Announcing a Milestone Partnership: P2P.org Teams up with Matrixport to Offer Staking Infrastructure

<p><br>The previous <a href="https://p2p.org/economy/how-firedancer-impacts-solana-ecosystem/">article</a> discussed why PoS networks strive for multiple validation clients and how Firedancer helps secure Solana. Below, <strong>we will share our experience of running Firedancer in Testnet.</strong> We will run through the official documentation for building Firedancer, monitoring options, compatibility with our current infrastructure, and check the client's stability.</p><h2 id="what-is-frankendancer">What is Frankendancer?</h2><p>During the Solana Breakpoint 2023 event, it was announced that “Frankendancer” (Firedancer with runtime and consensus modules borrowed from Solana labs client) successfully acts as a validator node in the Solana Testnet. We were excited about this announcement and the rest of the community. </p><p>The Firedancer team provides great build &amp; run documentation, which can be found <a href="https://firedancer-io.github.io/firedancer/guide/getting-started.html?ref=p2p.org">here</a>. The documentation is decent, so we don’t think it is necessary to repeat it here. You must update your Linux kernel to<em> &gt;5.7</em> to successfully build Firedancer (it should not be a problem even on Ubuntu 20 since its mainline repo contains this kernel). We successfully built Firedancer on top of our test server with Ubuntu 20.04. </p><h2 id="configuration">Configuration</h2><p>In contrast to the Solana Labs client, Firedancer uses a toml configuration format—some configuration directives bypass Solana Lab components so that you can use this feature in your favor. For example, you can bypass only the public key of your vote key with a directive <code>vote_account_path</code> and keep your vote key out of a server with a validator in a safe place. The key configuration section may look like this:</p><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><pre><code>[consensus] identity_path = &quot;~/identity-keypair.json&quot; vote_account_path = &quot;DGjZLMwYmQU7vCPqyTxdnyKwaf1uu8eMdLeSmzqv2SZj&quot; </code></pre> <!--kg-card-end: markdown--><p>If you have experience running the Solana Labs client, the basic config for Firedancer will not raise many questions for you except for section layout. Let’s revise the “must-have” minimum options of this section:</p><p><code>affinity</code> - number or range of logical CPUs available for Firedancer. According to documentation, it is advised to allocate some cores for Solana Labs client and the rest for Firedancer. We had 32 cores on the server, enough to provide up to 9 cores to make Firedancer work (affinity = “0-27”). We also tried to play with <code>affinity</code> directive and found that Firedancer starts successfully with 12 cores at least.</p><p><code>net_tile_count</code> refers to the number of network queues on your network card. You need to adjust this directive precisely to the amount of network queues exposed by the network driver to OS. If <code>net_tile_count</code> exceeds the number of network queues, you will lose some cores for nothing. If <code>net_tile_count</code><em> </em>is lower than the number of network queues, Firedancer starts losing traffic (higher skip rate, lower vote success, etc.).</p><p><code>verify_tile_count</code> - in the official documentation, it is said that this directive controls how many tiles are dedicated to transaction signature verification. In our case, the command <code>/opt/fdctl configure init all --config /home/firedancer/config.toml</code> crashed if <code>verify_tile_count</code> was not equal to <code>net_tile_count</code><em>, </em>and as a consequence, Firedancer could not be started.</p><p>To figure out the number of network queues, you will first need to get the name of your network interface by using the commands <code>ip address</code> or <code>ifconfig</code><em>. </em>After that, you can use the utility <code>ethtool</code> to retrieve the number of network queues:</p><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><pre><code># ethtool -l {network_interface_name} | grep -A4 &quot;Current hardware settings&quot; Current hardware settings: RX:   0 TX:   0 Other:   0 Combined: 2 </code></pre> <!--kg-card-end: markdown--><p>If you didn’t apply special tuning to your network stack you likely see a count of network queues in row <strong>Combined.</strong> </p><h2 id="startup-unit">Startup unit</h2><p>If you plan to run Firedancer for an extended period, you will probably need configuration for the process manager. You are likely using Systemd, so we are happy to share our Systemd unit for Firedancer, which we used for running our instance of Firedancer in Testnet:</p><!--kg-card-begin: markdown--><pre><code>[Unit] Description=Firedancer Validator Service After=network.target [Service] ExecStartPre=/opt/fdctl configure init all --config /home/firedancer/config.toml ExecStart=/opt/fdctl run --config /home/firedancer/config.toml ExecStop=/opt/fdctl stop Restart=on-failure LimitNOFILE=100000 LimitNPROC=100000 LimitCORE=infinity [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target </code></pre> <!--kg-card-end: markdown--><p>It is a very basic Systemd unit without hardening, so it is not production-ready and works for testing only. If you plan to use this Systemd unit, you need to adjust paths of config and fdctl in your environment. It is worth mentioning that Firedancer requires root rights for starting, so it makes no sense to run this unit under a non-root user. After starting the application and configuring the necessary system parameters, Firedancer will downgrade its privileges to the user specified in the configuration file. Note that the <code>configure</code> command must be executed before each Firedancer startup and after each system restart.</p><h2 id="monitoring">Monitoring</h2><p>Next, we would like to discuss monitoring-related questions. Solana Labs provides CLI utilities for monitoring validators, but there is no built-in Prometheus target (Prometheus is the de facto standard nowadays). We developed an in-house Prometheus exporter to monitor our Solana nodes (both validators and RPC), and we were thrilled to see that our prom exporter could fetch all metrics from Firedancer RPC with no issues and no changes required (you can find our Grafana dashboard with metrics fetched from Firedancer on Picture 1). Presumably, it happened because of the implementation of the REST-API interface located in one of Solana Labs' modules integrated into Firedancer. Firedancer is not equipped with tools for monitoring the node's performance in the cluster. However, it was announced that some monitoring tools will be added in the future. Before that, you can use Solana CLI tools to monitor Firedancer (<code>solana-validator  --ledger={ledger_path} monitor</code> or <code>solana catchup --our-localhost --follow</code>); we checked it works smoothly.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/XmSQkFhG28aB9ttyhH7mf1L1Zjvsgl31N7kygVfA5Q0EUp7rGhIlMOjvjBmaKTITc8fCaLGE-PHnHpuXfYjQP4w-dhbNpEdxOtJOX2UW4uziiOCJeDqPZzpeu_KrmYeo68BHmsIkWPuqV-DN5raMWA4" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="602" height="717"></figure><h2 id="results">Results</h2><p>We ran the Firedancer client (version <em>1.17.1004</em>) on our Testnet validator for 4 days, and no accidental crashes were observed. It would be great to run some performance tests (Solana Labs client vs Firedancer). Still, it doesn't make much sense because Firedancer performance will be bottlenecked on the runtime/consensus stage. </p><p>Solana Validator has an “on-the-fly” key change capability, which we often use in our work. We asked the Firedancer developers about this feature, and they said it's not in the plans right now. Still, they have a long-term idea to make restarts as fast as possible so you can restart with the new identity key rather than trying to support dynamic configuration.</p><p>We are delighted to confirm that Frankendancer can act as a Solana validator at this stage! It feels like Jump Trading invested a lot of work and passion in creating Firedancer, and we in P2P appreciated it so much. P2P validator has been validator in Solana almost from the start of mainnet, and the upcoming Firedancer release in mainnet feels like one of the most significant events in Solana's ecosystem. It is a big step forward for the whole Solana community, and we look forward to testing out genuine Firedancer (with no Solana Labs client as a dependency) later next year.</p><p><em>Authors:</em><br><em>Anton Yakovlev Lead SRE @ P2P validator Solana team</em><br><em>Ilya Shatalov DevOps Engineer @ P2P validator Solana team</em></p><p><br></p>

<p></p><h3 id="intro">Intro</h3><p>We’re thrilled to announce our collaboration with SSV Network, marking the inception of our <strong>DVT Staking API, the first of its kind in the industry</strong>.<br>This initiative seeks to amplify our institutional staking offering further, ensuring seamless integration for custodians, wallets, and cryptocurrency exchanges.</p><div class="kg-card kg-button-card kg-align-center"><a href="https://bit.ly/3SQpuC4?ref=p2p.org" class="kg-btn kg-btn-accent">Book a demo now!</a></div><p><br>Since 2018, our mission has been to create a secure and efficient platform to onboard institutions for non-custodial staking solutions, particularly within the Ethereum ecosystem. Fast forward to 2023, our operations now extend over 50 networks, managing staked assets close to $2B with over 60,000 delegators. The unveiling of the DVT Staking API is another significant milestone in our ongoing journey, embodying our commitment to foster non-custodial staking at the institutional level.</p><h3 id="whats-dvt">What's DVT?</h3><p>Distributed Validator Technologies (DVT) is pivotal in mitigating staking risks, offering a robust framework for managing digital assets and staking strategies. The resonance of DVT among institutions is profound, given its prowess in addressing key concerns such as counterparty and slashing risks, which are crucial in ETH Staking.</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card kg-card-hascaption"><img src="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2023/11/pic-what-is-dvt.png" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="600" height="496" srcset="https://p2p.org/economy/content/images/2023/11/pic-what-is-dvt.png 600w"><figcaption>DVT, or Distributed Validator Technology by SSV.network explained</figcaption></figure><p>For an in-depth understanding and integration guide, we direct you to our staking API <a href="https://docs.p2p.org/?ref=p2p.org">developer guides</a>. The DVT Staking API is engineered for simplicity, offering a streamlined workflow to accommodate the diverse needs of custodians, wallets, and neo-banks. Our API acts as a bridge, simplifying the navigation of DVT staking and ensuring a seamless transition into decentralized staking. Our mission is to facilitate integration and offer cost-saving benefits to users who integrate with us.</p><h3 id="the-integration">The Integration</h3><p>The integration of DVT with our platform paves the way for a new era of Ethereum staking. Our platform provides a unique opportunity to stake directly with multiple institutional node operators, such as Allnodes, Stakely, and HTX, offering their own nodes operating on DVT. This initiative enables institutions to harness the full potential of decentralized staking through various experienced operators, each bringing a wealth of experience working with institutional entities, high-performance nodes, and best-in-class security practices to ensure node liveness. Our coordinated effort ensures a geographically distributed node operation with one node in the US, two in the EU, and one in APAC, significantly mitigating the risks associated with downtime due to country-specific incidents. Moreover, by supporting a broad spectrum of execution and consensus clients, we foster Ethereum client diversity, further eliminating reliance on the point of failure. This well-rounded approach significantly elevates the robustness and reliability of the P2Porg staking platform. It underscores our position as a leader in advancing the staking paradigm alongside industry leaders who share our vision.</p><p>Allnodes Founder &amp; CEO Konstantin Boyko-Romanovsky told P2P.org, "Allnodes is dedicated to advancing the staking ecosystem, and our partnership with P2P.org through their DVT Staking API aligns with our commitment. We believe DVT represents a significant step forward in mitigating inherent staking risks like slashing and counterparty exposure - paramount concerns for ETH staking. The DVT framework complements our mission to deliver secure and efficient staking to institutions. By collaborating with P2P.org, we can integrate their healthy platform and progressive technology to benefit clients through a decentralized, resilient staking infrastructure. Our partnership is about more than enhancing our services; it's about shaping the future of institutional staking and contributing to a more secure, decentralized blockchain ecosystem."</p><p>Stakely Co-founder Ignacio Iglesias said, "Stakely's collaboration with P2P.org, employing Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) in the Ethereum staking ecosystem, marks a pivotal advancement towards a more secure and decentralized staking infrastructure, specially tailored for institutional clients. DVT aligns with our commitment to providing robust, non-custodial staking services for institutions by mitigating risks such as slashing and single-point failures through distributed key management. This approach ensures security and reliability and fosters decentralization by utilizing diverse Ethereum clients and operating across various geographical regions, further strengthening the resilience and integrity of the Ethereum network."</p><p>The Head of HTX Web3 Technology, Token Xi, stated: "HTX staking is committed to advancing the overall ETH stake ecosystem towards greater security and decentralization. Our collaboration with P2P.org in developing DVT StakeAPI aligns with our expectations for the positive growth of the entire industry ecosystem. As a deep partner of the official SSV, HTX has long supported the development of SSV, from testnet to mainnet, as a core validator node operator. Through the SSV network, we have reduced the risk of single points of failure, thereby better securing our users' assets. Additionally, the decentralized nature of SSV allows our users to enjoy the safety benefits of decentralization while promoting the decentralization of the entire ETH ecosystem."</p><p>Our collaboration with the ssv network has been long-running; as one of their Mainnet Verified Operators, we've been working closely with the ssv network to redefine Ethereum staking with the integration of DVT into the P2P.org platform via our new Staking API thanks to a grant awarded to us. The ssv network grant has been instrumental in developing and launching the DVT Staking API to advance institutional staking solutions at P2P.org. This integration propels our value proposition to institutional investors, framing us as the go-to platform for a diverse suite of staking services. You can learn more about our work as a Mainnet Verified Operator with an ssv network <a href="https://p2p.org/economy/p2p-org-joins-ssv-network-as-mainnet-verified-operator-enhancing-ethereum-staking-with-dvt/">here</a>!  </p><p>The ease of integration and cost-efficiency is at the core of our DVT Staking API. It is not merely about staking; it's about creating an ecosystem that is accessible, secure, and beneficial to all stakeholders involved. Our API is designed to save substantial time and resources, accelerate your product offerings, and propel your business toward its staking goals. Our customer-centric dashboard allows you to effortlessly retrieve all the necessary information, consolidated within a user-friendly interface and real-time reporting.</p><h3 id="contact-us-and-use-it">Contact us and Use It!</h3><p>If you'd like to discover more about the ease of integration for our DVT Staking API, you can find more in our documentation portal, <a href="https://docs.p2p.org/docs/ssv-overview?ref=p2p.org">here!</a></p><p>You can also contact a team member via our official Telegram account or book a demo and learn more about the DVT Staking API <a href="https://p2p.org/products/dvt?ref=p2p.org">here</a>!</p><figure class="kg-card kg-image-card"><img src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/FyQCPepMu-ZbuWid1vdUZAGq_-WgY6NBap5FsoZDT22Dgw7Ry5XUETHdm_KAVIDqvVFPCZgf8WEHf_11jGQlF1qDxrI_7JLUVRIe2SFZobJcgEOwJJN9NMqOCqgnZOlHNGOkkXTUH4tQRB5UrctHzzo" class="kg-image" alt loading="lazy" width="602" height="385"></figure><p>The DVT Staking API is a testament to our relentless pursuit of innovation, redefining the contours of institutional staking. We welcome all institutions and businesses to leverage this novel Staking API to meet the demands of your current staking strategy and be well-prepared for tomorrow's decentralized landscape.</p><p>For further inquiries and discussions, feel free to reach out to us. Our team at P2P.org is here to assist you in every step of your staking journey.<br>Official P2P.org Telegram Channel: <a href="https://t.me/P2Pstaking?ref=p2p.org">https://t.me/P2Pstaking</a></p>