Deploy a Validator Node on MainNet

Step-by-Step guide

Overall, the process is similar to TestNet and BetaNet:

Create your MainNet wallet
Deploy your MainNet staking pool
Build and run your MainNet validator node

1. Create your MainNet Wallet

Go to wallet.near.org and create an account.

2. Deploy your MainNet staking pool

You can instantly deploy the staking pool with near-cli, using the command near call:

near call poolv1.near create_staking_pool '{"staking_pool_id":"<POOL_ID>", "owner_id":"<OWNER_ID>", "stake_public_key":"<VALIDATOR_KEY>", "reward_fee_fraction": {"numerator": <X>, "denominator": <Y>}}' --account_id <OWNER_ID> --amount 30 --gas 300000000000000

The command will invoke the staking-pool-factory from NEAR Core Contracts, passing the following parameters:

poolv1.near is the staking pool factory
POOL_ID is the name of your validator (and the staking pool associated with it)
OWNER_ID is the wallet that controls the pool, see the owner-only methods for more information
VALIDATOR_KEY is the validator node public key, from the file ~/.near/validator_key.json
{"numerator": <X>, "denominator": <Y>} set the validator fees. x=10 and y=100 equals to 10%
--amount 30 attaches 30 $NEAR to the transaction to pay the contract storage
--gas 300000000000000 specifies the amount of gas for the transaction (optional)

Heads Up:

If your POOL_ID is "buildlinks", the staking pool factory will deploy a contract called "buildlinks.poolv1.near", and your node will appear in the Explorer as "buildlinks.poolv1.near"

3. Build and run your MainNet validator node

Clone the nearcore repository:

git clone https://github.com/near/nearcore.git

Create an environment variable that finds the most recent stable release:

export NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION=$(curl -s https://github.com/near/nearcore/releases/latest | tr '/" ' '\n' | grep "[0-9]\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]" | head -n 1)

Go to the root directory and checkout the branch:

cd nearcore
git checkout $NEAR_RELEASE_VERSION

Build the binary using the --release switch:

cargo build -p neard --release

configure the chain-id and account-id:

target/release/neard init --chain-id="mainnet" --account-id=<YOUR_STAKING_POOL_ID>

After the build process is done, check that the configuration file located at /HOME_DIR/.near/config.json is the same as this one.
Now, start your node with the following command:

target/release/neard run

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