MasterNode.Space - Just 2$/m for masternode hosting!

Firo Masternodes
1

Hello Firo community,

I have built masternode.space, a hosting service for masternodes, and Firo is live on it. You keep the 1,000 FIRO and the wallet it sits in. We run the node at the address your registration names. No VPS to rent, no chain to sync, and no firod to keep alive through the Spark-heavy blocks.

Our whole flow is built around Firo’s own masternode setup guide. We take over the part of it that needs a server, and nothing else.

What it costs

  • $2 a month per masternode, quoted in FIRO at the rate when you order, for 1 to 24 months at a time.
  • Paid through Spark only. The memo that tells us which order a payment is for only exists in a private transaction, so a Spark payment is the only kind the site can read. Transparent payments are not just discouraged; the site cannot use them at all.
  • ChainLocks are honoured. A payment counts once its block is ChainLocked and a couple of blocks deep, usually a few minutes. The full 20 confirmations are only waited for while locks cannot be trusted (say, a spork has switched them off).
  • Bare-metal server only. No VPS overhead and virtualization’s additional points of failure.

Setting up a new masternode

  1. Add a masternode on the site and pay for the first month, either by a Spark transaction or straight from your FIRO balance on the site. Once the payment counts, the masternode gets its IPv4 address.
  2. Do the wallet side exactly as Firo’s guide describes: send yourself 1,000 FIRO as collateral, then register with protx register using the address we gave you. Skip everything in the guide about renting and configuring a VPS.
  3. Come back and paste two values: the operator BLS secret key and the ProRegTx hash. No ProTx hash to hand? Give the collateral transaction id and output index (as evoznode outputs prints them) and we find the registration on the network ourselves.
  4. Before accepting anything, we ask the Firo network about it. The registration has to exist, and your BLS secret has to be the operator key it was registered with. If a value is mistyped, you are told which one, instead of being left guessing.
  5. Within a minute or two your masternode is in our configuration and running.

There is a step-by-step Firo guide on the site: masternode.space/guide/firo

Moving masternodes you already run

This is the part most hosting leaves to you, and the part where nodes get banned: the registration still names the old server, and the network keeps checking it there.

We re-point the registration for you. When a masternode you add is registered at another address, we send the protx update_service ourselves. The transaction is signed with the operator key you have already given us, and the fee is paid from our wallet, not yours. You don’t open your wallet at all. A ProUpServTx keeps your place in the payment queue: no re-registration, no new collateral transaction, no waiting at the back of the line.

Bulk add, for whole fleets. If you run 10 or 50 masternodes, you don’t want to add them one by one:

  • Paste a list, one masternode per line: the operator BLS secret and the ProTx hash (or the collateral txid and index), separated by spaces. Up to 50 per list.
  • We look up every row on the network while a progress bar counts through them. A mistyped key is flagged under its own row, so you fix or drop that one and the other 49 still go through.
  • You see the exact price for the whole list, held for a minute while you decide, and it is paid from your FIRO balance in one go.
  • Each masternode gets its address the moment it is paid for, and the registrations are re-pointed automatically, as described above.

Bulk renew works the same way: extend all your masternodes, or only the ones running out soon, with one payment from your balance.

Monitoring: what the network says, not what we say

Every five minutes we read Firo’s deterministic masternode list and show you, for each of your masternodes:

  • its status as the network reports it (ENABLED, POSE_BANNED and so on), in the network’s own words;
  • when it was last paid, with a link to its payout address on Firo’s block explorer, so you can check our numbers yourself;
  • where it is registered, with a warning if the registration names an address other than ours.

There is a “Problems only” filter for anybody with a long list, because with 200 masternodes the only question is which ones are not ENABLED.

Notifications

By email, Telegram, or both. You choose, per kind of message:

  • Monitoring: status changes, a penalty that went up, a masternode that dropped off the list.
  • Rewards: a masternode was paid.
  • Billing: paid time running out, a renewal taken from your balance, a payment that ran into trouble.

When one check finds many changes, you get a single digest grouped by kind, worst first, instead of sixty separate mails. Nobody learns to filter us out and miss the one about the banned node.

Keeping it running

Keep a FIRO balance on your account and each masternode renews itself: three days before its paid time runs out, we take another month from the balance. It is on by default and it is one checkbox per masternode. If the balance cannot cover a renewal, you are told before anything stops.

What we hold, and what it cannot do

The only secret you give us is the operator BLS key. It signs for the masternode and for service updates such as the address change above. It cannot move your collateral, and it cannot change the owner, the voting key or the payout address. Those belong to the owner key, which never leaves your wallet.

You can read the operator key back from your dashboard at any time, so you are never locked in. To leave, point the registration somewhere else, or rotate the operator key with protx update_registrar. Your coins, your keys and your registration stay yours throughout.

Privacy

  • Payments in Spark only (see above).
  • An account needs an email address or a Telegram account, one or the other, and nothing else is asked for at any point.
  • The site is also reachable over Tor:
    http://mnspacego7c42lwhmnb64b6lbzvcaukmxp27vfu7rad3ttt6t77qqwid.onion

FAQ

Will moving here cost me my place in the payment queue?

No. Re-pointing is a protx update_service (ProUpServTx). It changes the address the network checks and nothing else; it is not a new registration. What does cost a queue position is a PoSe ban, which is exactly what leaving the old address in the registration leads to. That is why we send the update for you.

What if one of my masternodes does get PoSe-banned?

You hear about it from the monitoring as soon as its penalty starts climbing, not only once it is banned. Reviving a banned masternode is a protx update_service from your side. If you want us to look at what happened, ask in our Telegram.

Do I have to send the update_service myself if I prefer to?

No, but you can. If the registration already names our address when we check, nothing is sent from our side.

Which IP will my masternode get?

A dedicated IPv4 address on port 8168. Firo’s registration check wants a routable IPv4, so there is no IPv6 option for Firo.

Links

  • Site: masternode.space
  • Firo guide: masternode.space/guide/firo
  • Telegram group, for questions or anything else: @masternodespace
  • The site also runs as a Telegram Mini App: @masternodespace_bot. You can sign in with a one-time code from the bot instead of a password.

The interface is available in 13 languages.

Happy to answer anything here: how the setup works, what we store, how payments are matched, or how the re-pointing avoids sending twice. Criticism is welcome too. If something in the flow looks wrong to people who have run Firo masternodes far longer than I have, I would rather hear it.

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