$PATH"

  • Install Near CLI

Once NodeJs and NPM are installed you can now install NEAR-Cli.

Unless you are logged in as root, which is not recommended you will need to use sudo to install NEAR-Cli so that the near binary to /usr/local/bin

sudo npm install -g near-cli

  • Launch this command so set the Near Mainnet Environment:

export NEAR_ENV=mainnet

  • You can also run this command to set the Near testnet Environment persistent:

echo 'export NEAR_ENV=mainnet' >> ~/.bashrc

Step 2 – Create a wallet

MainNet: https://wallet.near.org/

Step 3 – Authorize Wallet Locally

A full access key needs to be installed locally to be able transactions via NEAR-Cli.

  • You need to run this command:

near login

Note: This command launches a web browser allowing for the authorization of a full access key to be copied locally.

1 – Copy the link in your browser

2 – Grant Access to Near CLI

3 – After Grant, you will see a page like this, go back to console

4 – Enter your wallet and press Enter

Step 4 – Initialize & Start the Node

  • From nearcore folder initialize NEAR:

target/release/neard init --chain-id="mainnet" --account-id=<full_pool_id>

Note that if you want to download blocks faster just stop command after initialization and go further by guide.

  • Download the latest genesis and config, if config already exist just delete it and download a new one:

cd ~/.near
rm genesis.json (if exists)
rm config.json (if exists)
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/genesis.json
wget -c https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/build.nearprotocol.com/nearcore-deploy/mainnet/config.json

Create validator_key.json

  • Generate the Key file:

near generate-key <full_pool_id>

  • Copy the file generated to Mainnet folder.Make sure to replace YOUR_WALLET by your accountId

cp ~/.near-credentials/mainnet/<full_pool_id>.json ~/.near/validator_key.json
vi ~/.near/validator_key.json

  • Edit “account_id” => full_pool_id

  • Change “private_key” to “secret_key”

Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks. File content must be something like : { "account_id": "xxx.poolv1.near", "public_key": "ed25519:HeaBJ3xLgvZacQWmEctTeUqyfSU4SDEnEwckWxd92W2G", "secret_key": "ed25519:****" }

Note: The account_id must match the staking pool contract name or you will not be able to sign blocks.

  • Start the Node

target/release/neard run

  • Setup Systemd Command:

sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/neard.service

Paste:

Description=NEARd Daemon Service

[Service]
Type=simple
User=$(whoami)
WorkingDirectory=$HOME/.near
ExecStart=$HOME/nearcore/target/release/neard run
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
KillSignal=SIGINT
TimeoutStopSec=45
KillMode=mixed

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: Change USER to your paths

Command:

sudo systemctl enable neard

Command:

sudo systemctl start neard

If you need to make a change to service because of an error in the file. It has to be reloaded:

sudo systemctl reload neard

Watch logs

Command:

journalctl -n 100 -f -u neard

Make log output in pretty print

Command:

sudo apt install ccze

View Logs with color

Command:

journalctl -n 100 -f -u neard | ccze -A

Becoming a Validator

In order to become a validator and enter the validator set, a minimum set of success criteria must be met.

  • The node must be fully synced

  • The validator_key.json must be in place

  • The contract must be initialized with the public_key in validator_key.json

  • The account_id must be set to the staking pool contract id

  • There must be enough delegations to meet the minimum seat price. See the seat price here.

  • A proposal must be submitted by pinging the contract

  • Once a proposal is accepted a validator must wait 2-3 epoch to enter the validator set

  • Once in the validator set the validator must produce great than 90% of assigned blocks

Check running status of validator node. If “Validator” is showing up, your pool is selected in the current validators list.

Submitting Pool Information

Adding pool information helps delegators and also helps with outreach for upgrades and other important announcements: https://github.com/zavodil/near-pool-details. The available fields to add are: https://github.com/zavodil/near-pool-details/blob/master/FIELDS.md.

The identifying information that we ask the validators:to provide are:

  • Name

  • Description

  • URL

  • Country and country code

  • Email (for support)

  • Telegram, Discord, or Twitter

Command:

near call name.near update_field '{"pool_id": "<full_pool_id>", "name": "url", "value": "https://yoururl.com"}' --accountId=<accountId>  --gas=200000000000000
near call name.near update_field '{"pool_id": "<full_pool_id>", "name": "twitter", "value": "<twitter>"}' --accountId=<accountId>  --gas=200000000000000
near view name.near get_all_fields '{"from_index": 0, "limit": 3}'
near view name.near get_fields_by_pool '{"pool_id": "<full_pool_id>"}'

STAKING POOLS

NEAR uses a staking pool factory with a whitelisted staking contract to ensure delegators’ funds are safe. In order to run a validator on NEAR, a staking pool must be deployed to a NEAR account and integrated into a NEAR validator node. Delegators must use a UI or the command line to stake to the pool. A staking pool is a smart contract that is deployed to a NEAR account.

Deploy a Staking Pool Contract

Deploy a Staking Pool

Calls the staking pool factory, creates a new staking pool with the specified name, and deploys it to the indicated accountId.

For Mainnet

near call poolv1.near create_staking_pool '{"staking_pool_id": "<pool_id>", "owner_id": "<accountId>", "stake_public_key": "<public key>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 5, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId="<accountId>" --amount=30 --gas=300000000000000

From the example above, you need to replace:

  • Pool ID: Staking pool name, the factory automatically adds its name to this parameter, creating {pool_id}.{staking_pool_factory} Examples:

  • XXX for mainnet, for example "nearuaguild"

Be sure to have at least 30 NEAR available, it is the minimum required for storage.

To change the pool parameters, such as changing the amount of commission charged to 1% in the example below, use this command:

near call <full_pool_id> update_reward_fee_fraction '{"reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": 1, "denominator": 100}}' --accountId <account_id> --gas=300000000000000

You will see something like this:

If there is a “True” at the End. Your pool is created.

You have now configure your Staking pool.

Manage your staking pool contract

HINT: Copy/Paste everything after this line into a text editor and use search and replace. Once your pool is deployed, you can issue the commands below:

Retrieve the owner ID of the staking pool

Command:

near view {full_pool_id} get_owner_id '{}'

Issue this command to retrieve the public key the network has for your validator

Command:

near view {full_pool_id} get_staking_key '{}'

If the public key does not match you can update the staking key like this (replace the pubkey below with the key in your validator.json file)

near call {full_pool_id} update_staking_key '{"stake_public_key": "<public key>"}' --accountId <accountId>

Working with Staking Pools

NOTE: Your validator must be fully synced before issuing a proposal or depositing funds.

Proposals

In order to get a validator seat you must first submit a proposal with an appropriate amount of stake. Proposals are sent for epoch +2. Meaning if you send a proposal now, if approved, you would get the seat in 3 epochs. You should submit a proposal every epoch to ensure your seat. To send a proposal we use the ping command. A proposal is also sent if a stake or unstake command is sent to the staking pool contract.

To note, a ping also updates the staking balances for your delegators. A ping should be issued each epoch to keep reported rewards current on the pool contract. You could set up a ping using a cron job or use Cron Cat.

Steps

Create a new file on /home/<USER_ID>/scripts/ping.sh

#!/bin/sh
# Ping call to renew Proposal added to crontab

export NEAR_ENV=mainnet
export LOGS=/home/<USER_ID>/logs
export POOLID=<full_pool_id>
export ACCOUNTID=<account_id>

echo "---" >> $LOGS/all.log
date >> $LOGS/all.log

near call $POOLID ping '{}' --accountId $ACCOUNTID --gas=300000000000000 >> $LOGS/all.log

near proposals | grep $POOLID >> $LOGS/all.log
near validators current | grep $POOLID >> $LOGS/all.log
near validators next | grep $POOLID >> $LOGS/all.log

Create logs folder:

mkdir $HOME/logs

Change execute permission for ping.sh file:

chmod +x $HOME/scripts/ping.sh

Create a new crontab, running every 2 hours:

crontab -e
0 */2 * * * sh /home/<USER_ID>/scripts/ping.sh

List crontab to see it is running:

crontab -l

Review your logs

cat $HOME/logs/all.log

That is it, now you need to have enough delegated tokens to be an active validator, welcome to decentralized Near Protocol!

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