Protocol Node: The Protocol or Validator Node collects data from a data source, bundling and uploading them to Arweave and verifying it, these data sources are pools that you can decide to validate on.

This guide is intended for those who wish to run a protocol node on Korellia now with the latest updates.

Here we are joining pool 0 the Moonbeam pool, you can substitute this for other pools.

Kysor will auto download the binaries for the selected pool for you, you simply need to create the valaccounts for the pool and set up a service for kysor to run on that pool in the background.

Running nodes with KYSOR has the following benefits:

• Only use one program to run on every pool

• Not installing and compiling protocol binaries manually for every pool

• Getting the new upgrade binaries during a pool upgrade automatically and therefore don't risk timeout slashes

• Make running protocol nodes standardized and easier

Set up Wallets- Connect to Korellia Network

The Kyve application can be found here:

Have Keplr installed, this will prompt you to connect Keplr extention and allow the new network request. This is two confirmations which you should approve.

Set up Arweave Wallet

An Arweave wallet with a .json wallet file is required. You will also need $KYVE and $AR to pay for Transactions which can be obtained from faucets in the respective community channels.

Set up Device

Update the system

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Move Arweave keyfile into directory

We need to move our arweave.json (which should be funded with AR) into a directory in our system, I’ve placed it here /home/$USER/kyve/secrets as I’m running local I just used the UI. note you can place it wherever you want, but be sure to change the path in the system service file later.

if your on a VPS you could create the file and paste the contents in (usually) by sudo nano home/ubuntu/kyve/secrets/arweave.json

Download the Kysor Protocol node binary

this is the KYSOR binary which uses one program for every pool, it auto updates and gets the new upgrade binaries during every pool upgrade.

The latest binary can be found here:

wget https://github.com/KYVENetwork/kyvejs/releases/download/%40kyve%2Fkysor%401.0.0-beta.1/kysor-linux-x64.zip 

Move to directory

unzip and move, you should delete the zip file once done, it can be found in your home directory. (you may need to install zip: sudo apt install zip -y )

unzip kysor-linux-x64.zip
mv kysor-linux-x64 kysor

Grant permissions and make executable

 sudo chmod +x kysor

Initialize Kysor

When you initialise KYSOR you need to specify the network you should run on and if the KYSOR should automatically download and execute the binaries for you. This command creates a config.toml under the following directory: $HOME/.kysor/. You can edit this file if you wish to change the network or the auto download flag.

./kysor init --network korellia --auto-download-binaries

Edit config.toml

for running 1.0.0-beta.7 and above the following config.toml is needed

cd .kysor
nano config.toml

#paste the following in the terminal
chainId = "korellia"
autoDownloadBinaries = true
rpc = "https://rpc.korellia.kyve.network"
rest = "https://api.korellia.kyve.network"

Create validator account

we are creating a validator account, this is a new account that we will fund with our main account that contains our KYVE

./kysor valaccounts create \
--name moonbeam \
--pool 0 \
--storage-priv "$(cat kyve/secrets/arweave.json)" \
--verbose \
--metrics

Start the Node

./kysor start --valaccount moonbeam

The node will not continue until the account is authorized and funded. but first its advised to create a system service for the node, in order to run in the background. you can stop the node with ctrl+c or start a new shell

Create system service to run the node

sudo tee <<EOF > /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/moonbeamd.service
[Unit]
Description=KYVE Protocol-Node moonbeam daemon
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=/home/$USER/kysor start --valaccount moonbeam
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=infinity
EOF

Start the system service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && \
sudo systemctl enable moonbeamd && \
sudo systemctl start moonbeamd

View Logs

sudo journalctl -u moonbeamd -f -o cat

This will display your Valaddressand a Valname: this is a three letter phrase unique to your node. We need both of these to start the node. The node will not continue until the account is authorized and funded.

Authorize Validator

You will now need to activate the node head over to the Kyve app and connect your Keplr wallet extension, which should now be funded with $KYVE (make sure to also have $AR in your arweave wallet).

Self Delegate

If you have not done so already, we need to delegate KYVE to our main account which will fund our valaccount/s. Head to Validators and find Become a Validator

Enter an amount to delegate to yourself and click on self delegate “ammount“ $KYVE you will be prompted to confirm a transaction via Keplr extension. This is how much we effectively stake to our protocol validator across one or multiple pools.

Fund Valaccount

our Valaccount/s are essentially separate wallets managed by our main funding wallet (we self delegated too) we need to fund these with enough $KYVE for fees.

Now head to validators > my validator, now click on Join Existing Pool. here enter your Pool (which should be the same as the Pool specified in the system.service) Your Valaddress, and your Valname enter an amount of $KYVE less than what you delegated to yourself earlier.

you should now see your Validator active on the App and in your logs on your device

Running successfully should show validating on bundles

Run on Multiple Pools

If we wish to run on multiple pools, we can select from the beta app, head over to Pools section and select which pool you want to add. we need to get the pool ID

Create a new Valaccount

Create New account for Celo, our pool ID will be 2, and for ease we will name celo

./kysor valaccounts create \
--name celo \
--pool 2 \
--storage-priv "$(cat kyve/secrets/arweave.json)" \
--verbose \
--metrics

Change Port for new service

On default the metrics server is available under the following endpoint: http://localhost:8080/metrics so we need to change the port for the new pool service, as moonbeam is on 8080, I used 8081.

sudo nano /home/$USER/.kysor/valaccounts/celo.toml

If you choose another pool such as avalanche, you would need to edit the avalanche.toml

Create a System Service for New Pool

sudo tee <<EOF > /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/celod.service
[Unit]
Description=KYVE Protocol-Node celo daemon
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=$USER
ExecStart=/home/$USER/kysor start --valaccount celo
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=3
LimitNOFILE=infinity
EOF

Start new service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && \
sudo systemctl enable celod && \
sudo systemctl start celod

Fund account

Follow the same steps to authorize validator, and use the valaccount and valname that is displayed when starting the service.

We can create a new service for any available pool by following the same steps.

Other Commands

Stopping/Restarting your Service for changes

sudo systemctl stop <service name>.service

Make changes then restart service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl enable <service name>.service && sudo systemctl restart <service name>.service

Managing Valaccounts

Show valaccount address

./kysor valaccounts show-address --name [VALACCOUNT]

Show valaccount balance

./kysor valaccounts show-balance --name [VALACCOUNT]

Transfer valaccount gas funds

./kysor valaccounts transfer --from [VALACCOUNT] --amount 1000000000 --recipient [RECIPIENT]

Upgrade Kysor Binary

Kysor is a tool for managing binary updates itself, in the case that the kysor binary has an update

Stop Kysor services

sudo sytemctl stop <service name>

can check services with

cd /etc/systemd/system/ && ls

Delete old binary

sudo rm kysor

Download new binary

example, fund the latest binary here

wget https://github.com/KYVENetwork/kyvejs/releases/download/%40kyve%2Fkysor%401.0.0-beta.7/kysor-linux-x64.zip

Now Follow the same steps to unzip/rename and make executable from this guide

Restart the services

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && \
sudo systemctl enable moonbeamd && \
sudo systemctl start moonbeamd

this would need to be done for all services, view logs and restart the valaccount from the Kyve UI

sudo journalctl -u moonbeamd -f -o cat

Migrate Server - Recover Valaccounts

Should you need to migrate server, to recover existing valaccounts, already funded and configured, Instead of creating new ones

1. Backup Files

in the working folder .kysor backup the contents of the folder ./kysor/valaccounts and the file config.toml

ensure you have your arweave.json backed up too

2. Shut down old server

ensure that the services for all valaccounts are stopped, then shut down the server

sudo systemctl stop <valaccount-service>

3. Setup new server

Follow steps to setup a new server
Place arweave.json within /home/$USER/kyve/secrets
Download the lastest kysor binary, follow steps to unpack
Initialize kysor

./kysor init --network korellia --auto-download-binaries 

4. Place backed up configuration files

mkdir .kysor/valaccounts and move the contents to this folder

Edit the config.toml if need be

cd .kysor
sudo nano config.toml

5. Re-create Services

If these were also copied then, (otherwise create them again) move <valaccounts>.service files to /etc/systemd/system/

6. Restart Services

sudo systemctl daemon-reload && \
sudo systemctl enable <valaccounts-service> && \
sudo systemctl start <valaccounts-service>