Become a validator
You, as Validators, play a fundamental and critical role in keeping the Aleo network up and secured.
Aleo validators are infrastructure service providers who secure the network through AleoBFT, a Proof of Stake based consensus mechanism that leverages the latest state-of-the-art consensus research, Bullshark, and its directed acyclic graph (DAG) Narwhal-style memory pool.
In simple terms, Validators run nodes, validate transactions, and participate in consensus to add new blocks. They earn fees and rewards.
Running snarkOS as validator node.
Lean about your responseibilities
The responsibilities of keeping a network up and securing it can be broken down into two critical responsibilities:
1.Infrastructure management
2.Staking management
Launch Prep
Operaitonl considerations & firewall
Install & running node
snarkOS is a decentralized operating system for zero-knowledge applications. we use snarkOS software to run a validator node.
How to install and run nodes, please refer to guide
Running as a validator
As a validator, you will need to run an Aleo node that communicates with other validators to form consensus on block history and new blocks to add.
You need to have at least 1,000,000 Aleo Credits staked to be an active validator.
For details, please refer to guide
staking
Become a staker, you will select validators and stake your Aleo Credits to them.
Stakers will need a minimum of 10 Aleo Credits to start earning rewards.
Earn rewards
Once you stake, activation is immediate and you can expect to earn rewards in the same block. Rewards are added directly to your staking balance every block and do not need to be claimed.
Validators form consensus on new blocks and block history on Proof of Stake blockchains like Aleo. To prevent sybil attacks (i.e. malicious actors running multiple validators to rewrite blockchain history), validators are required to stake Aleo Credits.
To be an active Aleo validator, 1 million Aleo Credits must be self staked. After becoming active, validators can receive stake from other token holders in the form of delegations.
Both delegators and validators are considered stakers and receive staking rewards in return for performing their duties on chain.
