Technical Requirements For Being A Validator On BitSong

3 min readApr 21, 2023

Technical requirements for being a validator include;

Hardware Requirements
Software Requirements
Bandwidth Requirements
Logistics Requirements
Maintenance Requirements

For the purpose of clarity, we will be discussing this requirements in details in this piece, and also very briefly we will be discussing How can validators protect themselves from denial-of-service attacks ;

Hardware requirements

Validators can anticipate requiring at least one redundant power, networking, firewall, HSM, and server data center.

Although initial hardware requirements may be relatively low, they may rise as network utilization rises. Imminent Validators are firmly urged to partake in the testnet for of laying out the ongoing necessities.

Software requirements

Validators should use monitoring, alerting, and management solutions for their setup in addition to running a full BitSong node.

Bandwidth requirements

BitSong has a much higher throughput capacity than chains like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Nodes in the data center should only connect to reliable full nodes in the cloud or to other socially acquainted validators. This alleviates the server farm hub from expecting to moderate forswearing of-administration assaults which will consume data transfer capacity.

Multigigabyte per day bandwidth is conceivable as BitSong grows in popularity and establishes itself.

Logistical requirements of becoming a Validator

Most of the time, successful Validators are run by several highly skilled people who share the responsibility of paying constant attention to the operation. It requires extensively more exertion, assets, and expertise than running a mining ASIC, for instance.

How to handle key management?

Validators will need to run a hardware security module (HSM) that supports ed25519 keys. Here are some of the potential options:

YubiHSM 2
Ledger Nano S
Ledger BOLOS SGX enclave
Thales nShield support

BitSong does not recommend one solution over another.

What can validators expect in terms of operations?

Validators who run their operation like a tight ship will avoid unexpected unbonding or being slashed. Validators must be available to respond to attacks or outages and to be able to maintain security and isolation in the data center.

Maintenance requirements

In order to accommodate upgrades and bug fixes, validators are required to carry out routine software updates. The Validator community may need to be on the lookout for problems whenever new BitSong modules or features are added..

How can validators protect themselves from denial-of-service attacks?

Denial-of-service attacks or DoS attacks refer to the scenario where an attacker sends a flurry of internet traffic to an IP address. In doing as such, they forestall the server at the IP address from having the option to interface with the web.

In the blockchain scenario, the attacker attempts to locate the validator node IP addresses by scanning the network. It then attempts to detach them from correspondence by flooding them with traffic.

By carefully structuring their network topology in a “sentry node architecture,” validators can reduce these risks.

Validator nodes should only connect to full nodes they trust, either because they run the nodes themselves or because other validators they know socially manage them.

The majority of data centers that house validator nodes are directly connected to the networks of major cloud service providers. Those links enable the validator to connect to cloud-based sentry nodes.

With this setup, the sentry nodes take over denial-of-service from the validator’s node directly. In order to mitigate attacks against existing sentry nodes, it may be necessary to establish new ones.

Sentry nodes can be set up or their IP addresses can be changed quickly. An internet-based DoS attack does not directly affect the links to the sentry nodes because they are in private IP space. As a result, this configuration will guarantee that validator block votes and proposals can always be transmitted to the rest of the network.

About Bitsong

BitSong is a multifunctional blockchain-based ecosystem built to empower the music industry. It unites artists, fans, distributors in an environment where music, merchandise, and fan loyalty are assets of value. BitSong’s decentralized ecosystem of services providers the global music community with a trustless marketplace for music streaming, Fan Tokens, and NFTs, powered by the BTSG token.

Contact BitSong Official;