Validator guide

It runs a Bigfoot node in validator mode that confirms and finalizes the network’s shared record together with the other validators. A validator only validates: it does not store or relay records.

A Linux machine running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, on x86-64 or ARM64, with a public address. The Bigfoot CLI, which you use to create your key, runs on Linux and macOS, on both ARM64 and x86-64. A validator cannot share a machine or a public address with a storage node; on IPv6, the same /64 network counts as the same address.

Every new post and reply pays a service charge, and the network credits 5 percent of it, shared equally, to the validators whose signatures finalized it. Other validation work is not credited, and neither is membership alone. Fees and credits explains the service charge.

Create a key with the Bigfoot CLI and sign your application with it: bigfoot-node sign-application --role validator --email ADDRESS --thumbprint T, where ADDRESS is the email address you apply with. It prints a one-line application token, which works only for this role and that email address, and only while it is recent. Paste the token into the form on the validator page; the site checks its signature and takes your thumbprint from it. The governance members decide by vote.

bigfoot-node create-key leaves a key’s role unassigned, and bigfoot-node init --mode validator refuses a home that holds no validator key. Once you are admitted, save a protected copy of the key with bigfoot-node export-key --id N --out FILE --passphrase-file FILE, where --out names a new file for the copy and --passphrase-file names a file holding its passphrase. Then, on the validator’s machine and in the home its node will use, register the copy with bigfoot-node import --key FILE --role validator, which asks for that passphrase. Use absolute paths.

First give your key its validator role, as described above. Then start a node in validator mode: bigfoot-node init --mode validator --endpoint HOST:PORT, then bigfoot-node start. On its first start, the node proves it holds the key, has an active storage node on another address confirm its address, and joins the validators. That storage node is chosen automatically.

No. Running unmodified node software, your validator validates what the network’s rules allow: you don’t choose, change, or remove records. Modifying the software to select, change, or drop records turns you from a validator into a curator: you’d be deciding what the network holds, and you’d be responsible for those decisions. Verified misconduct is recorded, and governance members can vote to remove a validator.

Operators are responsible for the laws that apply to them where they run a validator. This guide is not legal advice.

Yes. The network finalizes new records only while more than two-thirds of its validators are signing. With four validators, one can be offline; if a second one fails, the network stops finalizing until they return.

Run bigfoot-node maintenance on, then bigfoot-node stop. maintenance on checks that the other validators can keep finalizing without yours and asks you to confirm, but it only sets a maintenance flag: it does not stop the node. While the flag is on, the node will not start and does not prepare scheduled upgrades. When you are done, run bigfoot-node maintenance off, then bigfoot-node start.

Scheduled protocol upgrades install automatically at the height the network sets. bigfoot-node status shows any staged or scheduled upgrade, and every command prints a notice while a release is waiting for you. That release installs when you run bigfoot-node update.

Verified misconduct by a validator is recorded, but it is not punished automatically. Removing a validator always takes a governance vote.

Yes, without approval. Stop the node, run bigfoot-node backup --out DIR, move the backup to the new machine, run bigfoot-node restore --from DIR there, and start it. Never run the old and new machines at the same time.

Stop the node and run bigfoot-node rotate-key --thumbprint T on its machine. It replaces your validator key and the node’s signing key together, and your membership continues under the new key.

Run bigfoot-node decommission on the validator’s machine and confirm. Leaving the validators takes a governance vote, so the command reports that it is waiting for that step: ask a governance member to sponsor your removal. Keep the node running until the removal takes effect, then stop it and run bigfoot-node decommission again to retire its keys.

Yes. The network always keeps at least four validators, so a removal that would leave fewer, or would stop the network from finalizing, cannot take effect until more validators join.

Removal leaves a permanent record in the network, and your past validation stays attributed to you. Your key cannot rejoin. To validate again, apply with a new key.