Super Node Criteria

Each of the criteria specified below must be met and maintained for a Super Node to register and remain eligible to receive a share of the dedicated Super Node reward pool. The reward pool is distributed at the end of each reward period, which lasts exactly 576 blocks, approximately 1 day. The criteria may be added to, or modified at any time.

Balances

• Maintain a balance of at least 500 ZEN, held as a stake, within a transparent (t) address where you control the private keys
  • For additional rules and information about updating staking addresses see Change Staking Address

Availability / Exceptions

• Meet, with minimal exceptions or downtime (~57 minutes max), an availability target of 96% within a reward period
• Not fall behind the current block height by more than 4 blocks
• Maintain and run the minimum required version of zend and tracker software (upgrading within the posted time frame)
• Must dedicate the host for sole use as a Super Node and provision the required level of resources (CPU, RAM/SWAP, Disk space) to consistently meet the eligibility criteria, a minimum of;
  
  • Four CPU cores
  • 8GB of RAM 
  • 100GB of available space (not including OS and main blockchain)
• Must not add, or utilize additional transparent addresses, except for approved applications

• There must not be more than 5 stake balance (stkbal) exceptions in one earning period

• The stake address must not be used by other nodes (Secure or Super) at the same time

• Must send updated stats to the tracking server on the configured schedule or when requested

• Must only run approved nodetracker software

• Must respond to all requests from the tracking server and allow the tracking server to update the node configuration

  • Exceptions will be triggered for nodes not responding from commands issued by the tracking server
• Must provide the nodetracker a valid email to receive alerts and other notifications issued by the tracking server

Network / Security

• Zend available for inbound connections on both IPv4 and IPv6
• Zend listening on only one IPv4 address and only one IPv6 address (two IP addresses total, onion still allowed)
• Correct reachable address and port combination are advertised to the network by zend (listed in zen-cli getnetworkinfo "localddresses" and 'reachable:true')
• A unique IP address for the tracker client across secure and supernodes, either IPv4 or IPv6, this address must match one of the addresses Zend runs on, specified in zen.conf (externalip=)
  • The Tracking Server must be able to establish a connection to zend directly
• Must not restrict peer connections (no maxconnection= in zen.conf)
• Must configure the zend P2P port with valid SSL/TLS certificate reachable from the outside for other nodes to connect to (zend MUST accept incoming connections from other nodes)
• The proper DNS records (A and AAAA) has to be in place for the same IP (IPv4 and IPv6) as configured in the zen.conf (externalip=)

Reward Eligibility

(1) Eligibility

• At the end of each reward period the active Super Nodes are checked for eligibility. Any Super Nodes with exceptions or downtime reducing their availability to less than 96% of the reward period are excluded from rewards for that reward period
• Reward allocations are created for all non-excluded Super Nodes, which equate to the maximum reward a single Super Node can receive for the reward period

(2) Deductions

• Super Nodes meeting the uptime threshold, 96% of the reward period, with unavailability periods due to downtime or exception, i.e. not 100% availability, will have the reward equivalent of the period for which the Super Node was unavailable, subtracted proportionally from their allocated reward. This intended behavior rewards Super Nodes based on their availability and afford the associated transaction fees (for reward payments) and potential credits to be covered by the Super Node reward pool

(3) Payment

• On a weekly basis, a payment administrator reviews the reward payments to ensure they were generated correctly and marks them to be paid
• Rewards are then sent to the stake address associated with the node. This is the transparent (t) address holding the 500 ZEN stake configured for the node during the earning period. To change the stake address see Change Staking Address

(4) Support

• Any configurations using multiple super or secure nodes within the same OS instance are not officially supported and will not receive support through the help desk
  
  

Super Node Criteria and Reward Eligibility