Run a node

Every level of participation starts the same way: build the client and start it. There is nothing to buy.

The signature layer currently compiled into the core is a deliberate stub. Signatures are trivially forgeable. Do not put value on any Astrolune network yet.

Requirements

CPU: 4 cores — the hot path is C and single-thread latency matters more than core count
Memory: 8 GB, with block execution allocating from an arena reclaimed per block
Disk: NVMe SSD. The storage engine controls its own I/O and assumes low latency
Network: A stable connection with a static route. Uptime is the currency here
OS: Linux, macOS or Windows. MSVC is a supported toolchain, not an afterthought
Toolchain: CMake 3.25+, Ninja, a C23 compiler and a C++23 compiler for the tooling

Build it

Six configure presets ship with the tree. Layering is enforced as link edges, so a dependency violation is a link error rather than a review finding.

/ 01 clone

git clone https://github.com/astrolune/astrolune
cd astrolune

/ 02 configure

cmake --preset dev

/ 03 build

cmake --build --preset dev

/ 04 test

ctest --preset dev --output-on-failure

Testnet

Chain ID
RPC
WS

Mainnet

Chain ID
RPC
WS

From relay to validator

01 / 05

Start relaying

Run the client. You are a full node from the first block you validate, and your uptime clock starts on a protocol day derived from block height.

02 / 05

Earn TBS

Correctness over a trailing 30-day window, compounded with uptime. A single missed vote costs nothing while your miss rate stays within twice the network median.

03 / 05

Grow trust

Attestations arrive from other operators. Scattered arrival times read as organic; bunched ones are discounted. Once per epoch the protocol pairs you with a node you have no edge to.

04 / 05

Clear the floor

Past the minimum TBS you become a committee candidate and can be drawn by VRF at low weight.

05 / 05

Full validator

With TBS and TGW above their thresholds and no penalty in history, you carry full weight in the formula and vote in finalisation.

COMMITTEE

100

TBS

≥ 3

Committee candidate

TBS · Trust graph weight

≥ 4 · 0.3

Full validator

Current epoch

What a committee member earns

60%Split equally across the committee
25%Proportional to TBS / TGW weight
15%Proportional to the operational bond

Plus a ceiling: no member takes more than three times a newcomer's base share. The remainder of the flat bucket's integer division is burned — at most one base unit per member per block, identical on every node.

The operational bond

A node may stake funds as public evidence that its infrastructure spend is serious. The bond does not increase consensus weight — it affects only the 15% bucket. That is what keeps this from being Proof of Stake wearing a different name.

Penalties

Judged relative to network noise in the same period, so a general incident does not single out the innocent. Double-signing is the exception — it cannot happen by accident.

Offence	Penalty
A single missed vote	None, while within 2× the network median
Systematic misses above the median	−5% TBS per episode
Incorrect response, isolated	−10% TBS
Incorrect responses, systematic	−20% TBS
Double-signing	−90% TBS + 14-day committee ban
Repeat double-signing	Permanent ban of the identity