Run a Validator

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What “running a staking node” means here

1. Run an rpc-v2 node — a follower RPC that syncs from the project’s central sequencer over gRPC and serves Solana-compatible JSON-RPC. This is what you operate as infrastructure. The node binary itself has no built-in staking logic.
2. Hold a “validator identity” pubkey that the project’s admin has registered in the infini-stake program. That on-chain registration is what makes the identity eligible to be delegated to.

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Build the node

git clone https://github.com/solayer-labs/solayer-rpc
cd solayer-rpc
rustup show                          # pulls the pinned Rust toolchain
cargo build --release -p rpc-v2

• Linux x86_64 (macOS works for development).
• 8 GB RAM or more (16 GB comfortable).
• 200 GB+ disk for slots/chaindata growth on devnet; consider a dedicated SSD/NVMe.
• Stable public IPv4 if you want other RPC nodes to peer with you (set --grpc-advertise-addr).

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Generate your validator identity keypair

• The admin registers its public key via register_validator(identity, commission_bps).
• You can self-delegate to it from any wallet (using its secret key is convenient but not required — anyone holding the stake token can delegate to this identity).
• It is the only signer allowed to call set_commission (change your commission rate) and claim_commission (mint accrued commission to your own token account) — both bound to the keypair by the ["validator", identity] PDA seeds, and commission pays out to an ATA this identity owns. So the secret key is required to manage and collect commission, not just convenient.

solana-keygen new \
  --no-bip39-passphrase \
  -o ~/.config/solana/infinisvm-validator.json
solana-keygen pubkey ~/.config/solana/infinisvm-validator.json
# → this pubkey is what you'll send to the admin for registration

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Run rpc-v2 against the devnet sequencer

mkdir -p /var/lib/infinisvm/{slots,chaindata,logs}

RUST_LOG=info ./target/release/rpc-v2 \
  --sequencer-grpc-server-addr http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:5005 \
  --sequencer-http-server-addr http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:6005 \
  --sequencer-rpc-server-addr  http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:8899 \
  --rpc-registry-addrs         http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:6005 \
  --sequencer-pubkey           <SEQUENCER_PUBKEY> \
  --grpc-listen-addr           0.0.0.0:15005 \
  --grpc-advertise-addr        <YOUR_PUBLIC_IP>:15005 \
  --listen-addr                0.0.0.0:18899 \
  --metric-addr                127.0.0.1:3002 \
  --local-slots-path           /var/lib/infinisvm/slots \
  --local-db-path              /var/lib/infinisvm/chaindata \
  --start-slot                 latest \
  2>&1 | tee /var/lib/infinisvm/logs/rpc-v2.log

• --sequencer-grpc-server-addr — primary gRPC upstream for block sync.
• --sequencer-http-server-addr / --sequencer-rpc-server-addr — snapshot bootstrap and JSON-RPC fallback to the sequencer.
• --rpc-registry-addrs — registry to register yourself with, comma-separated if you want to point at multiple.
• --sequencer-pubkey — required; rpc-v2 verifies the sequencer’s finalization signature with this. A mismatch makes the node refuse to finalize blocks.
• --grpc-listen-addr — where your node serves gRPC sync to downstream subscribers (peers, indexers).
• --grpc-advertise-addr — the public address you announce to the registry so other nodes can dial you. Set to your public IP/DNS if exposed.
• --listen-addr — your Solana-compatible JSON-RPC for clients (web3.js, Anchor, etc.).
• --metric-addr — Prometheus metrics endpoint.
• --start-slot latest — start tailing from the current tip. Avoid checkpoint (would need S3 access to s3://solayer-devnet).

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Optional: Cassandra indexer + S3

• --cassandra-hosts host1:9042,host2:9042 --cassandra-replication-factor N — enables indexed historical queries (transaction-by-signature, etc.). Stand up your own ScyllaDB/Cassandra cluster if you need this.
• --s3-path, --s3-access-key-id (env S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID), --s3-secret-key (env S3_SECRET_KEY), --s3-region — for snapshot/slot backfill from S3. Project-internal on devnet today; skip unless you’ve been given creds.

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systemd unit (example)

# /etc/systemd/system/rpc-v2.service
[Unit]
Description=infinisvm rpc-v2
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=infinisvm
WorkingDirectory=/opt/infinisvm
Environment=RUST_LOG=info
ExecStart=/opt/infinisvm/target/release/rpc-v2 \
  --sequencer-grpc-server-addr http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:5005 \
  --sequencer-http-server-addr http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:6005 \
  --sequencer-rpc-server-addr  http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:8899 \
  --rpc-registry-addrs         http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:6005 \
  --sequencer-pubkey           <SEQUENCER_PUBKEY> \
  --grpc-listen-addr           0.0.0.0:15005 \
  --grpc-advertise-addr        <YOUR_PUBLIC_IP>:15005 \
  --listen-addr                0.0.0.0:18899 \
  --metric-addr                127.0.0.1:3002 \
  --local-slots-path           /var/lib/infinisvm/slots \
  --local-db-path              /var/lib/infinisvm/chaindata \
  --start-slot                 latest
Restart=always
RestartSec=5
LimitNOFILE=200000

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now rpc-v2
sudo journalctl -fu rpc-v2

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Verify the node is syncing

watch -n 1 'curl -s http://127.0.0.1:18899 \
  -H content-type:application/json \
  -d "{\"jsonrpc\":\"2.0\",\"id\":1,\"method\":\"getSlot\",\"params\":[]}"'

curl -s http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:8899 \
  -H content-type:application/json \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"getSlot","params":[]}'

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:3002/metrics | head -50

./target/release/registry-probe registry --addr http://devnet-seed-1.solayer.org:6005
./target/release/registry-probe node --grpc http://127.0.0.1:15005

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Get your identity registered as a validator

1. Contact the project team. Send them:
   • Your validator identity pubkey.
   • Your node’s --grpc-advertise-addr so they can verify it’s reachable.
   • Any operator metadata they ask for (contact, name to display, etc.).
2. Admin runs register_validator(identity, commission_bps). This creates a Validator PDA at seeds ["validator", identity] with active = true and your commission rate set to commission_bps (basis points, capped at MAX_COMMISSION_BPS = 10000 = 100%; otherwise rejected with InvalidCommission). You can change the rate later via set_commission.
3. Verify on-chain. Once registered:
   import * as anchor from "@coral-xyz/anchor";
   import { Connection, PublicKey } from "@solana/web3.js";
   import IDL from "./infini_stake.json"; // download: /documentation/staking/infini_stake.json
   
   const STAKE_PROGRAM_ID = new PublicKey(
     "mi7DC6qnESgL6TWdQn7xJBKqWwv2YiZVeoVuhpXhLvz",
   );
   const l2 = new Connection("https://devnet-rpc.solayer.org", "confirmed");
   const provider = new anchor.AnchorProvider(
     l2, new anchor.Wallet(anchor.web3.Keypair.generate()), {});
   const program = new anchor.Program(IDL as anchor.Idl, provider);
   
   const myIdentity = new PublicKey("<your validator identity pubkey>");
   const [validatorPda] = PublicKey.findProgramAddressSync(
     [Buffer.from("validator"), myIdentity.toBuffer()],
     STAKE_PROGRAM_ID,
   );
   const v = await program.account.validator.fetch(validatorPda);
   console.log("active:", v.active, "total_stake:", v.totalStake.toString());
   

​

Self-delegate to start earning

1. Acquire LAYER on the L2 (devnet mint in the overview). LAYER is L2-native, so you may already hold it there; if what you hold is the wrapped form on Solana (L1), bridge it back to L2 first.
2. Delegate to your own identity pubkey — the validator_identity you pass to the delegation PDA is your validator’s pubkey; the owner (signer) can be the same keypair or a different wallet that holds the stake token.