Setting up a BOLT Masternode

Introduction

This guide is for a single masternode, running on Ubuntu 16.04 x64 on Vultr VPS.

It's not a requirement to run a masternode on a VPS server, but we strongly recommend since your masternode needs to be 24/7 up. Also, you can use any other company, not necessarily Vultr.

Requirements:

1. Basic server configuration knowledge
2. 1000 BOLTs
3. Ubuntu 16.04 x64 VPS server
4. An unique IP address

PS: You will need a different IP for each masternode you are planning to setup.

Creating the VPS Server

1. Login into your Vultr account and navigate to Servers menu.
2. Click in the add icon in the top right corner.

Add a new server

1. In the server location, pick your favorite. There is no preference on this part.
2. Choose Ubuntu 16.04 x64 for the Server Type.
3. Depending on the location you have chosen, you might be able to select the smallest Server Size. Since the masternode doesn't require a very powerful hardware configuration, we recommend using the 20gb SSD, priced at $2.50 a month.
4. Once you pick your Server Size, you are ready to deploy your server, but before that, we recommend you activate the Auto Backup feature (an additional of 20% of the server's price).
5. Click on Deploy Now and wait a few seconds while Vultr activate your VPS.

Pick your server configuration

Activate Auto Backups feature and deploy your VPS

Connecting to the VPS

Once your VPS is ready, go back to the servers list page, click on the server you just created and copy the server's credentials.

Get your IP, username, and password

Using the credentials provided above, open your terminal and login into your server. Your SSH connection should be:

ssh root@YOUR_SERVER_IP

It will ask you to confirm if you want to connect to this server in your first attempt.

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

Type yes then press Enter

Type your server's password (get it from Vultr console) then type Enter again.

If you did everything correct until this point, you should see the successful connection message:

Welcome message from Ubuntu

Setting up BOLT daemon

The first thing you will need to do is to download the linux wallet. Once you are logged into your server, download the linux wallet directly from our GitHub (please do not use any other link):

wget https://github.com/bolt-currency/BOLT/releases/download/0.9.1/bolt-wallet-linux-64.tar.gz

Extract the content using the tar command:

tar -xzf bolt-wallet-linux-64.tar.gz

Navigate to the extracted folder:

cd 64

Start the BOLT daemon server:

./boltd

You must get an error message (and that's correct). The error message will output a rpcuser and a rpcpassword variables. Copy these two values.

Error: To use the "-server" option, you must set a rpcpassword in the configuration file:
/root/.bolt/bolt.conf
It is recommended you use the following random password:
rpcuser=boltrpc
rpcpassword=YOUR_PASSWORD
(you do not need to remember this password)The username and password MUST NOT be the same.If the file does not exist, create it with owner-readable-only file permissions.It is also recommended to set alertnotify so you are notified of problems;for example: alertnotify=echo %s | mail -s "BOLT Alert" admin@foo.com

Edit the BOLT configuration file and add the variables provided above.

vi /root/.bolt/bolt.conf

You will also need to add the daemon configuration line. Your final Bolt configuration file should look like the example below:

daemon=1
rpcuser=boltrpc
rpcpassword=YOUR_PASSWORD

Exit the editor mode and try to run the bolt daemon again.

./boltd

You now should be able to see the successful message:

BOLT server started

Your daemon is all set up! Let's now setup your masternode.

Setting up the masternode

The first thing you will need to setup a masternode is 1000 BOLTs. After you get your first 1000 BOLTs, create an address to receive your funds:

./bolt-cli getnewaddress

The output would be your new BOLT address. Send 1000 BOLTs to this address and let's setup the masternode while we wait for the 15 confirmations (required to run the masternode).

Before starting your masternode, you will need a masternode private key. Let's create it then:

./boltcli masternode genkey

The output would be your masternode private key. Edit the Bolt configuration file (the same you added the daemon configuration lines) and add the masternode settings:

masternode=1
masternodeprivkey=YOUR_KEY
masternodeaddr=YOUR_SERVER_IP:11990

The final result for the Bolt configuration file should be the following:

daemon=1
rpcuser=boltrpc
rpcpassword=YOUR_PASSWORD
masternode=1
masternodeprivkey=YOUR_KEY
masternodeaddr=YOUR_SERVER_IP:11990

Save and exit the file.

Stop the daemon:

./boltd stop

Then start it again:

./boltd

Your masternode is all set and ready to run, but as mentioned above, you need to wait for 15 confirmations before using the coins for the masternode.

Check how many confirmations your transaction has using the listtransactions command:

./bolt-cli listtransactions

The output will show you the details about your transactions:

[
{
"account" : "",
"address" : "YOUR_ADDRESS",
"category" : "receive",
"amount" : 1000.00000000,
"confirmations" : 4,
"txid" : "THE_TRANSACTION_ID",
"walletconflicts" : [
],
"time" : TIMESTAMP_VARIABLE,
"timereceived" : TIMESTAMP_VARIABLE
}
]

Once you see 15 confirmations in the confirmations field, start your masternode running the command below:

./bolt-cli masternode start

BOLT masternode successfully started!

Your masternode is now up and running! You're now part of the network! Enjoy your staking!

Locking the Wallet

The lock wallet process is not a requirement to run a masternode, but we more than recommend you doing that. If you don't lock your wallet, anyone that get into your server can withdrawal your coins.

Starting choosing a very strong password. We recommend at least 16 characters with special symbols, letters, numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters.

Once you generate your password, lock your wallet using the encryptwallet command:

./bolt-cli encryptwallet YOUR_PASSWORD

You will need to restart the daemon once you lock the wallet:

./boltd

Since you restarted the daemon, your masternode is not up anymore. You will need to unlock your wallet for a few seconds, start the masternode, and your wallet will lock again automatically after the time you have specified in the unlock phase.

Let's unlock the wallet and restart the masternode.

Use the walletpassphrase command to unlock your wallet. The last param (TIME_IN_SECONDS in the example below) is used to inform for how long you would like to keep your wallet unlocked until it locks again. We recommend using a very short period of time, like 120 seconds.

./bolt-cli walletpassphrase YOUR_PASSWORD TIME_IN_SECONDS

The example using 120 seconds would be:

./bolt-cli walletpassphrase YOUR_PASSWORD 120

After you unlock your wallet, you have 120 seconds to start your masternode again. Just run the masternode start command:

./bolt-cli masternode start

Your masternode is now up and running again and your wallet will be locked in the next few seconds!

We also recommend you clear your commands history. To do that, just run the following command:

history -c