Registration of a deterministic masternode is a process of adding a masternode to the Deterministic Masternode List - a list which after activating the Spork 15 parameter will start to be used by the network to accomplish the functionalities related to masternodes. The registration process involves sending a special transaction (ProRegTx) in which all the necessary information is provided.
The scope covered in this document applies only to what directly relates to the DMT functionalities, and it focuses on the migration from nondeterministic to deterministic (DIP3) masternodes. To get familiar with a broader context in this matter, read the following document: Dash 0.13 Upgrade Procedure, which I highly recommend.
It's worth noting here, that this process can be performed completely independently of DMT (using the Dash Core wallet), however, the inclusion of this function in DMT is aimed at the maximum facilitation of this process.
-
After starting the Run Dash Masternode Tool application, click the add a new one link (if your configuration is empty):
or select Add New Masternode Entry... under the MN actions button (if there are any masternodes already in the configuration):
-
Fill in the following fields on the Add new masternode form:
- Name: The description under which the masternode will appear in your configuration. It can be any name, but you can also leave the default name generated by the application.
- IP and port: The IP address and tcp port number that your dash daemon is running on. As for the port number, for masternodes running on mainnet, it should be 9999.
- Collateral address (see the note below): The Dash address at which your collateral transaction "resides".
- path (see the note below): The BIP32 path in your hardware wallet under which the collateral address is located.
- Collateral TX hash and index (see the note below): Hash the collateral transaction you are dedicating for this masternode. Preparing a collateral transaction is described here.
Leave all other fields blank.
Note: instead of manually entering the Collateral address, path, Collateral TX hash, and index fields, you can use ask DMT for help by clicking the Locate collateral button. After doing that, the application will scan the contents of your hardware wallet and display all transactions that can act as collaterals, which are those worth 1000 Dash. Please take into consideration that if there are many transactions in your wallet, the scanning may take quite a long time.
After scanning, you will be asked to select the collateral transaction you want to assign to the masternode, if there is more than one:
-
After filling in the data, press the Apply changes button.
- Select the masternode from the list in the main DMT window.
- Click the Register Masternode... menu item under the MN actions button.
- Fill in the required data:
- Payout addres (1): The default value is the address associated with the collateral transaction, but you can enter any valid Dash address here. Thanks to this, you get the option of separating the payout address from the collateral address, by placing them in different wallets or wallet accounts.
- Operator reward (2): Here you have the possibility of splitting the masternode rewards between owner and operator. To use this feature, uncheck the checkbox and specify what percentage of the reward will go to a Dash address of the masternode operator (which can be specified at a later stage).
- Operator private key (3): What information you enter here depends on whether you are the operator of your masternode yourself or you have outsourced it to some third party:
- If you are the operator, leave the proposed value unchanged.
- If you employ an external masternode operator that accepts operator private keys of his clients (mn owners), do not change the generated value, just pass it to the operator, since it is required to properly configure a masternode.
- If you employ an external masternode operator who provided you with the operator's public key, then click the use pubkey link and enter that key into the field on the right.
- Click the Continue button at the bottom right of the wizard.
There are three methods of masternode registration using DMT:
- Automatic method using "public" RPC nodes: choose this method if you don't have, or you cannot easily run Dash Core (for example, you don't have disk space for blockchain data) or you feel uncomfortable using a terminal-type user interface. This is the simplest method, so it's deditacted especially for people with less technical experience.
- Automatic method using your own RPC node: choose this method if you have your own Dash Core synchronized with the network and the RPC interface and indexing enabled.
- Manual method using own your Dash node: choose this method if you have your own Dash Core synchronized with the network but without the RPC interface or indexing enabled.
The advantage of this method is its simplicity but the disadvantage is the need to send the owner private key to the remote RPC node. This key is necessary to sign the payload data being part of the ProRegTx transaction, which is created on the remote node (details). If this raises your concerns (e.g. you do not trust the RPC node operator), choose another method.
Note 1. The RPC nodes preconfigured in DMT (alice, suzy) are maintained by the author of the DMT application (that is by me). For my part, I can ensure that no sensitive information (such as private keys) is logged anywhere. All parameters are passed to the Dash daemon, and after signing the transaction they are purged.
Note 2. What would happen if the operator key fell into the wrong hands? Taking into possession of this key does not allow the theft of the collateral (which is controlled by hardware wallet), but may have some financial aspect. Namely, it allows sending a ProUpRegTx transaction, which allows to change the payout address. In an extreme case, you may lose your masternode reward, one or a few, depending on when you would notice the change. Protection against this is quite simple - it is enough to monitor changes of the masternode payout address and owner key using data available on the Dash network. This feature is implemented in DMT under the Refresh status button. If there is a change in relation to the data stored in the configuration, a warning will be displayed. If something like this happens, you must immediately generate a new ProRegTx transaction with a new set of keys.
Select the Remote Dash RPC Node (automatic method) option, then click Continue.
At this step, the wizard executes two operations on the remote Dash node (register_prepare and register_submit), between which you will be asked to sign a special message with the hardware wallet controlling the masternode collateral. The resulting signature is supposed to prove that you really have the collateral private key under your control and that you're not trying to hijack someone else's collateral transaction.
If the operation completes without an error, the wizard will automatically go to the summary page.
The summary page will show all relevant values (e.g. private keys) used during the process. Most of them will be copied to the masternode configuration in DMT, nevertheless it's worth saving them in a separate file.
Note the message at the bottom regarding masternodeblsprivkey - we will need this information at the next step.
Click Close.
This method works identically to the previous one, but utilizes your own RPC node to interact with the Dash network. Its advantage is that the owner private key (which needs to be sent to the node) is under your control all the time. The disadvantage of this method is that you need to prepare your own Dash full node with RPC interface and address indexing enabled.
Follow the steps described here: Connection to a local node
Remember to configure the connection between DMT and your RPC node in the application network configuration window and disable all other connections.
Note, that the RPC node has nothing to do with your masternode. This may be your local Dash Core instance, and actually it's the most convenient way under this scenario.
When you send a ProRegTx transaction you need to pay a transaction fee, just like for a "normal" transaction. The amount required for this operation is very small (about 0.000005), but still non-zero, therefore your node must have these funds under its control. I suggest that you prepare ten times the minimum amount (0.00005), which you should send to any address of your node's wallet.
Follow the steps from scenario Automatic method using "public" RPC nodes
The advantage of this method is that no private keys go outside your computer and that to perform the steps it's enough to have access to a Dash Core wallet, not necessarily with the RPC interface and indexing enabled. The disadvantage is the need to manually execute some commands from the Dash Core debug console, which may not be very comfortable for some people.
See: Prepare funds to cover transaction fees
Assuming that within the Start the Masternode registration wizard and fill in the initial data section you started the wizard and after filling in the data you went to the next step, choose the option Your own Dash-Qt wallet (manual method) and click the Continue button.
This is the address where you have prepared funds to cover the transaction fees as described in the previous steps.
The text contains the protx register_submit command with all the
necessary parameters.
Hint: you can use the Copy button on the right.
Paste the command into the and edit box at the bottom of Debug console then press Enter.
Select and copy the output text, including braces but nothing more.
Hint: you can use the Paste button on the right.
Confirm the operation on your hardware wallet.
The text contains the protx register_submit command with all the
necessary parameters.
Hint: you can use the Copy button on the right.
This string will from now on identify your deterministic masternode.
Press the Continue button.
Follow the step: Step 1.3. Summary and final actions
The approach here depends on the type of operator handling your masternode, that is, if your operator is an external entity that has provided you with an operator key that is a public key, then you skip this section because it is up to the operator to perform the operations described here.
If your operator is an external entity that expects you to give it an operator key of type private key, then you just give it to them and skip the rest.
The following actions only apply if you yourself are the operator of your masternode.
In the Summary and final actions step, DMT presented you with a configuration string containing the operator key to be placed in your masternode's dash node configuration, which is of the form: masternodeblsprivkey=OPERATOR_PRIVATE_KEY.
If you have this string copied, you will use it in the next step. If you don't have it, go to the masternode details in the main DMT window, click the button with an eye icon to the right of the Ooperator private key field (1), then when the previously hidden key content becomes visible, copy it to the clipboard (2). It will be used in the next step.
- Log in with an SSH session to your VPS running your masternode daemon.
- Open the Dash daemon configuration file with your preferred text editor:
nano ~/.dashcore/dash.conf - Add the required configuration line to the file (you can append it to the end):
replacing OPERATOR_PRIVATE_KEY with the operator's private key obtained in the previous step.
masternodeblsprivkey=OPERATOR_PRIVATE_KEY - Save your changes (Ctrl+O, ENTER) and exit the editor (Ctrl+X).
A restart of the Dash daemon is required for the changes to take effect.
- With your SSH session execute the following command:
~/.dashcore/dash-cli stop - Wait until the
pidof dashdcommand returns nothing. - Start the Dash daemon again:
~/.dashcore/dashd
To check the status of a masternode from the point of view of its daemon, run the command: ~/.dashcore/dash-cli masternode status.
Yes, you can do it as many times as you like, but keep in mind the following:
- you have to wait until the previous ProRegTx is confirmed, otherwise you will get a protx-dup error
- every time you sent a new ProRegTx, you must use new owner, operator and voting keys, otherwise you will get a bad-protx-dup-key error
Yes, you can do it. You can either do this from within Dash Core or use a graphical interface available in Dash Masternode Tool, which simplifies the process. In DMT, it is available under the Update Payout Address context menu item associated with the MN actions button in the main window.
If for some reason your masternode does not provide the required services, after a certain time it will get the PoSeBan status, which means that it will also stop receiving payouts and likely lose his place in the payment queue. After restoring the server/daemon for proper operation, it is necessary to send an information that the masternode is ready to provide services again. This is done using the ProUpServTx transaction.
To do this from DMT, run the menu item MN actions->Update Service (IP/port/operator payout address...) in the main application window. As a result a window like this will be shown:
In the case of this issue, click the Send update transaction button without changing any values.