With KYVE ever-evolving to take on new data sets, our Development Team is constantly looking into new ways to enhance the KYVE consensus and protocol validator experience to ensure a secure, efficient, and healthy network.
Along this journey, we have brought forward essential validator tools for our network, such as KYSOR and Supervysor; as well as provided resources around installing Cosmos’ Cosmovisor and a Docker Image for fast native node creation.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at each of these tools, shedding light on their impact on KYVE’s network, as well as some positive results and feedback from our community.
Implementing Cosmos SDK’s Cosmovisor:
Shortly after the launch of KYVE’s Layer 1 Cosmos SDK-based blockchain, our Development Team provided resources aroundCosmovisor, an existing validator tool for Cosmos SDK application binaries. By recommending its use, consensus validators are able to efficiently manage binary upgrades, enabling seamless transitions to newer versions and avoiding unnecessary slashes.
Cosmosvisor is also helpful for protocol validators. In order to have a reliable data source for checking the validity of uploaded data in KYVE pools, protocol validators should run a native node on the chain in question. Cosmovisor is a great implementation to keep that native node up to date and not cause any issues in providing data.
KYSOR: Automated Protocol Validator Updates
Slightly mirroring Cosmovisor on the consensus layer, we created our own custom version for the protocol layer validators dubbedKYSOR, which is currently used by the majority of KYVE protocol validators.
The challenge that KYSOR tackles stems from KYVE’s protocol structure, which includes separate runtimes for distinct data types. While this design choice has brought about significant advantages for our decentralized data validation and archival process, it has occasionally led to difficulties, such as slashing for not updating their binaries promptly.
KYSOR’s core objective is to eliminate these hurdles by automating the node update process. Moreover, with KYVE’s implementation of inter-pool security, KYSOR introduces a unified approach to running protocol validators across different pools. It automates the installation of protocol binaries for every pool, thereby preventing potential slashing due to outdated software.
Supervysor: Enhancing Resource Efficiency and Data Management
As mentioned previously, when participating as a KYVE protocol validator, it’s important to have a node operating on the original chain. This node serves as the validator’s primary source of accurate data, cross-referencing uploaded information to prevent unnecessary slashing. For instance, in the case of KYVE’s Osmosis data pool, validators require a node within the Osmosis chain.
However, the Osmosis node syncs faster from Genesis than KYVE due to the fact that KYVE has its decentralized archiving and validation process, leading to an excess of stored data within the node. This surplus data not only strains resources but also incurs additional costs.
Naturally, KYVE is committed to avoiding undue financial burdens and inefficiencies in data management within its network. To address this challenge and mitigate the associated storage and management costs, KYVE’s Development Team has recently introducedSupervysor.
Supervysor acts as a process manager, effectively facilitating the node syncing process by closely monitoring the status of the KYVE data pool. By tracking the block height of the data pool and pruning already validated blocks accordingly, as well as stopping the node from syncing too far ahead, Supervysor ensures that the node stays in sync with the data pool’s progress. This aligns the node’s pace with that of the data pool and its validators and helps avoid any extra storage costs.
Launch A Native Node With Just One CommandOn top of Supervysor, the KYVE Development Team wanted to take it a step further in easing the overall protocol onboarding process. Now, for those wanting to join a data pool but not already running a node on the targeted native chain, they can use ourDocker Imageto launch a node in minutes with just one command!
At the moment, you can do so for the Osmosis chain and Archway chain. More chains will be added according to the next data pools launching on KYVE’s mainnet.
More Initiatives On The Horizon
These are just a few of the many initiatives our team is working on in order to enhance the overall user experience on KYVE. We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our dedicated community in bringing KYVE to its full potential for all.
Want to join KYVE in making trustless data a public good?Start running your own protocol validator today!
Start running your own protocol validator today
About KYVE
KYVE, the Web3 data lake solution, is a protocol that enables data providers to standardize, validate, and permanently store blockchain data streams. By leveraging permanent data storage solutions like Arweave, KYVE’s Cosmos SDK chain creates permanent backups and ensures the scalability, immutability, and availability of these resources over time.
KYVE is backed by blockchains and foundations such as Arweave, Ava Labs, Solana Foundation, Interchain, Moonbeam, TheGraph Edge, Parity Foundation, Celo/Composable Finance, Zilliqa, Octopus, Mina Foundation, Aurora, and NEAR Foundation.
Join KYVE’s community:Twitter|Discord|Telegram
Written by Margaux Stancil, Head of Marketing at KYVE.