Validator Overview

Validating on CosVM involves a process where a set of validators plays a critical role in ensuring the network's integrity and committing new blocks to the blockchain. Here's a detailed breakdown of the validation process and the role of validators in the CosVM network:

• CosVM operates on the CometBFT consensus mechanism. Validators in this system are responsible for proposing and validating blocks.They participate in the consensus protocol by broadcasting votes that contain cryptographic signatures, signed using each validator's private key.

• Validator candidates can bond their staking tokens and attract additional tokens by having them "delegated" or staked to them by token holders. Staking tokens showcase commitment and trust in a validator's abilities.The CosVM native token is used for staking. Initially, CosVM launched with 150 validators.The top 150 validator candidates, based on the most stake delegated to them, become part of the active CosVMvalidator set.

• Validators and their delegators earn rewards in the form of CosVM tokens through block provisions and transaction fees. These rewards are earned for their participation and successful execution of the Tendermint consensus protocol. Initially, transaction fees are paid in CosVM tokens. However, there is an openness for other tokens within the Cosmos ecosystem to be accepted as fee tender in the future. Governance may whitelist additional tokens for fee payments. Validators have the ability to set a commission on the fees earned by their delegators, providing an additional incentive for validators to attract and retain delegations.

• Validators have the option to set a commission rate on the rewards earned by their delegators. This commission represents a percentage of the rewards that the delegators receive. The commission mechanism acts as an additional incentive for validators to perform well, maintain a secure and efficient network, and attract delegations

Pitfalls:

Validators face potential penalties if they engage in activities like double signing, frequent offline status, or lack of active participation in governance. In such cases, their staked CosVM (including that of users who delegated to them) could face slashing, the severity of which depends on the violation.

Hardware:

Validators are advised to establish a physically secure operational setup with restricted access. An effective approach would involve setting up operations within highly secure data centers.

Ensuring the data center's reliability is crucial; therefore, validators should consider implementing redundant power sources, reliable connectivity, and storage backups. It's prudent to have multiple redundant networking components such as fiber optics, firewalls, and switches, alongside smaller servers equipped with redundant hard drives and failover mechanisms. Initially, validators can start with standard data center equipment.

While the network's initial requirements may be modest, it's anticipated that as the network expands, demands for bandwidth, CPU, and memory will increase. For long-term blockchain history storage, it's recommended to have substantial hard drive capacity to accommodate several years of blockchain data.

Supported OS

We officially support macOS and Linux only in the following architectures:

• darwin/arm64

• darwin/x86_64

• linux/arm64

• linux/amd64

Minimum Requirements

To run mainnet or testnet validator nodes, you will need a machine with the following minimum hardware requirements:

• 4 or more physical CPU cores

• At least 500GB of NVME SSD disk storage. Hard drive I/O speed is crucial!

• At least 32GB of memory (RAM)

• At least 100mbps network bandwidth

As the usage of the blockchain grows, the server requirements may increase as well, so you should have a plan for updating your server as well.