Configuring the Node
In the settings tab, you can configure your workspace.
To become a validator, the only setting you need is the mnemonic key inserted in the KEY MANAGEMENT section. To insert the mnemonic key into your node, start by pressing the Insert mnemonic button.
You will be prompted with the following dialog where you can directly insert your mnemonic or generate it:
To generate a mnemonic, press the GENERATE button. A new dialog will pop up, showing you the mnemonic.
Copy the mnemonic and save it somewhere safe. Once closing this dialog, your clipboard will be erased. This is intentionally made so that you save your mnemonic somewhere else.
Note- You can also use the same menomic you used for participating in the Testnets.
Important: make sure to save your mnemonic key!
**** If you lose the key, you will not be able to decrypt your biometric data anymore and will lose your ability to become a validator forever in the blockchain.
Once you have saved your mnemonic somewhere safe, you can proceed to insert it by pressing the insert button:
Once mnemonic is inserted in the workspace, it cannot be modified. If you want to change it, you must remove the workspace and reconfigure it from scratch.
Inserting the menomic will be sufficient to complete this step. However, there are some optional settings that you can configure:
You can additionally add a name to your node that will be publicly shared with the blockchain.
If you have a public URL associated with your machine, you can use that by setting the Public URL field.
When you connect to your node through the QR code described later, you are actually accessing it through a tunnel which allows your phone to properly establish a connection with your node through the networks. There are two types of tunnels available in the Humanode app:
- ngrok: a tunnel provider available at https://ngrok.com/. This type of tunnel requires additional configuration listed below
- Humanode WebSocket Tunnel: a tunnel provider built by the humanode team. This type of tunnel does not require any additional configuration
ngrok is a free service that allows us to create a tunnel between your node and your mobile phone that you will use when scanning a QR code.
You need to create an ngrok account at ngrok.com and insert your authorization key to allow the Desktop App to create ngrok tunnels for you.
There is a chance that ngrok will "just work" without the key - but if it doesn't, you will have to create an account and provide your authorization key.
To insert an ngrok auth key, press Insert Authorization Key. That will open a modal window with an input field.
Press Insert to save this key. The state of the section will not be changed since we can't detect whether the key was inserted. However, rest assured that the key is there.
If you want to start ngrok from your terminal, put a tick in Manually start ngrok.
The updates section stands for checking the available peer updates. Most likely, if you just downloaded the app, you have the latest version, but in the future, make sure you regularly check for updates.
This section contains destructive actions and has to be used carefully.
