Agoric Incentivised Testnet
Recently I joined the Agoric incentivised testnet, as a member of the P-OPS Team, who are already running multiple validators for various networks.
The selection for the Agoric team was quite tough, as they had to choose from over 6000 applicants. I was very happy when I have received an email that I am selected as one of only 150 candidates. Needless to say, once we entered into a dedicated chatroom for testnet participants, there was a large number of known and respected validators, so I felt right at home from the get go.
The team has handled onboarding with excellence. They even listened to our requests, and let us bring in teammates or friends that will help us with the competition. Needless to say I have quickly invited 3 other P-OPS Team members for support. They also set up a cool website with all the necessary information we need to track:
Phase 1
Phase 1 started as planned, with the intention to get validators familiar with the setup of the node and running a validator. I went straight into building my node, which is really easy to do for Agoric, and I also had prior experience with setting it up and running it on their devnet.
I have decided to use a dedicated machine featuring 6 cores, 128GB RAM and 2TB NVMe SSD with a 1 GBit/s-Port. While it is more than is recommended, I think it is a necessary step to make sure it runs flawlessly.
Setup and installation is really simple, so I will just leave the official instructions here, as they are clean and straightforward, so there is no need to redo them in any other form: https://gist.github.com/dckc/c6d4c5800daca0bd3439aee3e024b317
If you follow the guide step by step, you cannot do any wrong. It is as simple as it gets, and that is saying a lot since I have experience in validating multiple other chains. Important to note, before creating the validator, make sure that your node has synced up! After creating the validator, voila, we are up and running:
Agoric node installer
For those that would like a quicker way to install Agoric node, we developed a simple tool that lets you do it. It essentially installs the node and created systemd files, while also waiting until your node is fully synced up. Pretty neat!
Prerequisites:
- Ubuntu 20.04 is recommended
- Decide on your moniker name (eg.
P-ops) - Know the GIT_BRANCH you need to use (eg.
@agoric/sdk@2.15.1) - Non root user with sudo privilege without password
Usage:
- Download the script
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pops-one/agoric/master/install-agoric.sh && chmod +x install-agoric.sh- Run the script
./install-agoric.sh @agoric/sdk@2.15.1 P-opsNote that here you need to use the correct branch and the moniker name as shown above.
After the node is in sync (the tool will let you have control over the terminal once it is), you can follow the steps from the official document and create your validator.
I would also recommend you install UFW and fail2ban to make sure that your node is protected. For instructions, please see an article by our friend and partner:
Conclusion
I have been amazed by the smoothness of Agoric incentivized testnet. They give you all the support you need, sufficient time and well rounded tasks that are easy to understand. I am surely looking forward to the next phases, on the road to becoming a mainnet validator in the end!
About Agoric
The Agoric team has been deeply involved in the development of smart contracts, from initial discussions in the early 90s to Brian Warner’s involvement in the prescient Least Authority security audit of Ethereum. Realizing that a world of smart contracts would not be possible without better software, the Agoric team has been actively creating the right environment for crypto-commerce.
Read more about Agoric: https://agoric.com/
Agoric Twitter: https://twitter.com/agoric
About P-OPS Team
P-OPS Team ~ Pangaea Operations is a group of 8 highly qualified technology enthusiasts, located across the globe. We are a decentralized organization, passionate about Web 3.0, distributed ledger technology (DLT) and decentralization.
With a combined 40+ years of experience in blockchain, P-OPS Team has come to light in early 2019 as a community initiative around Harmony protocol. Since then, we have become an extended team of Harmony whilst expanding our services to other networks and projects. We have specialized in running validators for several networks, while also providing consultation, growth acceleration and funding to new and innovative Web 3.0 projects.
P-OPS Team website: https://pops.one/
P-OPS Team Twitter: https://twitter.com/POpsTeam1
P-OPS Team Telegram: https://t.me/POPS_Team_Validator
P-OPS Team Github: https://github.com/pops-one
