Sonr is based on CometBFT,
which relies on a set of validators that are responsible for committing new blocks in the blockchain. These validators
participate in the consensus protocol by broadcasting votes which contain cryptographic signatures signed by each
validator’s private key.Validator candidates can bond their own staking tokens and have the tokens “delegated”, or staked, to them by token
holders. The Sonr is Sonr’s native token. At its onset, Sonr launche with 150 validators. The validators are
determined by who has the most stake delegated to them - the top 150 validator candidates with the most stake
become part of the active Sonr validator set.Validators and their delegators will earn Sonr as block provisions and tokens as transaction fees through execution of
the Tendermint consensus protocol. Initially, transaction fees will be paid in Sonr but in the future, any token in the
Cosmos ecosystem will be valid as fee tender if it is whitelisted by governance. Note that validators can set commission
on the fees their delegators receive as additional incentive.
If validators double sign, are frequently offline or do not participate in governance, their staked SNR (including
Sonr of users that delegated to them) can be slashed. The penalty depends on the severity of the violation.
Validators should set up a physical operation secured with restricted access. A good starting place, for example,
would be co-locating in secure data centers.Validators should expect to equip their datacenter location with redundant power, connectivity, and storage backups.
Expect to have several redundant networking boxes for fiber, firewall and switching and then small servers with redundant
hard drive and failover. Hardware can be on the low end of datacenter gear to start out with.We anticipate that network requirements will be low initially. Bandwidth, CPU and memory requirements will rise as
the network grows. Large hard drives are recommended for storing years of blockchain history.
Seek legal advice if you intend to run a validator.
Set up a dedicated validator’s website, social profile (eg: Twitter) and signal your intention to become a validator on
Discord. This is important since users will want to have information about the entity they are staking their Sonr to.