Harmony Open Staking Node: The Definitive Ankr Guide
With ANKR becoming the most used platform for deploying nodes on our Openstaking Testnet, we are releasing an updated guide and FAQ section to take anybody from zero to ONE.
Content
- Setting up your Testnet Node
- Becoming a Validator
- FAQ
Setting up your Testnet Node
- Go to https://app.ankr.com/auth/sign-up to create your account
2. A confirmation email will be sent to the email address you submitted.
3. Open the email and click on the link. You will now be directed to enter your login password for Ankr. Enter the password and click “log in”
4. Scroll down and look for the blue “Deploy Node” button. Click it
5. Scroll down to find the Harmony card (projects are listed alphabetically), hover over it and click the “Deploy Node” button
6. The hardware configuration has already been set to the optimal system requirements, so no need to touch it. The platform will also select the best cluster to deploy the node one, so no need to touch this either. Simply scroll down to the Node Configuration section of the page
7. The Node Configuration section is where you get to name your node and enter the password for the encoding of your BLS and private keys
8. Scroll down to the Select Payment Method section and click on “Create Unique Address”. Ignore the payment options.
9. Once your address has been generated, click on “Deploy Node”
10. Now, wait for your node to be deployed. Takes 30 seconds or less
11. After your node has been deployed, you now have to wait for the node to sync before you can proceed
Becoming a Validator
- After it’s done syncing, your node has to apply to become a validator. To do so, you will need testnet tokens. These tokens can be obtained by copying the generated ONE wallet address from the Information tab to the official Harmony ONE Faucet
2. Now, click on the manage and look for “Official Harmony Faucet”. Clicking on this link will take you to a new tab for sending testnet tokens to your wallet address.
3. Paste the address you copied into the “ONE Address” bar, solve the captcha, and click fund. Takes ~15 seconds for confirmation.
4. Back in your ANKR tab, you should now see 11000 ONE and the greyed out “Apply” for Validator becoming active by turning blue. Click on “Apply”
5. Congratulations! Your node is now on the network. The node will be elected during the next epoch. An epoch lasts 5 minutes. You can view the status of your node by clicking on the “View” menu
Don’t forget to check the FAQ section for some
FAQ
Q. Can I send tokens from Binance/Bitmax/Kucoin to stake?
A. No. Staking is on testnet. Please do not send mainnet tokens to your testnet address
Q. Can I use my node address to recieve tokens?
A. Only if the tokens being sent are testnet tokens
Q. My node is no longer elected
A. This happens when we reset the network. To fix this, just log into ANKR, go to “Manage” tab and set to active
Q. What is APR?
A. APR stands for Annual Percentage Return. This is the expected return on the amount staked
Q. Why is my APR lower/higher than the rest?
A. Harmony uses a novel staking system to prevent stake centralization and still provide capitalistic fairness. What this boils down to is to prevent centralization of stakes to a handful of nodes, encouraging validators to spin more nodes in order to maximize yield. Our Staking Dashboard makes it easy for validators to know the right amount to bid.
Q. Can I download my keys?
A. Yes, just go to “Backup Account” to download your BLS and private key
Q. I don’t have a PC
A. You don’t need one. The nodes are deployed in the cloud. There is zero hardware requirement
