Astroquirks — A technical overview on building a resilient validator setup
Introduction
As the decentralized world spins round and round, keeping validator nodes secure is more important than ever. At Astroquirks, we get it. We know our clients need a network that’s rock solid and stable. So, we put on our thinking caps and cooked up a technical solution that’ll keep those validator nodes safe and sound. In this article, we’ll give you the lowdown on how our solution works and why it’s the cat’s meow for uptime and security.
The team
Our team comprises highly skilled engineers with extensive experience in software engineering and the blockchain field. We are deeply committed and passionate about the mission of decentralization. Our team members are located globally.
The architecture
Implementing geographic and third-party redundancy is crucial for ensuring availability of resources and minimizing the impact of a single point of failure. This can be achieved by distributing resources across multiple geographical locations and relying on multiple third-party providers. Additionally, we use Sentry nodes to safeguard against DDOS attacks.
The nodes
1. Main validator node
Where ?
It’s running on OVH data center region A
What is it used for ?
This node does not have a direct connection to the network. It only communicates with our Sentry nodes. It signs blocks and transmits them to other peers via the Sentry node.
2. Backup node #1
Where ?
It’s running on OVH data center in region B
What is it used for ?
This node is responsible for exploring the network, maintaining a copy of all blocks, and being prepared to serve as the primary validator node if necessary.
3. Backup node #2
Where ?
It’s running on Hetzner in region C
Similar to Backup #1, this node is also running on an alternative provider. It serves as a failsafe in case the primary provider (OVH) becomes unavailable.
4. Seed
Where ?
It’s running on OVH VM in region A
What is it used for ?
This is dedicated to scanning the Osmosis network and identifying suitable peers. A peer refers to another healthy node that is able to respond with blocks.
5. Snapshot
Where ?
It’s running on OVH VM in region A
What is it used for ?
It creates snapshots of the Osmosis network. These snapshots can be used to quickly launch a new node in case of an emergency.
Signing blocks
As a validator, we are responsible for signing blocks on behalf of the network. Our private keys are stored in a Key Management System (KMS) hosted by a separate provider (DigitalOcean). The KMS handles the management of our keys and signs blocks submitted by our primary validator node.
Monitoring
We rely on two monitoring systems, Tenderduty by Blockpane and Healthchecks.io, to maintain a clear understanding of the health status of our architecture.
Alerting
We use PagerDuty to alert our engineers of any system failures, allowing them to take immediate action and make necessary repairs.
Automated configuration
We use Saltstack to automate the configuration and the management of our nodes.
Prevent slashing
What is slashing ?
Validators may face penalties for non-compliant behavior. This mechanism is implemented on the blockchain and varies according to the specific blockchain. Here are the parameters specific to Osmosis.
Missing blocks
A validator will be subject to punishment, such as being “jailed,” for missing 30,000 blocks, and will also have 5% of their delegated assets “slashed.”
How to avoid this at all cost ?
The robustness and resilience of our architecture, monitoring systems, tools, and alerting mechanisms are essential to our strategy in preventing being slashed as a validator.
Double signing
A validator will have 5% of their assets “slashed” if they double sign the same block.
- Our KMS configuration ensures that only one signer is active at a time and prohibits the signing of duplicate blocks.
- Our primary validator node is also configured to prevent double signing.
- We also safeguard against unauthorized access to our KMS through firewall configuration.
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