Before we get started:

• Connect to the Sphinx 1.X RPC

• Follow me on twitter <3

• Join LilyPad for discussion on this and other airdrops

• Say GM

Get testnet SHM tokens

Before purchasing your server and setting everything up, I recommend trying to acquire some SHM from the faucets first. You will need Sphinx 1.X SHM tokens. Here is the guide from Shardeum on how to get them:

You can also ask around the discord for tokens from admins or other community members.

Purchase a VPS

If you can find your own VPS that is cheaper that is fine but here are the minimum requirements:

• 250 GB SSD storage

• Quad core CPU less than 10 years old if self hosting

• Dual core CPU works if hosted with newer Xeons / EPYC

• 16 GB of ram, 4+ GB of virtual memory recommended

• Hosting: 8 GB RAM + 8 GB Virtual Memory

Or you can just head to Contabo below with a preconfigured setup for this guide (NOT a referral link) It will cost you about 70 bucks for 3 months.

Just make sure you select a region close to you!

Type in a password for your server. Remember this.

Everything else is good to go!

Press Next and type in all the information needed to create a new account and pay for the server.

Once you complete your order, you will receive a total of 2 emails. The first being an order confirmation email, and should come within the first 5 minutes (usually instantly). The 2nd email is the information you need to login, this may take up to 30 minutes - an hour. Be patient it will come.

Connecting to the VPS

Head over to the control panel:

Login with the credentials received in the 2nd email from Contabo.

Under Control Panel click into Your Services on the sidebar.

All you will need from this page is the IP address.

These next steps vary depending on which operating system you are using:

If you are using mac:

1. Open up terminal

2. type ssh root@<ip_address> (Replace <ip_address> with the IP you have in your clipboard from the Contabo Control Panel)

3. It will prompt you for your password type in the password you made at setup.

If you are using Windows:

• Download and update WSL

Download Putty (Follow this guide if you need assistance)

Open up Putty

Paste your IP address under Host Name and press Open. (Leave the port as 22)

Type root as your username (then press enter) and type in the password you made at setup.

Now we are synced up on both ends.

From here follow the official guide to setup your Shardeum Node:

Just follow the command prompts and you are good to go!

When it comes to connecting to the validator dashboard:

Tell me if I missed something by joining my Telegram Chat :D

To update the Validator:

• Remove Stake from Dashboard

• At this point my dashboard crashed so what i did was: (You can skip these steps if yours doesn’t crash)

  • Connect thru ssh to the server again

  • cd: make sure you are in root folder

  • cd .shardeum: go to shardeum folder

  • ./shell.sh

  • operator-cli gui start

• Now use the front end to STOP the node.

• operator-cli update

• operator-cli gui start

• Stake your shardeum again thru the front end and start the node :)

lilyPadBotCommand: ShardeumValidator

lilyPadBotDescription: Setting up a testnet validator for Shardeum