Validator Node
A Validator Node participates in the Main Chain's optimized PBFT consensus, proposing and finalizing blocks. Validators are sampled from the Council into the active Committee each round.
Validator slots are permissioned during the current network phase. Applications go through the Xphere Foundation. This guide documents the operational requirements once admitted.
Eligibility
To be admitted to the Council, a candidate must:
- Submit a formal application to the Xphere Foundation
- Stake the validator bond (amount published by the Foundation per epoch)
- Operate infrastructure meeting the hardware requirements below
- Maintain ≥ 99.9% uptime across two consecutive monitoring epochs
Hardware Requirements
| Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| vCPU | 8 | 16 |
| Memory | 32 GiB | 64 GiB |
| Storage | 2 TB NVMe | 4 TB NVMe |
| Disk IOPS | 5,000 | 15,000+ |
| Network | 500 Mbps | 5 Gbps |
| Geographic redundancy | Single region | Multi-AZ |
Validator hardware is stricter than XEN because PBFT message rounds are latency-sensitive.
Setup Overview
Detailed setup instructions — the validator binary, configuration, keystore provisioning, seed peers, and registration — are provided separately by the Xphere Foundation as part of the Council onboarding package once your application is admitted.
Operational SLOs
| Metric | Target | Action if breached |
|---|---|---|
| Block proposal success | ≥ 99.5% | Investigate dropped peers |
| PREPARE→COMMIT latency | ≤ 200 ms p99 | Check network jitter |
| Disk IOPS | ≥ 5k | Upgrade storage |
| Uptime | ≥ 99.9% | Improve runbook coverage |
Slashing Conditions
The current network does not implement automated on-chain slashing. The Foundation enforces conditions via the Council agreement:
- Double-signing — proposed conflicting blocks at the same height/round
- Extended downtime — > 48 h consecutive offline
- Equivocation — voting
PREPAREandCOMMITfor conflicting blocks in the same round
Penalties range from bond reduction to Council removal.
Monitoring
Recommended Prometheus metrics to scrape from --metrics --prometheus:
xphere_consensus_round_total
xphere_consensus_proposals_accepted_total
xphere_consensus_proposals_orphaned_total
xphere_p2p_peers
xphere_chain_head_block_number
See Also
- Endpoint Node setup — base of the validator binary
- Whitepaper §3 — Main Chain Consensus
- Whitepaper §4 — 51% Attack Mitigation