Validator Overview

Validators are the backbone of Mersennet. They run full nodes, participate in consensus, produce blocks, and earn block rewards in proportion to their stake. This guide explains what validators do, how the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus works, and what you need to become one.

What Validators Do

Validators perform three critical functions:

1. Block Production — Validators take turns proposing new blocks containing transactions, order submissions, and state updates. The proposer is selected via a round-robin algorithm weighted by stake.

2. Consensus Participation — All validators participate in the BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus process. They vote on proposed blocks (prevote and precommit phases) to achieve finality. A block is finalized when more than 2/3 of total stake has voted for it.

3. Network Security — By staking PRIM tokens, validators have economic skin in the game. Malicious or negligent behavior is penalized through slashing, which protects the network from attacks and downtime.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS)

Mersennet uses Delegated Proof-of-Stake with the following characteristics:

Aspect	Description
Proposer Selection	Round-robin with priority-based weighting. Validators with higher stake are selected more frequently to propose blocks.
Voting Power	Proportional to staked PRIM. One validator with 2M PRIM has twice the voting power of a validator with 1M PRIM.
Finality Threshold	>2/3 of total stake must precommit for a block to be finalized.
Block Time	~1 second per block.

Token holders can delegate their PRIM to validators, increasing the validator's stake and voting power. Delegators share in the validator's rewards (minus any commission the validator charges).

Block Production

Each block is produced by a single proposer—the validator selected for that height. The proposer:

1. Collects transactions from the mempool
2. Executes EVM transactions and PrimeOrders operations
3. Applies state transitions
4. Broadcasts the proposed block to other validators

Other validators then vote on the block. Once 2/3+ stake has precommitted, the block is finalized and irreversible. There are no chain reorganizations for finalized blocks.

Earning Rewards

Validators earn block rewards in PRIM, distributed proportionally to stake:

validator_reward = (block_reward × validator_stake) / total_stake

• Initial reward: 10 PRIM per block
• Halving: Every 35,000,000 blocks (~2.22 years), the reward halves
• Distribution: Rewards are credited directly to validator addresses—no claiming required

The more stake you have (your own + delegations), the larger your share of each block's reward.

Slashing Risks

Validators can lose stake through slashing for consensus violations:

Offense	Penalty	Consequence
Double-signing	5% of stake (base)	Tombstoned — permanently banned from the validator set
Downtime / Precommit timeout	1% of stake (base)	Jailed — temporarily excluded; can unjail after period

Penalties escalate with repeated offenses (up to 10% max). Double-signing is the most severe: a tombstoned validator cannot rejoin the network.

caution

Never run the same validator key on multiple nodes. Double-signing occurs when two nodes with the same key sign different blocks at the same height—this will get you tombstoned.

Requirements Overview

Before running a validator, ensure you meet:

Category	Requirement
Hardware	4 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM, 100 GB SSD, 100 Mbps network
Software	Rust 1.75+ (for building from source)
Stake	Minimum stake to register (governance may set higher minimums)
Operational	24/7 uptime, monitoring, key management, backup procedures

See Run a Validator Node for the complete setup guide.