NEAR Protocol is ready for the next step: launch Stake Wars 2.0! We learned a lot from running together the first Stake Wars, and we worked hard to release a NEAR node that is stable and production-ready.

We are now ready to get into the next step: open Stake Wars to anyone!

Stake Wars 2.0 will test the delegation of tokens from users to validators. Therefore, we want you validators to be ready for the action and involve you with NEAR Protocol community as a whole.

The goals are:

• for end-users, learn the principles of proof of stake, and build confidence with the concepts of delegation
• for validators, integrate their platforms with NEAR's delegation smart contract, and build customer relationships early on
• for NEAR Protocol, iterate on the reference smart contract, and kickstart the community efforts to transform delegation into a new class of DeFi products

If you haven't already:

1. Join our Telegram validator channel here for general discussion
2. Join our Discord channel here for troubleshooting and technical discussion

If you are just curious, follow the quickstart guides below, and you'll be ready in a few minutes. However, this is just a shortcut to becoming familiar with high-level concepts of the protocol, not the most secure and efficient way to do it!

• Use this form to enroll in the Stake Wars 2.0 and receive a few tokens to stake
• If you don't already have one, create a betanet account using our hosted betanet wallet
• Spin up an Ubuntu/Debian VPS and follow the nearup tutorial
• Add your validator info to this file - just fork and pull request, we'll merge ASAP

HEADS UP: We will reset Betanet every Tuesday at 6pm Pacific, so plan a node restart to download and install the new release automatically.

Most of the information can be found on the official Stake Wars page (work in progress). At a high level, you have to:

• Enroll with your Betanet wallet
• Receive the tokens that you will stake
• Pick your favorite validators and follow their staking instructions
• Join the conversation on TBA

Heads up: As a Delegator, you don't have to read further, this repository is written for node operators who want to become NEAR validators and enroll users like you. So, your next step is just to open the Stake Wars page and take it from there.

If you plan to participate in the Stake Wars, we suggest you to follow this guide and join us on Discord if you have comments or issues.

This guide will help you to:

1. Generate a new keypair
2. Receive some tokens
3. Run nearcore via nearup
4. Stake some funds
5. Join Stake Wars 2.0

You have to install near-shell, a Node.js application that relies on nearlib to generate secure keys, connect to the NEAR platform and send transactions to the network on your behalf. You don't have to install near-shell on your node - on the contrary, it's suggested to keep your staking wallet on a different machine.

1. cd into a directory you'd like to work in
2. Download near-shell with npm install -g near-shell
3. Run npx create-near-app staking
4. cd into staking
5. Set your NODE_ENV to betanet. You can do this in bash with the command export NODE_ENV=betanet
6. Run near login and follow the instructions that take you to the wallet
7. Once you're logged in, near-shell is ready to send staking transactions

Work in Progress. By now use this request form. On the last page you can put your betanet account id.

Before you start, please make sure that you have or setup a machine with a publicly routable ip address. Use nearup tutorial to download the binaries and run your node automatically.

For security and operations (eg infrastructure as code), you may want to compile nearcore from its source:

You can find updated build instructions on NEAR docs, in the 'running testnet' section. Warning: instead of testnet you have to run betanet, therefore you have to download and compile the beta branch, otherwise your node will not be able to connect to the network.

When your launch nearup the first time, it will ask your account id, to generate the validator_key that will sign new blocks. This information will be stored in the file validator_key.json and contains your account_id and the validator keypair:

cat ~/.near/betanet/validator_key.json

If you get an error like this one, you your node has no validator key:

nearkat@nearkat ~ % cat ~/.near/betanet/validator_key.json |grep "public_key"
cat: /Users/nearkat/.near/betanet/validator_key.json: No such file or directory

To generate one, the safest way is to reset your .near folder:

1. stop the node issuing the command nearup stop
2. cleanup your ~/.near directory
3. restart the node with the command nearup betanet (remember to append --nodocker if you are not running the container)

HEADS UP: deleting your .near folder will wipe any existing validator key. Therefore, any existing staking transaction will have to be re-issued with the new public key.

Without any .near folder, nearup will ask your betanet account ID again. If successful, you should see a screen like this:

Pull docker image nearprotocol/nearcore:beta
Setting up network configuration.
Enter your account ID (leave empty if not going to be a validator): nearkat
Generating node key...
Node key generated
Generating validator key...
Validator key generated
Stake for user 'nearkat' with 'ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB'
Starting NEAR client docker...
Node is running! 
To check logs call: docker logs --follow nearcore

From this screen you can verify that: <YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID> is set with the correct user 'nearkat' <VALIDATOR_KEYS_PUBLIC_KEY> is automatically generated with the key ed25519:GR2xDB5ERrRkXN76JzvfpY8ksz7vFdLVegarLsJbMZJL

HEADS UP: Save this public key for later, you'll need it quite often in this tutorial.

Get back to your near-shell machine and configure it to use betanet:

export NODE_ENV=betanet

(no output expected)

Then, issue this command to stake:

near stake <YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID> <VALIDATOR_KEYS_PUBLIC_KEY> <AMOUNT>

HEADS UP: <AMOUNT> must be set in NEAR, and you should have enough tokens in your account. Don't stake 100% of your account holdings: please leave enough tokens to issue smart contracts and pay your account storage (100 $NEAR will do great).

If you get an error like this one check if you correctly set betanet as the node environment:

nearkat@nearkat ~ % near stake nearkat ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB 75000
Using options: {
  networkId: 'default',
  nodeUrl: 'https://rpc.nearprotocol.com',
  contractName: undefined,
  walletUrl: 'https://wallet.nearprotocol.com',
  helperUrl: 'https://helper.nearprotocol.com',
  accountId: 'nearkat',
  stakingKey: 'ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB',
  amount: '75000'
}
Staking 75000 (75000000000000000000000000000) on nearkat with public key = ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB.
Error:  TypedError: [-32000] Server error: account nearkat does not exist while viewing
    at JsonRpcProvider.sendJsonRpc (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/node_modules/near-api-js/lib/providers/json-rpc-provider.js:113:27)
    at processTicksAndRejections (internal/process/task_queues.js:97:5)
    at async JsonRpcProvider.query (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/node_modules/near-api-js/lib/providers/json-rpc-provider.js:60:24)
    at async Account.fetchState (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/node_modules/near-api-js/lib/account.js:45:23)
    at async Account.state (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/node_modules/near-api-js/lib/account.js:52:9)
    at async Near.account (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/node_modules/near-api-js/lib/near.js:40:9)
    at async exports.stake (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/index.js:179:21)
    at async Object.handler (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/near-shell/utils/exit-on-error.js:4:9) {
  type: 'UntypedError'
}

To solve the issue, try to execute export NODE_ENV=betanet and issue the stake transaction again.

This process is similar to the one above, with the difference that you have to deploy a delegation smart contract, and stake your funds through it.

Once the contract is deployed, any user will be able to deposit funds into your staking contract, and delegate their stake to your validator node.

Follow the guide in the Staking Pool contract repository for details.

You have five different ways to verify that your stake transaction was successfully included in the blockchain:

1. A correct output from near shell

2. A new event on the betanet block explorer

3. A correct balance in your account, using near state command

4. A change in the nearup logs displayng an uppercase "V"

5. A query to the JSON RPC using the validator endpoint

6. You should see a transaction receipt that ends with status: { SuccessValue: '' } similar to the one below:

nearkat@nearkat ~ $ near stake nearkat ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB 70000
Using options: {
  networkId: 'betanet',
  nodeUrl: 'https://rpc.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  contractName: undefined,
  walletUrl: 'https://wallet.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  helperUrl: 'https://helper.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  accountId: 'nearkat',
  stakingKey: 'ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB',
  amount: '70000'
}
Staking 70000 (70000000000000000000000000000) on nearkat with public key = ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB.
{
  status: { SuccessValue: '' },
  transaction: {
    signer_id: 'nearkat',
    public_key: 'ed25519:8GQ3X1fuKdprwwkHUxi4bXj2ux9Bdm6gMJdgFdWk6hGc',
    nonce: 7,
    receiver_id: 'nearkat',
    actions: [
      {
        Stake: {
          stake: '70000000000000000000000000000',
          public_key: 'ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB'
        }
      }
    ],
    signature: 'ed25519:4ryh1uxbPVsoFuqAsyTowupGfpwz3XuaEnYw6fmQ1Q3nrLXgUL362RGZwFo2wKWJaSmJirqDnMtpiSzrH4DCHBQ2',
    hash: 'FTTzoTpGVjXN8sSTKrRTt9RBnVZs7XsKnYXc8nF8mjAu'
  },
  transaction_outcome: {
    proof: [
      {
        hash: '5eCuCp2a5yHjF1BuPrbpccW4VKvs9m3S6UNnkU3LUpMS',
        direction: 'Right'
      }
    ],
    block_hash: 'CLMZnLxzi5CzKepMRTqPk5wdMwMhwHu42YnYSfQoJDKK',
    id: 'FTTzoTpGVjXN8sSTKrRTt9RBnVZs7XsKnYXc8nF8mjAu',
    outcome: {
      logs: [],
      receipt_ids: [ 'Atpwa7tbbBizZ8bVJusMZ7dvUTCECksXxKxT69BxnMdm' ],
      gas_burnt: 924119500000,
      status: {
        SuccessReceiptId: 'Atpwa7tbbBizZ8bVJusMZ7dvUTCECksXxKxT69BxnMdm'
      }
    }
  },
  receipts_outcome: [
    {
      proof: [
        {
          hash: '8fNXhpjrs4iyPPbzTYUr1V4zM73LdeohocGMCTxJUBB6',
          direction: 'Left'
        }
      ],
      block_hash: 'CLMZnLxzi5CzKepMRTqPk5wdMwMhwHu42YnYSfQoJDKK',
      id: 'Atpwa7tbbBizZ8bVJusMZ7dvUTCECksXxKxT69BxnMdm',
      outcome: {
        logs: [],
        receipt_ids: [],
        gas_burnt: 924119500000,
        status: { SuccessValue: '' }
      }
    }
  ]
}

2. Visit the betanet explorer and check that your staking transaction succeeded:

3. Run near state <YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID> and see if the amount you've staked is marked as locked, similar to the content below:

nearkat@nearkat ~ $ near state nearkat
Using options: {
  networkId: 'betanet',
  nodeUrl: 'https://rpc.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  contractName: undefined,
  walletUrl: 'https://wallet.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  helperUrl: 'https://helper.betanet.nearprotocol.com',
  accountId: 'nearkat'
}
Account nearkat
{
  amount: '58957995048254107744134739414',
  locked: '70000000000000000000000000000',
  code_hash: '11111111111111111111111111111111',
  storage_usage: 510,
  storage_paid_at: 0,
  block_height: 2556149,
  block_hash: '3J8VBP5Yrooz3zoFhNHy6G15arkyuzg4QkYdtBsc3fUj',
  formattedAmount: '58,957.995048254107744134739414'
}

The locked: value will express in yoctoNEAR your staked amount.

4. After two epochs (24 hours), you will see the logs of your node appear with a V/n to tell you you're validating:

Apr 14 21:44:57.128  INFO stats: # 2556590 XzssUzbfUmtAduVBjob2uGWK6hU8JP8jk4zwm11wRTN V/6 16/15/40 peers ⬇ 65.3kiB/s ⬆ 71.0kiB/s 1.30 bps 0 gas/s CPU: 8%, Mem: 1.2 GiB    
Apr 14 21:45:07.130  INFO stats: # 2556603 6dpBFao9M1MWRZZe79ohn3z7oAZYzW5yFMCkyu89piQ8 V/6 16/15/40 peers ⬇ 64.2kiB/s ⬆ 71.0kiB/s 1.30 bps 0 gas/s CPU: 8%, Mem: 1.2 GiB    
Apr 14 21:45:17.132  INFO stats: # 2556615 BJHBXF9mPqGeLjnbiPR8Y28NjZppZDjRTyiDFLNVbF2G V/6 16/15/40 peers ⬇ 61.9kiB/s ⬆ 72.5kiB/s 1.20 bps 0 gas/s CPU: 7%, Mem: 1.2 GiB    

The status V/6 right after the block hash says that you are one of six validators. If the status is -/6 your node is not yet a validator, or the staking tokens were insufficient. Sometimes you may see the parameter as F/10: this means your stake was too small, and you are currently a fisherman (which has no rewards).

5. Query the Betanet block explorer via JSON RPC, to view all existing proposals:

curl -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "validators", "id": "dontcare", "params": [null]}' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' https://rpc.betanet.nearprotocol.com -v

The call will return a JSON with the current parameters:

• current_validators
• next_validators
• current_fishermen
• next_fishermen
• current_proposals << your transaction should be here
• prev_epoch_kickout

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "result": {
    "current_validators": [
      {
        "account_id": "bowen.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:2kjQU7uJjWwCgGzS26pz7PtnL2NT98LTZyBNYjr1sYwx",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "97970693373589304551816887209",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 1568,
        "num_expected_blocks": 1568
      },
      {
        "account_id": "buildlinks.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:Bq2SR9R8xwztP5YSudwdMgBXbKa1KcizcKD4QCdK65p7",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "100000000000000000000000000000",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 182,
        "num_expected_blocks": 1570
      },
      {
        "account_id": "figment-betanet",
        "public_key": "ed25519:GtFcXjjdo3xs2xafAUstvdNLbw3YDRsv8798qhDfdWau",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "126557431195539821072612918725",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 1812,
        "num_expected_blocks": 1832
      },
      {
        "account_id": "illia",
        "public_key": "ed25519:HDGR8HHcKJuPWsfe7rEbmmzMmB1h2sMV3synesYVGf1j",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "237114320489469642690227273793",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 0,
        "num_expected_blocks": 3665
      },
      {
        "account_id": "nearkat",
        "public_key": "ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "78222174019581877549836985626",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 1046,
        "num_expected_blocks": 1046
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node0",
        "public_key": "ed25519:7PGseFbWxvYVgZ89K1uTJKYoKetWs7BJtbyXDzfbAcqX",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "238339659072897867748078610107",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 3663,
        "num_expected_blocks": 3663
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node1",
        "public_key": "ed25519:6DSjZ8mvsRZDvFqFxo8tCKePG96omXW7eVYVSySmDk8e",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "242014825065931544260409042195",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 3925,
        "num_expected_blocks": 3925
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node2",
        "public_key": "ed25519:GkDv7nSMS3xcqA45cpMvFmfV1o4fRF6zYo1JRR6mNqg5",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "199913782638170701764620852187",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 3142,
        "num_expected_blocks": 3142
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node3",
        "public_key": "ed25519:ydgzeXHJ5Xyt7M1gXLxqLBW1Ejx6scNV5Nx2pxFM8su",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "240935684024498896347812640603",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 3922,
        "num_expected_blocks": 3922
      },
      {
        "account_id": "unknown.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:6VGREgEwSEYqb2qbhjK8PvJc2NJKtdD9zy6RTbAccH3S",
        "is_slashed": false,
        "stake": "117392659285106031101261119727",
        "shards": [
          0
        ],
        "num_produced_blocks": 1832,
        "num_expected_blocks": 1832
      }
    ],
    "next_validators": [
      {
        "account_id": "bowen.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:2kjQU7uJjWwCgGzS26pz7PtnL2NT98LTZyBNYjr1sYwx",
        "stake": "101525336463327823810344355637",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "buildlinks.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:Bq2SR9R8xwztP5YSudwdMgBXbKa1KcizcKD4QCdK65p7",
        "stake": "103242936749015049193558050110",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "hashquark",
        "public_key": "ed25519:9RHYjfS5eo8CAxnsE7R1VgDCK5ofTbk5z2CtfGkv8MvJ",
        "stake": "151400000000000000000000000000",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "nearkat",
        "public_key": "ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB",
        "stake": "80723946901794317217366119514",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node0",
        "public_key": "ed25519:7PGseFbWxvYVgZ89K1uTJKYoKetWs7BJtbyXDzfbAcqX",
        "stake": "246151555757109477336718079379",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node1",
        "public_key": "ed25519:6DSjZ8mvsRZDvFqFxo8tCKePG96omXW7eVYVSySmDk8e",
        "stake": "250276918680695799107215971895",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node2",
        "public_key": "ed25519:GkDv7nSMS3xcqA45cpMvFmfV1o4fRF6zYo1JRR6mNqg5",
        "stake": "206318272886843319377092484825",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "node3",
        "public_key": "ed25519:ydgzeXHJ5Xyt7M1gXLxqLBW1Ejx6scNV5Nx2pxFM8su",
        "stake": "249174529750016868197216096172",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "nuc.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:6CZbX8r9DqKNQ5Vd6xDrqsMuygV9HQ8QLecziC41D26p",
        "stake": "40000000000000000000000000000",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      },
      {
        "account_id": "unknown.test",
        "public_key": "ed25519:6VGREgEwSEYqb2qbhjK8PvJc2NJKtdD9zy6RTbAccH3S",
        "stake": "121314281134898099361682531845",
        "shards": [
          0
        ]
      }
    ],
    "current_fishermen": [],
    "next_fishermen": [],
    "current_proposals": [
      {
        "account_id": "nearkat",
        "public_key": "ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB",
        "stake": "76000000000000000000000000000"
      }
    ],
    "prev_epoch_kickout": [
      {
        "account_id": "figment-betanet",
        "reason": {
          "NotEnoughBlocks": {
            "produced": 0,
            "expected": 3025
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "account_id": "illia",
        "reason": {
          "NotEnoughBlocks": {
            "produced": 0,
            "expected": 6048
          }
        }
      }
    ]
  },
  "id": "dontcare"
}

Every entry in the current_validators object of the JSON above provides the expected uptime:

"current_validators": [
            {
                "account_id": "nearkat",
                "public_key": "ed25519:BE8hs6LuFbG5j1C2tLXKUT2NqRLbCxwBCKXqte9qZ1HB",
                "is_slashed": false,
                "stake": "75932253155495715897593582482",
                "shards": [
                    0
                ],
                "num_produced_blocks": 106,
                "num_expected_blocks": 106
            }
    ]

Be sure that num_produced_blocks is the same of num_expected_blocks, otherwise your node risks to be kicked out (see "Maintaining the Validator Seat" in the validator economics docs for more details).

First, release your funds, by setting to zero your stake:

near stake <YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID> <VALIDATOR_KEYS_PUBLIC_KEY> 0

Wait for two epochs (6 hours) and shut down your node. You may kill the validator process straight away, but it will have an impact on the network performance (less throughput) and other users will not be happy!

To stop your node, simply issue the command:

nearup stop