Add Minipool
Once you have set up your Rocketpool node, you can proceed to add one or more minipools to the node. The steps to add your first minipool and to add your subsequent minipools are very similar. This tutorial will walk you through the process.
Quick Steps
If you have just created the node, the wizard will bring you to the Add Minipool page to add the first minipool. If you are adding a subsequent minipool, go to the Setup tab in the AVADO Rocketpool app.
Add Minipool:
Approve RPL (if not already done)
Stake RPL
Deposit ETH
Wait for 2 deposits (1 + 31 ETH) from Rocketpool to fund validator and for the Beacon Chain to recognize the deposits (1.5 to 2 days). Wait for the validator to clear the activation queue (a few minutes to several days). Monitor the progress on Rocketpool DApp, rocketscan.io, and beaconchain.io
Add the validator to the Consensus Client. Follow the prompts on AVADO Rocketpool DApp to do this.
Set the Fee Recipient Address of the validator to the Smoothing Pool Address.
The following guide provides more details on each step.
Before your proceed
Have you set up your Rocketpool node? Make sure you have followed through the steps in Setting up a Rocketpool Node. You should have initialized the Hot Wallet, registered the node, set the Withdrawal Address, and joined the Smoothing Pool.
Make sure you have sufficient funds in your wallet:
8 or 16 ETH for each minipool you plan to stake.
Some ETH for gas fees. Experience shows that 0.4 ETH is a good start.
A minimum of RPL tokens that is worth 2.4 ETH (for 8 ETH minipools) or 1.6 ETH (for 16 ETH pools). Since the price of RPL relative to ETH fluctuates, you will need to do some calculations. The AVADO Rocketpool UI will provide some hints. It is advisable to prepare a slightly larger amount of RPL tokens as a buffer.
Is your node fully synced? Ensure that your Execution and Consensus Clients are fully synced. You can check their sync status on the upper-right corner of the AVADO Rocketpool DApp.
Consider the Gas Fee
The upcoming steps are on-chain transactions. It is advisable to wait for a quiet period on the Ethereum network when gas fees are lower. This will significantly reduce the total gas cost associated with on-chain transactions during these steps.
To determine the current gas price, you can check the information provided in the top-right corner of the screen. Alternatively, you can visit websites like Ethereum Gas Tracker on etherscan.io which provide real-time updates on gas prices.
Step 1. Navigate to the Add Minipool Page
If you are adding your first minipool and you have followed through the steps in Setting up a Rocketpool Node, after the last step to Join Smoothing Pool, the wizard will automatically bring you to the Add Minipool page.
If you are adding your subsequent minipools, you can always navigate to the Add Minipool page via the Setup tab on the menu bar. Then you can choose to Stake more RPL, or Add another 8 ETH or 16 ETH minipool.
The Add Minipool page looks like the following. The following example assumes adding an 8 ETH minipool.
Step 2. Add Minipool
There are 3 steps to add the minipool.
Approve RPL
Click Approve to allow the staking contract to spend the RPL in your Hot Wallet, and confirm the action. Wait for the transaction to complete on-chain.
Once the approval is successful, you will see a green Approved check mark. Note that you only need to approve once. If you are adding a subsequent minipool, you can skip this step.
Stake RPL
Click Stake RPL and confirm the action to proceed. This will send all of the RPL in your Hot Wallet to the staking contract.
Wait for the transaction to finish. You can check the on-chain status by clicking Transaction details on Etherscan.
Deposit 8 ETH and create Minipool
Click Deposit 8 ETH and create minipool and confirm the action to make the deposit.
Wait for the transaction to finish. You can check the on-chain status by clicking Transaction details on Etherscan.
Step 3. Wait and Monitor
Once you have added the minipool, a series of actions will happen in the background. The following paragraphs describe the tools you can use to monitor the progress, and the status updates you shall expect to see.
Check your Node and Minipool Status on AVADO Rocketpool DApp
Navigate to the Status tab on the AVADO Rocketpool DApp. Here you can find some useful data and links.
The Node status section provides important information:
Hot Wallet Address: This is your Ethereum address for the Hot Wallet, also referred to as the Node Address or the Account Address. It serves as your identification as a Rocketpool node operator. All of your minipools will be associated with this node address. In our example, the node address starts with
0x8a20. Clicking on this address will redirect you to your node address on etherscan.io. Alternatively, click on the "rocket" icon to visit rocketscan.io (Rocketpool Explorer) for more details about your node.Withdrawal Address: This Ethereum address is where all your rewards, as well as your ETH and RPL stake during the final withdrawal, will be sent. In our example, the Withdrawal Address starts with
0xe4fa.
Additionally, the Node status section confirms your RPL Stake and indicates your status of joining the Smoothing Pool.
Scrolling further down, you will find information on your minipool(s). Here is an example of an 8 ETH minipool in the Prelaunch stage, pending activation.
The Minipool section provide important details:
Minipool address
This is the Ethereum address of the minipool. In the previous step to Add minipool, this account was created and was funded with your ETH stake (8 ETH in this example), and the matching stake from the staking pool (24 ETH in this example). Rocketpool then deposited the ETH's to the Beacon Chain on your behalf, creating a new validator.
The minipool address also serves as the Withdrawal Address for the validator. This means that all Consensus Layer rewards and the eventual withdrawal of the ETH stake will be sent to this minipool address initially, and distributed according to the Rocketpool protocol. This ensures that all Consensus Layer rewards are shared fairly between node operators and rETH stakers, taking into account the commission.
In our example, the minipool address starts with 0xAbc0. You can click on the address to view your minipool address on etherscan.io. Alternatively, click on the "rocket" icon to see your minipool on rocketscan.io for additional information.
Validator pubkey
This is the validator created by depositing the 32 ETH from the minipool to the Beacon Chain. You can click on this link to see the validator on beaconcha.in for additional information. In our example, the pubkey starts with 0xb953.
Once the deposit is recognized by the Beacon Chain, you can proceed to add the validator pubkey to your Consensus Client. The Rocketpool DApp will prompt you to do this.
See your Node and Minipool on rocketscan.io
You can access your Node and Minipool information on rocketscan.io, which is the Rocketpool Explorer. It provides comprehensive data about individual nodes, minipools, and other statistics within the Rocketpool ecosystem.
On the Status page of the AVADO Rocketpool DApp, click the "rocket" icon besides the Hot Wallet address to see your Node page on rocketscan.io:
In this example, at the top of the page it shows the Node Operator address 0x8A20 which corresponds to our Hot Wallet address or Node Address. The Node Operator panel also displays our Withdrawal Address 0xe4fA, and RPL Stake. These tally with the information in AVADO Rocketpool DApp.
At the bottom of the page, we can see that the node is currently associated with one minipool, and the minipool address is 0xAbc0, which we already know.
The Timeline panel presents a chronological sequence of event leading up to the current state. In this example, we registered our node, set the withdrawal address, joined the smoothing pool, staked RPL, deposited 8 ETH, and created the minipool.
You can click the minipool address, or alternatively click the "rocket" icon next to the minipool address on the Rocketpool DApp's Status page, to access the Minipool page on rocketscan.io:
Here the Timeline reveals additional information. After depositing 8 ETH to create the minipool, Rocketpool initially sent 1 ETH to the minipool and "prestaked" this it to the Beacon Chain. A validator was created with a pub key starting with 0xb953.
Then our validator was "enqueued" to wait for sufficient available ETH (in this case, an additional 24 ETH from the staking pool) to complete the funding process. In this example, we were "dequeued" immediately because the required ETH was readily available. However, in reality, there may be a delay at this stage if there is insufficient amount of ETH deposited by rETH stakers. You can monitor the Deposit Pool by selecting the corresponding menu item on the top of the rocketscan.io page.
In a separate operation, Rocketpool assigned and sent the remaining 31 ETH to our minipool, fully funding it. Consequently, the status changed from Prelaunch to Staking. We are now ready to proceed to the Beacon Chain to track the movement of the deposit.
These steps occur automatically in the background, and generally, you do not need to be concerned about them. However, comprehending the details of these steps will enhance your confidence in the progress, and enable you to identify any potential issues.
Remember to bookmark these pages for convenient access to your node and minipool information in the future.
Follow your Validator on beaconcha.in
From AVADO Rocketpool DApp's Status page, or from the Minipool page on rocketscan.io, click on the pub key link or the "beacon" icon next to it, to visit your Validator Page on beaconcha.in web site.
On the top of the page, you can find the unique Index of your validator and its pub key (A). The status line (B) initially displays a flashing green Deposited state, while the following sequence of events takes place:
Rocketpool pre-stakes 1 ETH to the Beacon Chain. You can view this under the Deposit tab in the Execution Layer panel (C). You will need to scroll to the right-hand side of the table to see the deposit amount.
It may take 12 to 24 hours for the deposit to be recognized by the Beacon Chain, as indicated in the text information (B).
In this example, the initial 1 ETH has been recognized by the Beacon Chain, as shown in the Consensus Layer panel (D).
Meanwhile, Rocketpool makes the remaining deposit of 31 ETH after a specific delay (approximately 12 hours after the initial 1 ETH deposit). This second deposit will also take 12 to 24 hours for the Beacon Chain to recognize.
Once the second deposit is recognized, the validator becomes fully funded and enters the queue for activation.
Overall, you should expect a waiting period of approximately 1.5 to 2 days for both deposits to be recognized by the Beacon Chain and for your validator to progress to the next stage.
Wait for your Validator to go Live
Once the entire 32 ETH deposit is recognized by the Beacon Chain, the Deposit state will turn solid green. Following that, it will transition to a flashing green Pending state while your validator waits in the activation queue.
The wait time in the queue can vary, ranging from a few minutes to several days, depending on the number of validators in the queue. You can check the length of the queue and estimated waiting times at https://www.validatorqueue.com/
During this stage, the text information will provide the expected time, and a countdown, for your validator to clear the activation queue.
Once your validator clears the activation queue, the Active status will turn solid green. At this point, your validator will be expected to fulfill its duties. Make sure your ETH clients are fully synced, and your validators loaded, before the activation queue countdown reaches zero.
The next section walks you through how to load the validators into your Consensus Client.
Step 4. Import your Validator to the Consensus Client
If you have created one or more minipools but have not yet imported the associated validators into your Consensus Client, you will see an error banner at the top of the Rocketpool wizard:
Click the Add validators to prysm button (or to teku as the case may be) to automatically add the validators to your Consensus Client.
Open your Consensus Client to see the validators added. While you are there, make sure MEV-Boost is enabled on the Settings page.
Step 5. Set Fee Recipient Address
Your minipool is configured to use the Smoothing Pool. Its Fee Recipient Address must be set to the Smoothing Pool address. This ensures that all Execution Layer Rewards, including tips and MEV-Boost rewards, are sent to the socialized pool for fair distribution between node operators and rETH stakers.
The Smoothing Pool address is 0xd4E96eF8eee8678dBFf4d535E033Ed1a4F7605b7
If you have followed Step 4 above to import your validators to the Consensus Client, this address will be automatically configured for you. However, if you have made changes to this address, an error banner will appear on top of the Rocketpool wizard:
Click the Correct the fee recipient address button to correct the Fee Recipient Address.
Alternatively, you can manually edit the Fee Recipient Address in the Consensus Client. If you are using a mix of solo staking validators and Rocketpool validators, you can set the Fee Recipient Address individually for each validator in the validator list.
Your minipool will be penalized by the Rocketpool protocol if you proposed a block with an incorrect Fee Recipient Address that is not the Smoothing Pool address.
Next Steps
Congratulations! You have now set up one or more minipools and configured their associated validators in your Consensus Client.
Once your validators are activated on the Beacon Chain, they shall start to perform their duties.
At this point, remember to make a backup of your Rocketpool node and validators for safe-keeping. This is crucial for confidently restoring your node and minipools in case this is needed. See next section for details.
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