Operator Guide

This guide contains the steps needed to set up and register your node for Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS.

Minimal system requirements

• 4 CPU

• 16GB Memory

• 50GB SSD

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

• Docker v24 and above

• EigenLayer CLI

Supported token strategy

Sonieum Fast Finality Layer supports the following staking strategies.

Quorum ID	strategies	Min Stake
0	Native ETH All ETH LSTs	0
1	ASTAR	0

Operator setup

Key generation and wallet funding

1. Follow EigenLayer guide and Install EigenLayer CLI

2. Generate ECDSA and BLS keypair using the following command

eigenlayer operator keys create --key-type ecdsa [keyname]
eigenlayer operator keys create --key-type bls [keyname]

💡 Please ensure you backup your private keys to a safe location. By default, the encrypted keys will be stored in ~/.eigenlayer/operator_keys/

1. Fund at least 0.3 ETH to the ECDSA address generated. It will be required for node registration in the later steps.

2. Please submit the ECDSA address via Fast Finality Layer AVS interest form (if your address is not yet whitelisted) https://forms.gle/3A6xNWwRf9ip9CnN9.

Register on EigenLayer as an operator

💡 You may skip the following steps if you are already a registered operator on the EigenLayer mainnet.

1. Create the configuration files needed for operator registration using the following commands. Follow the step-by-step prompt. Once completed, operator.yaml and metadata.json will be created.

eigenlayer operator config create

1. Edit metadata.json and fill in your operator's details.

{
  "name": "Example Operator",
  "website": "<https://example.com/>",
  "description": "Example description",
  "logo": "<https://example.com/logo.png>",
  "twitter": "<https://twitter.com/example>"
}

1. Upload metadata.json to a public URL. Then update the operator.yaml file with the url (metadata_url). If you need hosting service to host the metadata, you can consider uploading the metadata gist and get the raw url.

2. If this is your first time registering this operator, run the following command to register and update your operator

   eigenlayer operator register operator.yaml
   

   Upon successful registration, you should see ✅ Operator is registered successfully to EigenLayer

   If you need to edit the metadata in the future, simply update metadata.json and run the following command

   eigenlayer operator update operator.yaml

3. After your operator has been registered, it will be reflected on the EigenLayer operator page.

You can also check the operator registration status using the following command.

eigenlayer operator status operator.yaml

Joining Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS

💡 Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS will launch in operator allowlist mode. Interested operators can register their interest with us using this form: https://forms.gle/LmPABTNQcwJhw4UB7

Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS Setup

Clone the Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS repository

Run the following command to clone the MACH AVS operator repository and change the directory to Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS mainnet config.

git clone https://github.com/alt-research/mach-avs-operator-setup.git
cd mach-avs-operator-setup/ethereum/mach-avs/soneium

Opt-in and out of Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS

For opt-in and out, copy the following env

cp .env.opt-example .env.opt

Update the TODO sections in the .env.opt

###############################################################################
####### TODO: Operators please update below values for your node ##############
###############################################################################
# TODO: Set the metadata url for operator
METADATA_URI=https://path/to/metadata.json

# TODO: Operators need to update this to their own paths
USER_HOME=${HOME}
EIGENLAYER_HOME=${USER_HOME}/.eigenlayer

# TODO: Operators need to update this to their own keys
NODE_ECDSA_KEY_FILE_HOST=${EIGENLAYER_HOME}/operator_keys/opr.ecdsa.key.json
NODE_BLS_KEY_FILE_HOST=${EIGENLAYER_HOME}/operator_keys/opr.bls.key.json

# TODO: Operators need to add password to decrypt the above keys
# If your password contain space, / or $, please use single quote to 
# encapsulate your password e.g 'mypassword /$'
OPERATOR_BLS_KEY_PASSWORD=
OPERATOR_ECDSA_KEY_PASSWORD=

To opt-in

💡 Before you opt-in to Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS, please ensure that

1. You have the right infrastructure (e.g., cloud hosting) to keep the operator up and running. Non-performing AVS operators may be subjected to ejection out of Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS.

2. You have already been whitelisted as an operator for Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS.

# All quorum
./run.sh opt-in 0,1

# ETH and LST only 
./run.sh opt-in 0

# ASTAR only
./run.sh opt-in 1

If you no longer want to run the AVS, you can opt out by running

# All quorum
./run.sh opt-out 0,1

# ETH and LST only 
./run.sh opt-out 0

# ASTAR only
./run.sh opt-out 1

💡 It may take a few minutes for the EigenLayer AVS and operator page to be updated. This is an automatic process.

Running Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS

Create the environment file

cp .env.example .env

Configuring Soneium Fast Finality Layer AVS operator

Update the TODO sections in the .env

💡 The default path where your generated keys are stored in ~/.eigenlayer/operator_keys/

###############################################################################
####### TODO: Operators please update below values for your node ##############
###############################################################################
# TODO: Operators need to update this to their own paths
USER_HOME=${HOME}
EIGENLAYER_HOME=${USER_HOME}/.eigenlayer

# TODO: Operators need to set it ecdsa address
# can got by `eigenlayer operator keys list`, the address is in `Key Type: ECDSA`
OPERATOR_ECDSA_ADDRESS=

# TODO: Operators need to update this to their own keys
NODE_BLS_KEY_FILE_HOST=${EIGENLAYER_HOME}/operator_keys/opr.bls.key.json

# TODO: Operators need to add password to decrypt the above keys
# If your password contain space, / or $, please use single quote to 
# encapsulate your password e.g 'mypassword /$'
OPERATOR_BLS_KEY_PASSWORD=

Configuring rollup endpoint

We have pre-configured ethereum/mach-avs/soneium/configs/chain/soneium/mach-config.tomlwith RPC hosted by AltLayer.

Running MACH AVS

To run MACH AVS, you may launch it using docker-compose.

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d 

Facing issues?

Please feel free to reach out to us via the Slack working group.

Frequently ask questions

1. How do I know whether my operator is running?

First, check whether your operator docker container is running, by running docker compose ps.

docker compose ps    
NAME                         IMAGE                                          COMMAND                  SERVICE                  CREATED          STATUS          PORTS
mach-avs-operator-node       public.ecr.aws/altlayer/mach-operator:latest   "operator"               mach-operator-node       33 seconds ago   Up 32 seconds   0.0.0.0:9092->9092/tcp, :::9092->9092/tcp
mach-avs-operator-verifier   public.ecr.aws/altlayer/mach:latest            "/usr/local/bin/op-m…"   mach-operator-verifier   33 seconds ago   Up 32 seconds   0.0.0.0:9094->9094/tcp, :::9094->9094/tcp, 9715/tcp
mach-avs-reverse-proxy-1     nginx:latest                                   "/docker-entrypoint.…"   reverse-proxy            33 seconds ago   Up 32 seconds   80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:9091->9091/tcp, :::9091->9091/tcp

Next, you can check the logs to see whether the services has been started or not

2024-04-01T17:04:29.613Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:49        Start operator  {"address": "0xAD6B95793DD4D2b8e184FB4666D1cfb14871A035"}
2024-04-01T17:04:29.956Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:69        Starting operator.
2024-04-01T17:04:29.956Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:69        Starting node api server at address 0.0.0.0:9091
2024-04-01T17:04:29.956Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:69        Starting metrics server at port 0.0.0.0:9092
2024-04-01T17:04:29.956Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:49        start rpc server for got alert
2024-04-01T17:04:29.957Z        INFO    logging/zap_logger.go:49        node api server running {"addr": "0.0.0.0:9091"}

Finally, to determine whether your AVS is actively validating the target rollup, you can look for logs of the verifier container to see whether there is block validation activities

docker logs <name of container> 

[2024-04-01T17:06:28Z INFO  actor::scheduler] Validate block #166853(0x7ddde84c28da088639bb699a8982e206ca4aea4031fe37b2aa9c69fd23bac940) passed
[2024-04-01T17:06:32Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Finalized block #166666(0x747828ae5886e1c254462ab586a32ac2fd69f93c06af8b339819160997de3879)
[2024-04-01T17:06:32Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Latest block #166853(0x7ddde84c28da088639bb699a8982e206ca4aea4031fe37b2aa9c69fd23bac940)
[2024-04-01T17:06:36Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Finalized block #166666(0x747828ae5886e1c254462ab586a32ac2fd69f93c06af8b339819160997de3879)
[2024-04-01T17:06:37Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Latest block #166854(0x6f3029b754134107c4e341e1d37a4be99709b1781ba281a7d8483b5dc63b1dbb)
[2024-04-01T17:06:37Z INFO  actor::scheduler] Pre validate block #166854(0x6f3029b754134107c4e341e1d37a4be99709b1781ba281a7d8483b5dc63b1dbb) passed
[2024-04-01T17:06:37Z INFO  actor::scheduler] There are 1 block validation tasks waiting for result
[2024-04-01T17:06:37Z INFO  actor::scheduler] Validate block #166854(0x6f3029b754134107c4e341e1d37a4be99709b1781ba281a7d8483b5dc63b1dbb) passed
[2024-04-01T17:06:41Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Finalized block #166666(0x747828ae5886e1c254462ab586a32ac2fd69f93c06af8b339819160997de3879)
[2024-04-01T17:06:41Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Latest block #166854(0x6f3029b754134107c4e341e1d37a4be99709b1781ba281a7d8483b5dc63b1dbb)
[2024-04-01T17:06:46Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Finalized block #166666(0x747828ae5886e1c254462ab586a32ac2fd69f93c06af8b339819160997de3879)
[2024-04-01T17:06:46Z INFO  actor::block-fetcher] Latest block #166855(0x07fbc09cf59e93b965c471153d4fabbff38ed0f72a7a2da43a141861b500fea1)
[2024-04-01T17:06:46Z INFO  actor::scheduler] Pre validate block #166855(0x07fbc09cf59e93b965c471153d4fabbff38ed0f72a7a2da43a141861b500fea1) passed
[2024-04-01T17:06:46Z INFO  actor::scheduler] There are 1 block validation tasks waiting for result
[2024-04-01T17:06:46Z INFO  actor::scheduler] Validate block #166855(0x07fbc09cf59e93b965c471153d4fabbff38ed0f72a7a2da43a141861b500fea1) passed

1. Who is running the aggregator and doing the BLS signature aggregator?

AltLayer will provide an aggregator to which your MACH AVS can connect and submit the signatures for aggregation. The aggregator endpoint has been pre-configured in the configuration file.

1. I am unable to opt in and encounter Unable to register operator with avs registry coordinator

Please check that your ECDSA address is sufficiently funded. We recommend maintaining at least 0.3 ETH to ensure you have sufficient gas tokens for AVS registering, opt-in and de-registering operation.