Operator FAQ

How do I get selected as an official validator?

Currently, the Umbrella foundation is managing who is allowed to become a network validator.

Additionally, we are currently only accepting community validators on our BSC testnet network. Please see the following blog post for more information: https://medium.com/umbrella-network/umbrella-network-moves-toward-decentralization-and-launches-bsc-community-validator-program-5df74e14c7fe

What do i need to become an Umbrella validator?

Cloud Provider

You should not run or operate a validator node on a laptop or at-home setup. Being a validator nodes requires having high-availability in order to avoid losing out on rewards or even potential penalties.

Operators should use a cloud provider such as Amazon, Google, Linode, etc. to host their validator node.

Publicly Available Node

In addition to using a cloud provider, your validator node needs to be publicly accessible to other validator nodes.

The validator network uses HTTP as a communication layer between nodes.

Your validator nodes needs to be publicly accessible via HTTP.

It is also very important to assign a static, non-changing, address to your validator node. This can be a static IP or a DNS address.

The validator node by default uses port 3000 to listening for incoming HTTP requests. Optionally, you may place a frontend web proxy such as NGINX or Amazon's ELB.

An SSL certificate is optional, but recommended.

To verify that your validator node is running correctly a public entity should be able to access:

http://your.ip:3000/info

The port, SSL, and IP/DNS address will change depending on your setup.

Dockerhub

Currently, the validator node docker image is private.
In order to install the validator node the operators must first receive an authorization token from the Umbrella foundation.

Use the following commands to login and access the Umbrella validator node:

docker login --username bwumbnetwork

When prompted, use the dockerhub authorization key given to you by the Umbrella foundation.
Then you can download the docker image using:

docker pull umbrellanetwork/pegasus:latest

Data Provider Keys

Every validator node connects and retrieves data from various data providers including:

  • CryptoCompare
  • CoinMarketCap
  • PolygonIO
  • Genesis Volatility
  • IEX Cloud

These keys will be provided to you by the Umbrella foundation.

NewRelic

Validator nodes use NewRelic along with StatsD to report metrics and operational data.

This is optional, but you can create a NewRelic account and generate a license key.

In order to use NewRelic set the following values in the configuration file:

ENVIRONMENT=production
NODE_ENV=production
NEW_RELIC_APP_NAME=pegasus
NAME=pegasus
NEW_RELIC_LICENSE_KEY=12345-6789-01234

How do I run and operate a validator node?

You can find more complete technical instructions on how to setup a node here: https://umbrella-network.readme.io/docs/running-umbrella-validator

What are the incentives and rewards for operating a node?

Currently, validators are paid manually by the Umbrella foundation.
In the future staking and rewards using delegated proof of stake will be implemented.

What is the cost of operating a node?

When operating a node for the BSC network running a node will cost approximately $6k USD every month.

The cost may vary slightly based on the cloud provider.