StaFi ETH staking supports two types of validators: solo validators and trust validators. Solo validators are permissionless, which means that anyone can deposit 12 ETH and run a node to become a solo validator.

The comparison between Solo Validator and Trusted Validator:

How to become a solo validator

Use deposit-cli to generate a key file

deposit-cli is a tool for creating EIP-2335 format BLS12-381 keystores and a corresponding deposit_data-*.json file and stake_data-*.json file for Ethereum 2.0 Launchpad.

Github： https://github.com/stafiprotocol/eth2.0-deposit-cli

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stafiprotocol/stafi-bootstrap/master/eth2.0-deposit-cli/binary/mainnet/macos/deposit-darwin-amd64.tar.gz
tar zxvf deposit-darwin-amd64.tar.gz

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stafiprotocol/stafi-bootstrap/master/eth2.0-deposit-cli/binary/mainnet/macos/deposit-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
tar zxvf deposit-darwin-arm64.tar.gz

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/stafiprotocol/stafi-bootstrap/master/eth2.0-deposit-cli/binary/mainnet/linux/deposit-ubuntu-18.04-x86_64.tar.gz
tar zxvf deposit-ubuntu-18.04-x86_64.tar.gz

./deposit new-mnemonic --num_validators=1 --mnemonic_language=english --chain=mainnet

Creating your keys:               [####################################]  <N>/<N>
Creating your keystores:          [####################################]  <N>/<N>
Creating your depositdata:        [####################################]  <N>/<N>
Verifying your keystores:         [####################################]  <N>/<N>
Verifying your deposits:          [####################################]  <N>/<N>
 
Success!
Your keys can be found at: <YOUR_FOLDER_PATH>

You could also build with Python to generate key and files. Python vesion need to be 3.7+.

git clone https://github.com/stafiprotocol/eth2.0-deposit-cli.git
 
cd eth2.0-deposit-cli/ && git checkout master
 
./deposit.sh install

./deposit.sh new-mnemonic --num_validators=1 --mnemonic_language=english --chain=mainnet

In validator_keys directory, you can see the three newly generated files

• The deposit_data-*.json file must be uploaded when the validator deposit ETH
• The stake_data-*.json file must be uploaded when the validator stake
• The keystore-m*.json file is the information encrypted by the validator’s private key. When validator runs the ETH2.0 client, it needs to be imported for voting or block signing.

Run a Node on ETH2 Mainnet

Run a node on ETH2 mainnet by Prysm

If you are a solo validator, please configure your fee recipient as 0x6fb2aa2443564d9430b9483b1a5eea13a522df45.

If you are a trust validator, please configure your fee recipient as 0xdc5a28885a1800b1435982954ee9b51d2a8d3bf0.

Otherwise you will be slashed by StaFi protocol. More details about the configuration, you can check here.

It may take hours or days for your validator to become fully activated. To learn more about the validator activation process, see Deposit Process. See Check node and validator status for detailed status monitoring guidance. In the meantime, leave your execution client, beacon node, and validator client terminal windows open and running; once your validator is activated, it will automatically begin proposing and validating blocks.

To check on the status of your validator, we recommend checking out the popular block explorers: beaconcha.in by Bitfly and beaconscan.com by the Etherscan team.

Run a node on ETH2 mainnet by Third-party service provider SSV

ssv.network is a fully decentralized, open-source ETH staking network, based on Secret Shared Validator (SSV) technology, which enables the distributed operation of an Ethereum validator. The SSV protocol splits a validator key into multiple KeyShares and distributes them to non-trusting nodes run by operators. The nodes execute the validator’s duties under a consensus mechanism providing fault tolerance, increased security, and decentralized risk for stakers.

More details on SSV portal: https://ssv.network/

Run Ejector Client

The ETH validator running through the StaFi protocol needs to run the ejector client, which listens to events that require validators to exit. It will automatically send out an exit transaction when necessary.

Please make sure you will run this client after you run the validator node. If you are chosen to exit, you should exit your validator in 48 hours(Just keep running this client), otherwise you may be slashed by StaFi protocol.

Requirements

• Install Go 1.19+, for example:

cd $HOME
wget -O go1.19.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz https://go.dev/dl/go1.19.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz
rm -rf /usr/local/go && tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.19.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz && rm go1.19.2.linux-amd64.tar.gz
echo 'export GOROOT=/usr/local/go' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export GOPATH=$HOME/go' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export GO111MODULE=on' >> $HOME/.bashrc
echo 'export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin:$HOME/go/bin' >> $HOME/.bashrc && . $HOME/.bashrc
go version

• Keystores generated by eth2.0-deposit-cli
• Execution node RPC endpoint
• Consensus node RPC endpoint

Environment Variables

Execution Instructions

To run the client, follow these steps:

git clone https://github.com/stafiprotocol/eth-ejector.git
cd eth-ejector
git checkout <latest-release-tag>
make build
./build/eth-ejector start --keys_dir <PATH_TO_YOUR_KEYS_DIRECTORY> --consensus_endpoint <CONSENSUS_ENDPOINT_URL> --execution_endpoint <EXECUTION_ENDPOINT_URL>

Example:

git clone https://github.com/stafiprotocol/eth-ejector.git
cd eth-ejector
git checkout v0.3.2
make build
./build/eth-ejector start --keys_dir /home/stafi/eth2.0/validator_keys --consensus_endpoint https://beacon.zhejiang.ethpandaops.io  --execution_endpoint https://rpc.zhejiang.ethpandaops.io

Exit

Assuming you are using Prysm, voluntarily exiting your validator from the Ethereum network is a one time command using the prysmctl tool. Note that this operation was previously facilitated by a command exposed by the Prysm validator client, and can still be accessed that way. At a high level, you’ll follow these steps to exit your validator:

• Ensure that you have access to a fully synced beacon node.
• Issue the validator exit command to your validator and allow the beacon node to access to your validator keys through the --wallet-dir flag or web3signer and the --beacon-rpc-provider flag (examples provided below).
• Select the account(s) that should be exited. This step can be skipped by specifying the account(s) via the —public-keys flag when issuing the validator exit command.
• Confirm your understanding of the consequences of exiting your validator by typing Exit my validator when prompted.

More details please follow this exit doc.

Reasons for staking failure

• The uploaded file is invalid.
• Insufficient ETH in the pool:
  • For Solo Validator: ETH amount in the pool < 20Pubkey amount.
  • For Trusted Validator: ETH amount in the pool < 31Pubkey amount.
• The pubkey of the Trusted Validator can not be uploaded for the solo Validator.
• Trusted Validator and Solo Validator pubkeys could not be staked at the same time.