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Start a collator node and add more collators

Learn how to get your chain's collators up and running.

Goal#

Learn how to select collators and set-up collator nodes when launching a parachain.

Use cases#

Launching a parachain.

Overview#

When selecting collators for a parachain, it is important to ensure that there exist some neutral collators to prevent censorship - but not necessarily a majority. It is also important to avoid having too many collators as they may slow down the network. This guide steps through the considerations to take into account when launching a collator node.

Steps#

1. Collator selection#

You are free to choose your method of collator selection. Common methods include stake voting or directly assigning collators via committee or other origins such as democracy. In both cases, create a pallet to implement the logic that best fits your needs.

Stake voting#

See the collator-selection pallet for a practical example on implementing stake voting to select collators.

Using on-chain governance#

Implement a special origin that allows members of that origin to become a collator. Use the democracy pallet to elect these members and define them in your pallet dedicated to handling collartor selection:

/// Configuration trait of this pallet.
#[pallet::config]
pub trait Config: frame_system::Config {
// --snip-- //
type MySpecialOrigin: EnsureOrigin<Self::Origin>;
}
// --snip-- //
#[pallet::call]
impl<T: Config> Pallet<T> {
/// Some set-collator dispatchable.
#[pallet::weight(some_weight)]
pub fn set_collator( origin: OriginFor<T>) -> DispatchResultWithPostInfo {
T::MySpecialOrigin::ensure_origin(origin)?;
// --snip-- //
}
note

There are also different ways to implement incentives for collators. Take a look at this example to explore how.

2. Starting a collator node#

Refer to this guide to start and set up a collator node.

3. Adding collators#

Refer to this instruction to add more collators.

Examples#

Resources#

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