Rocket Pool Beta v1 Guide
This guide is for a previous Rocket Pool beta. View the guide for the currently running beta here.
About the Rocket Pool Beta v1
Welcome one and all to the very first Rocket Pool beta! This guide will walk you through how to set your computer up to interact with the beta when it launches on the 19th of July, see the state of the Rocket Pool network, make a deposit into it, track the state of that deposit, and finally, withdraw your ether plus rewards earned back into your account.
This beta features some tweaked settings to both the Rocket Pool network and the Casper contract. Staking durations have been set to 1, 2, and 3 days respectively, and the Casper logout period has been reduced to roughly 10 minutes. The beta is also running on our own private Proof of Authority network, where blocks will be produced every 5 seconds. These durations do not reflect real examples of Rocket Pool at launch, but will keep the beta moving quickly so that everyone gets a chance to check it out ;).
A quick disclaimer before we begin — the Rocket Pool Beta v1 has been built on the now deprecated Casper FFG v0.2.0. While much of Casper’s functionality may remain the same in the new version, expect some changes to the staking & validation process, which might influence the way Rocket Pool works. Think of this beta as an interactive proof-of-concept, which we will use to gather feedback from you to improve the platform.
Getting Started
To begin interacting with the Rocket Pool Beta v1, you will need:
- A desktop or notebook computer (mobile devices currently have very limited web3 support)
- Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox with MetaMask installed, or a web3 enabled browser such as Mist
- Some ether for our private test network. Don’t worry, there’s a faucet on the beta site to top yourself up!
Throughout this guide we will be using MetaMask; if you are using a web3 browser, consult its documentation for the relevant steps.
1. Install MetaMask
If you haven’t already, install the MetaMask browser extension for Chrome or Firefox. Just visit https://metamask.io/ and follow the links. Once you have installed MetaMask, you will need to create a new account and sign in — just follow the instructions as they appear.
2. Connect to the test network
Open the MetaMask panel using the icon in your browser toolbar, and click on the network dropdown in the toolbar at the top. Select “Custom RPC”. Enter “http://gateway.rocketpool.net:8545” into the “New RPC URL” field and click Save.
3. Go to the Rocket Pool Beta
Head on over to https://beta.rocketpool.net/ to get testing! You’ll see a notice explaining the beta and the requirements listed here. Just click “GO” to continue when you’re ready. If you see a notice about a web3 browser being required, or the dashboard remains faded out, make sure you’ve completed steps 1 and 2 correctly before continuing.
4. Get some Testnet Ether
Click the “Get Testnet Ether” link at the top of the dashboard, then enter the amount of Ether you want to withdraw and click the “Get Ether” button. You can withdraw up to 15 Ether every (approx.) 24 hours. You’ll see the total supply available here, as well as your remaining allowance for the current withdrawal period. It can take a moment for your ether to be sent, so be patient. If your balance on the dashboard doesn’t update after 15 seconds, try waiting a little longer and refreshing the page.
Beta Overview
At the top of the page, you’ll see a header with some links — ignore these for now; they all go back to the main Rocket Pool website. The meat and potatoes of the beta are the dashboard and the menu underneath it.
On the top row of the dashboard, you’ll find:
- Information on the number of smart nodes currently operating in the network, and the load they are under. These are the nodes which perform validation services for Casper and earn rewards for our users! Smart nodes will wait patiently for minipools (containing deposits) to be assigned to them, and vote on their behalf once the deposits have been sent to Casper.
- The number of minipools currently active in the network. There is a limit to how many can be staking at one time (so our smart nodes aren’t overloaded), so you may be unable to deposit if the network is at capacity.
- The number of users active in the network right now. You can see the data on how many are in minipools which are waiting to launch, how many are staking, and how many are able to withdraw their return from Casper.
Moving on, you’ll see some data on the Casper FFG contract itself:
- Some technical information on the epoch (finalised checkpoint) state
- The total ether deposited in Rocket Pool currently staking with Casper (and our min and max deposit limits)
- The Casper logout delay and withdrawal period, for a minipool to logout and receive its withdrawal respectively
Finally, you’ll see some information about your current ether and RPD balances on the test network. Don’t worry about RPD yet if you’re not familiar with it — it’s a token used for withdrawing your deposit early in an emergency.
Under the dashboard, you’ll find the main menu with the following options:
- Account — View a list of your available accounts along with ether and RPD balances. Clicking an account will select it for use with all interactions. If you’re using a web3 browser such as Mist, you’ll see all of your accounts here, but with MetaMask you’ll only be able to see your active one.
- Deposits / Withdrawals — Most of the action is here, where you can deposit ether into the Rocket Pool network, track your deposits, and withdraw them when they have finished staking. We’ll cover this in more detail further down!
- Notifications — A list of notifications for all of your interactions with the Rocket Pool network. Whenever you make a deposit or withdrawal, or your minipools do something interesting, it will show up here. This is a permanent list which will appear the same on any computer you use, but you can view items to dismiss the counter.
- Network — Clicking this item will show you a map of the smart nodes in the Rocket Pool network. You can hover over a node to see the stats on the region, hosting provider, assigned minipools, server load and checkin times.
- Trade RPD — This option allows you to trade RPD tokens for ether 1:1 when the network has enough ether to cover your trade. Again, don’t worry about this just yet if you’re not familiar with the ins and outs of the RPD token.
- Support — View frequently asked questions, or get in touch with us if you need help.
Depositing With Rocket Pool
Now that you’re familiar with the dashboard, let’s deposit some ether into the Rocket Pool network!
- Select “deposits” and “new” from the main menu.
- Enter the amount of ether you’d like to deposit, then click the next button. You’ll see the amount you have available plus the maximum deposit limit.
- Select the duration you’d like your deposit to stake for, then click the next button. The longer you stake with Casper, the higher the return on investment, since rewards are compound. Just choose 1 day if you want to come back and withdraw sooner ;).
- Accept all of the terms to deposit and click the tick button to continue. MetaMask will display a pop-up window to confirm the transaction — click “submit” to proceed. If you accidentally close the window, just click the MetaMask icon in your browser toolbar to get it back. After a short wait, you’ll be returned to the dashboard.
- Select “deposits” and “list” from the main menu — you’ll notice a new entry for the minipool you’ve been assigned to! It might be a freshly created one for you, or you might have been added to an existing one with some other users. The info and calendar buttons at the bottom will give you more details. If the minipool contains less than 32 ether in total, it will be “accepting deposits” from others in order to launch. Otherwise, it will be in “countdown” to begin staking.
- If you like, check the options menu for more actions. You can deposit more ether directly to this minipool (if you have some), withdraw ether from it (which may cause it to revert to “accepting deposits” if it’s counting down to launch), or set a backup withdrawal address for your safety.
Now that you’ve made your first deposit, sit back and enjoy the ride! Once your minipool has a high enough balance, it will progress to “countdown”, and then “staking” when the deposit has been sent to Casper. The progress meter in the background always shows how far the minipool is to the next stage in its lifecycle.
Once your minipool is staking, you’ll notice that you can no longer deposit or withdraw ether from it, or set a backup withdrawal address. However, you can withdraw RPD tokens from it if you like.
Withdrawing Your Deposit
After waiting for your staking period to pass, you can come back to the beta site to withdraw your deposit. At this point, you should see one less “deposits” item in the main menu, and one more “withdrawals” item. If you do, congratulations! Your minipool has logged out of Casper, and your deposit (plus rewards) may be ready to withdraw.
- Select “withdrawals” from the main menu.
- If your minipool is “awaiting withdrawal”, you’ll have to wait a little longer — come back in about 10 minutes!
- Click the info and calendar buttons at the bottom for more details — the info item will show you the amount of rewards you earned in ETH, as well as the overall % return on investment from your initial deposit.
- Click “withdraw” and follow the prompts to withdraw the entire amount back into your account! Note that partial withdrawals are not allowed, otherwise users could leave a small amount of ETH behind to prevent Rocket Pool from cleaning up after itself.
- Once again, confirm your transaction (you’re not sending ether so this includes gas costs only) in MetaMask and wait a moment — you’ll see your minipool disappear and your balance on the dashboard will have updated.
Congratulations! You’ve withdrawn your deposit + rewards from Rocket Pool and completed your first staking period with us. Treat yourself, you earned it!
Rocket Pool Deposit Tokens
RPD tokens are redeemable for ether 1:1 whenever the network has enough liquidity to cover your trade. You can think of them as an IOU — 1 RPD means the Rocket Pool network owes you 1 ETH. You can cash it in once enough ether is available, or you can sell it to someone at a discounted rate on the open market.
You can withdraw RPD from a minipool while it’s staking with Casper (see “Depositing With Rocket Pool” above) — your funds are locked up, but if you need cash in a hurry this offers you an alternative. Note that when withdrawing RPD, you will incur a 0.25% fee, so if you withdraw an entire 1 ETH deposit, you will get back 0.9975 RPD (this fee is not yet finalised and may change). You can withdraw a portion of your deposit and earn rewards on the remainder, or the whole amount.
Once your minipool finishes staking with Casper, the amount that you withdrew from it in the form of RPD is injected back into the Rocket Pool network. This covers the funds for the final owner of the RPD tokens to trade them back for ETH.
If you find yourself with RPD tokens over the course of the beta (either by withdrawing them yourself or having them sent to you), you can exchange them for ether once it becomes available:
- Select “trade RPD” from the main menu.
- Check the balances in the form — it will tell you how much RPD you have, and how much ether is currently available for exchange.
- If there is enough ether to cover the amount you want to trade, enter it and click “Exchange RPD tokens”.
- As above, confirm the transaction in MetaMask and wait a moment. You will be returned to the dashboard and your balances will have updated.
Wrapping Up
This concludes the guide to the Rocket Pool Beta v1! We hope it’s been useful and you’ve enjoyed your first experience with the Rocket Pool network :). We can’t wait to bring you the next version once the new and improved Casper hits the testnet!
Don’t forget, we will be rewarding testers with RPL tokens by airdropping them to addresses which participated in the beta. Make sure you keep your MetaMask account handy so that you can claim your tokens once you receive them!
We’d love to hear from you about your experience and if there are any improvements you think we could make. Get in touch with us at contact@rocketpool.net, via the website, or come and say hi on discord, we’re a friendly bunch!
