How to become an Operator

TL;DR Do these things to become an earning Streamr node Operator:

Deploy an Operator smart contract.
Run a Streamr node and pair it with your Operator.
Stake DATA tokens on your Operator and give your nodes some MATIC
Join Sponsorships through your Operator that will earn you DATA tokens.

Testnet schedule

Checkout the official Streamr Testnets page for the latest news and updates related to the incentivized three testnets running over December 2023 and January 2024.

Migrating from Brubeck

If you’ve been running a Streamr node in the past you might be familiar with a two step process– run some software and stake some tokens, i.e. a software step and a blockchain step. Behind the scenes, the Streamr core team would validate user’s stake and transfer tokens to node runner wallets at the end of each month. This has worked, but it's been highly centralized. With the introduction of stream Sponsorships, Operators, Sponsors and Delegators we now have everything we need for a peer to peer decentralized and market based incentivization on Streamr. The most important role is the Operator, so let's learn how to become one.

Streamr 1.0 network versus the Brubeck (older) network

You can run ~~up to 5 nodes per IP address~~ any number of nodes from the same IP address, although one node per machine is recommended
Rewards are ~~automatically paid out at the beginning of the following month~~ claimed from active Sponsorships at any time
You can stake ~~up to 20K DATA per node~~ as much as you want. Note that at least 5% of Operator stake must come from the owner, and therefore delegations can not exceed 95%.
To participate in the testnets, use specific versions/tags of the Streamr node software, such as v100.0.0-testnet-one.2. The latest tag still points to the previous milestone (Brubeck) software.
There is no need for a "beneficiary address" in Streamr 1.0. Instead, the node configuration contains the Operator contract address.

Migrating from Mumbai

If you've created your node in the Mumbai testing environment and you want to participate in the incentivized testnets with real token rewards and risks, then you'll need to recreate your Operator using the Streamr Network Hub. The same funding and pairing steps that you did for your Mumbai Operator need to be repeated here too. The testnets and the future 1.0 mainnet will run on the Polygon Blockchain.

Node version: The pretestnet tagged releases shouldn't be used anymore, instead use v100.0.0-testnet-one.2.
Node config: Your node config should resemble the Testnet 1 config template.

Operator setup instructions

Follow these steps below to setup your Operator so that you can participate in the protocol and collect rewards.

Step 1: Deploy your Operator Contract

In the Streamr Hub, connect your wallet (top-right corner), navigate to Network -> Operators, then click "Become an Operator" and complete the dialog. The Operator contract is deployed on the Polygon blockchain.

The wallet/account that you use to make the Operator creation transaction will be known as the Owner wallet. It's the wallet you'll use to control your Operator business. The owner wallet controls the Operator and is able to stake and unstake on Sponsorships, update the Operator settings, and withdraw the owner's share of the Operator's stake and earnings. This should be a very secure wallet as it controls the whole Operator. A hardware wallet (Ledger, etc) is recommended, although a software wallet (Metamask) will work too - just be sure to keep the account private and never share your private key or seed phrase with anyone.

You'll need to decide on your owner's cut at the time of your Operator deployment. You'll be able to change this value later on, as long as you unstake from all Sponsorships first.

You can also practice your Operator deployment in the Mumbai environment with the Mumbai Streamr Hub (rather than switching networks on the Streamr Hub). You'll need Mumbai MATIC - widely available with public faucets and you'll need TEST tokens (the Mumbai network's worthless DATA tokens) - There is a TEST token faucet on the Streamr Discord.

Step 2: Run a Streamr node

Spin up a Streamr node using this guide.

Nodes will consume resources, mainly bandwidth and CPU. RAM usage is moderate and disk usage in negligible.

Running multiple nodes on the same virtual machine (VM) is not in your best interest. The point of running multiple nodes is redundancy as well as load balancing/horizontal scaling, neither of which are really achieved if multiple nodes run on the same VM. Ideally each VM would run on separate physical hardware or geographical location.

While there are no strict hardware recommendations, 8GB of RAM, 3-4 virtual cores, and ideally 1Gbps bandwidth would be a safe bet for participating in most stream Sponsorships.

Important

A public IP is a must
A TCP port for WebSocket connectivity must be open. The port is configurable and the default is 32200.

Step 3: Pair your node with your Operator contract

To pair your node(s) with your Operator contract, you must make them aware about each other. For this, you need two things:

Your Operator address (found near the top of your Operator page in the Streamr Hub).
Your node wallet, which consists of an Ethereum private key and address. You might already have created one with the config wizard when setting up the node. Alternatively, you can use any method, such as create a new account in Metamask and export the private key, or use vanity-eth.

Add your Operator's node addresses

First, scroll down on your Operator page and find the "Operator's node addresses" section. Click the "Add node address" button, paste in the address of your node wallet (not its private key!), click the button in the dialog and then don't forget to click the Save button.

Update your node's configuration file

Then, update your node's config file. Use this testnet config. Inside this configuration you will need to update:

Replace "YOUR_OPERATOR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS" with your Operator address (keep the quotes).
Replace "NODE_PRIVATE_KEY" with the private key of your node wallet (keep the quotes).

After the config file changes, restart your node(s). If you run several nodes, you can use the same config file for all of them.

If you're building your Operator in Mumbai, copy and paste this config snippet instead.

Step 4: Fund your nodes

You’ll need a bit of MATIC (the gas token of Polygon) in your node’s wallets as Streamr nodes that participate in sponsored streams will periodically make transactions. 1 to 5 MATIC is recommended since the nodes will be making a few transactions per day. If the node runs out of gas while they’re a part of an active Sponsorship, then a penalty may be applied to your unclaimed earnings. See Operator value maintenance.

Step 5: Fund your Operator

Now, on your Operator page in the Streamr Hub UI, fund your Operator with DATA tokens (or if you're in Mumbai, then TEST tokens). There's no minimum amount, but note that the more tokens you fund your Operator with, the more you can accept delegations. The owner (you) must have at least a 5% stake in the Operator.

Step 6: Check your Operator status

All the checkmarks in the Operator status section on your Operator page should now be green, and you’re ready to join Sponsorships!

Step 7: Join sponsorships

In the Hub, go to Network -> Sponsorships and find a Sponsorship you want your Operator to start working on. Click the "Join as Operator" button and select your stake. Note there is a minimum stake of 5000 DATA tokens for each Sponsorship that you join. Joining Sponsorships locks your tokens for a period of time, defined in the Sponsorship contract.

Important

Do NOT create or sponsor Sponsorships. If you do tokens will be irreversibly sent to that Sponsorship contract. There is no undo for this.

Important

There's a known connectivity issue using Brave browser. Your node connectivity status may report incorrectly on the Streamr Hub.

Running a node fleet

Running a fleet of nodes is recommended as it will reduce your risk of slashing. Node private keys can be shared among all your nodes so there is no need to create a unique node address key pair for each node, i.e. You only need to add one node address for N nodes if you wish.

A typical node fleet may have 2 - 10 nodes and use a node Redundancy Factor of 2 - 3, for example.

Checkout the Testnet FAQ for more commentary on running multiple nodes.

Testnet node config

Below is the template you can use to override and replace the contents of your config file with. You can copy this snippet or download the JSON file.

{
    "client": {
        "auth": {
            "privateKey": "NODE_PRIVATE_KEY"
        }
    },
    "plugins": {
        "operator": {
            "operatorContractAddress": "OPERATOR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS"
        }
    }
}

The Mumbai test environment

The Mumbai Hub is the place to test out your Operator before creating it on Polygon with real tokens.

You'll need Mumbai MATIC - widely available with public faucets and you'll need TEST tokens (the Mumbai network's worthless DATA tokens) - There is a TEST token faucet on the Streamr Discord.

Mumbai node config

Below is the template you can use to override and replace the contents of your config file with. You can copy this snippet or download the JSON file.

Important

This is the Mumbai configuration. If you want to participate in the incentivized testnets, use the testnet configuration.

{
    "client": {
        "metrics": false,
        "auth": {
            "privateKey": "NODE_PRIVATE_KEY"
        },
        "network": {
            "controlLayer": {
                "entryPoints": [
                    {
                        "id": "e1",
                        "websocket": {
                            "host": "entrypoint-1.streamr.network",
                            "port": 40401,
                            "tls": true
                        }
                    },
                    {
                        "id": "e2",
                        "websocket": {
                            "host": "entrypoint-2.streamr.network",
                            "port": 40401,
                            "tls": true
                        }
                    }
                ]
            }
        },
        "contracts": {
            "streamRegistryChainAddress": "0x4F0779292bd0aB33B9EBC1DBE8e0868f3940E3F2",
            "streamStorageRegistryChainAddress": "0xA5a2298c9b48C08DaBF5D76727620d898FD2BEc1",
            "storageNodeRegistryChainAddress": "0xE6D449A7Ef200C0e50418c56F84079B9fe625199",
            "mainChainRPCs": {
                "name": "mumbai",
                "chainId": 80001,
                "rpcs": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://rpc-mumbai.maticvigil.com"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "streamRegistryChainRPCs": {
                "name": "mumbai",
                "chainId": 80001,
                "rpcs": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://rpc-mumbai.maticvigil.com"
                    }
                ]
            },
            "theGraphUrl": "https://api.thegraph.com/subgraphs/name/samt1803/network-subgraphs"
        }
    },
    "plugins": {
        "operator": {
            "operatorContractAddress": "YOUR_OPERATOR_CONTRACT_ADDRESS"
        }
    }
}

Troubleshooting

Failed to publish to stream... Cause: You don't have permission to publish to this stream...

This happens if you have not added your node address to your Operator. Please complete this step and restart your node.

Also make sure to check the Streamr node troubleshooting section.

Safety

Please be aware of some important safety tips during the testnets:

Important

Your tokens are at risk by participating in these testnets - the risks are real.

Consider starting small with your stake amount during the testnets and use common sense to never stake more than you can afford to lose. A professional audit of the incentive layer has been completed by Cyfrin, but nothing can be guaranteed of course.
If you want to stake on a sponsorship, DO NOT click on the "Sponsor". That's for funding the sponsorship, not staking! Instead, go to the sponsorship you want to stake on and click "Join as an operator” and enter the amount.
There may be an increase in activity by scammers during the testnets. A common approach is to pretend to offer help or tech support in direct messages (something we never do). Report any account that is asking you to sign transactions or asking for any sort of credentials such as your private key. These accounts are trying to steal your tokens. It’s advised you disable DMs on Discord. More tips can be found in #server-safety-guide.

How to become an Operator

Testnet schedule​

Migrating from Brubeck​

Migrating from Mumbai​

Operator setup instructions​

Step 1: Deploy your Operator Contract​

Step 2: Run a Streamr node​

Step 3: Pair your node with your Operator contract​

Step 4: Fund your nodes​

Step 5: Fund your Operator​

Step 6: Check your Operator status​

Step 7: Join sponsorships​

Running a node fleet​

Testnet node config​

The Mumbai test environment​

Mumbai node config​

Troubleshooting​

Safety​

Testnet schedule

Migrating from Brubeck

Migrating from Mumbai

Operator setup instructions

Step 1: Deploy your Operator Contract

Step 2: Run a Streamr node

Step 3: Pair your node with your Operator contract

Step 4: Fund your nodes

Step 5: Fund your Operator

Step 6: Check your Operator status

Step 7: Join sponsorships

Running a node fleet

Testnet node config

The Mumbai test environment

Mumbai node config

Troubleshooting

Safety