How to stake ETH and host a RocketPool node with Allnodes

Overview

Allnodes is a web hosting service that provides nodes for various blockchain networks.

It was founded in 2018 by a team of blockchain enthusiasts who were frustrated by the lack of affordable and reliable hosting services for blockchain nodes.

They saw an opportunity to create a service that would make it easy and affordable for anyone to host a node, regardless of their technical expertise.

Since then, it has become a leading provider of hosting services for blockchain nodes and currently offers the ability to deploy and manage nodes for more than 30 different blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana and Polkadot with a growing user base that spans the globe.

A node's primary job is to confirm the legality of each subsequent batch of network transactions, known as blocks.

Why would you use Allnodes?

Allnodes makes it easy and attractive for anyone who wants to host a node.

Ease of deploying blockchain nodes

Allnodes is designed to be easy to use, even for users who have no technical expertise. The platform provides a simple, user-friendly interface that makes it easy to deploy and manage nodes without the hardware infrastructure.

Host nodes on various blockchains on Allnodes

You can setup nodes in minutes and earn attractive rewards directly to your wallet when you host on Allnodes.

Affordability of node services

Allnodes offers some of the most affordable hosting services for blockchain nodes on the market. Prices start at just US$5 per month, making it accessible to anyone who wants to host a node.

Pricing for Allnodes

Allnodes has two levels of pricing - Basic and Advanced, which vary by the uptime SLA, setup fees, billing plan and support.

With their Advanced plan, you are billed hourly up to a maximum of 672 hours per month, even if your node is online for more than 672 hours in a calendar month. If you're on Basic, you agree to prepay annually or monthly with a one-time setup fee.

Stability and security

The more important conversation to have is about the reliability of their services and whether they can be trusted to secure your funds.

Allnodes is a semi-custodial service as they hold the validator keys (not the withdrawal keys) to your nodes – although most staking services do so as well.

They claim to have 99.9% uptime guarantee, hosted on VPS of reliable hosting providers like Linode and DigitalOcean. They also implemented a number of measures to ensure that nodes are secure such as regular security audits, 24/7 monitoring, and DDoS protection.

Scaling and monitoring

Allnodes is designed to be scalable, which means that users can easily add or remove nodes as needed. They also provide a range of tools for managing nodes, including the ability to start, stop, and restart nodes.

Users can also monitor their nodes in real-time, and receive alerts if any issues are detected.

How to stake on RocketPool with Allnodes

In this guide, we'll show you how to stake on Allnodes as a Rocket Pool validator, which requires just 8 ETH + RPL tokens to get started. The same process can be replicated if you want to stake 32 ETH as a solo operator.

Pre-requisites for staking RocketPool with Allnodes

8 ETH + ~100 RPL if you're staking with Allnodes as a Rocket Pool validator

The ETH that you stake can be held in Ledger, Trezor, MetaMask, Coinbase, Trust, or any other wallet that supports WalletConnect.

Step 1: Sign up for Allnodes

The first step is to sign up for an account with Allnodes - you can use your email address, generate a seed, or use your hardware wallets to connect.

Step 2: Find the host button to start hosting a node

Step 3: Select Rocket Pool on the Masternodes & Validator Nodes page

You want to select Rocket Pool – note the 8 ETH and RPL requirement and ensure that you have these in your wallet.

Step 4: Select Host a Minipool

Step 5: Choose your minipool type

Rocket Pool's Atlas upgrade now allows stakers to stake as little as 8 ETH to host a Rocket Pool node.

You can also select the 16 ETH option to stake as a 16 ETH minipool.

Step 6: Follow the on-screen instructions to host a new minipool

For example, you need to connect your wallet, register for a new wallet address, approve your RPL tokens for staking, and more.

Step 7: Choose a hosting plan for your Minipool

Select whether you want to be on the Basic or Advanced plan with Allnodes. Remember, the Advanced plan has a more reliable uptime, has no setup fees, has priority support and billed monthly.

Click Host a Minipool and download your Validator private key, which lets you move your minipool away from Allnodes should you decide to migrate away from the platform in the future.

Step 8: Confirm the slashing warning

Note that if you do decide to migrate or host another session with the same validator key, you might get slashed and lose ETH! Should you decide to do so, you must disable your minipool on Allnodes first

Step 9: Deposit your ETH

Once you've deposited, you will see a minipool queue where your ETH gets added in line, then a scrubbing period will start. You will need to request Rocket Pool to assign the other part of the deposit to form a validator to you.

Step 10: Wait patiently for activation

After requesting for the remaining ETH, your deposit will be processed to form an Ethereum validator node. Once done, you can sit back and collect rewards.

Note that the entire process may be quite expensive, depending on the price of Ethereum and the prevailing gas costs. The most expensive part of the process is registering a minipool, which is expected to cost ~0.18 ETH.

That's it! You're done with hosting a Rocket Pool minipool on Allnodes!