REStake

REStake allows delegators to grant permission for a validator to compound their rewards, and provides a script validators can run to find their granted delegators and send the compounding transactions automatically.

REStake is also a convenient staking tool, allowing you to claim and compound your rewards individually or in bulk. This can save transaction fees and time, and many more features are planned.

Try it out at restake.app.

The REStake UI has it's own dedicated repository at eco-stake/restake-ui.

How it works / Authz

Authz is a new feature for Tendermint chains which lets you grant permission to another wallet to carry out certain transactions for you. These transactions are sent by the grantee on behalf of the granter, meaning the validator will send and pay for the TX, but actions will affect your wallet (such as claiming rewards).

REStake specifically lets you grant a validator permission to send Delegate transactions for their validator only. The validator cannot send any other transaction types, and has no other access to your wallet. You authorize this using Keplr as normal. REStake no longer requires a Withdraw permission to autostake.

A script is also provided which allows a validator to automatically search their delegators, check each for the required grants, and if applicable carry out the claim and delegate transactions on their behalf in a single transaction. This script should be run daily, and the time you will run it can be specified when you add your operator.

Limitations

• Authz is also not fully supported yet. Many chains are yet to update. The REStake UI will fall back to being a manual staking app with useful manual compounding features.
• Currently REStake needs the browser extension version of Keplr, but WalletConnect and Keplr iOS functionality will be added ASAP.
• REStake requires Nodejs version 18.x or later, it will not work with earlier versions.

Become an operator

Becoming an operator is pretty easy, the overall process is as follows:

1. Setup your bot wallet
2. Setup the autostaking script
3. Setup a cron or timer to run the script on a schedule
4. Submit your operator to Validator Registry

Setup a hot wallet

Generate a new hot wallet you will use to automatically carry out the staking transactions. The mnemonic will need to be provided to the script so use a dedicated wallet and only keep enough funds for transaction fees. The ONLY mnemonic required here is for the hot wallet, do not put your validator operator mnemonic anywhere.

You only need a single mnemonic for multiple Cosmos chains, and the script will check each network in the networks.json file for a matching bot address.

Derivation Paths (IMPORTANT)

Right now, the REStake autostaking script uses the standard 118 derivation path by default. Some networks prefer a different path and apps like Keplr will honour this. The address the autostake script uses might not match Keplr.

As there are existing operators using the 118 path, operators will need to opt in to the correct path when they want to upgrade. New operators should use the correct path before they get grants.

The correct path can be set in one of two ways using a config override file. "correctSlip44": true will use the slip44 defined in the Chain Registry. Alternatively set a specific path using "slip44": 69. You should use "correctSlip44": true if possible.

{
  "desmos": {
    "prettyName": "Desmos 852",
    "autostake": {
      "correctSlip44": true
    }
  }
}

In the future, correctSlip44 will become the default and you will need to set slip44 explicitly if you want to use the 118 path.

Setup the autostaking script

You can run the autostaking script using docker-compose or using npm directly. In both cases you will need to provide your mnemonic in a MNEMONIC environment variable.

Instructions for Docker Compose

Install Docker and Docker Compose

Best bet is to follow the Docker official guides. Install Docker first, then Docker Compose. In recent versions, Docker and Docker Compose may combined into a single installation.

Docker: docs.docker.com/get-docker

Docker Compose: docs.docker.com/compose/install

Clone the repository and setup .env

Clone the repository and copy the sample .env file ready for your mnemonic.

git clone https://github.com/eco-stake/restake
cd restake
cp .env.sample .env

Populate your new .env file with your mnemonic.

Instructions for NPM

Install nodejs@v18

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_18.x -o /tmp/nodesource_setup.sh
# read the script file and when you're sure it's safe run it
chmod +x /tmp/nodesource_setup.sh
/tmp/nodesource_setup.sh
apt install nodejs -y
node --version
> v18.15.0
npm --version
> 9.5.0

Clone the repository and build it

git clone https://github.com/eco-stake/restake
cd restake
npm install
cp .env.sample .env

Populate your new .env file with your mnemonic.

Updating your local version

REStake is MVP. Very MVP. Updates are happening all the time and there are bugs that still need fixing. Make sure you update often.

Update your local repository and pre-build your Docker containers with the following commands:

git pull
docker-compose run --rm app npm install
docker-compose build --no-cache

or with NPM:

git pull
npm install

Running the script

Running the autostake script manually is then simple.

If you use Docker then you should prefix the below commands with docker-compose run --rm app.

Note you might need sudo depending on your docker install, and some docker versions utilize docker compose instead of docker-compose. If you run into issues, try substituting docker compose.

docker-compose run --rm app npm run autostake

Alternatively if you use NPM you can ignore the docker-compose run --rm app prefix:

npm run autostake

Pass network names to restrict the script to certain networks.

npm run autostake osmosis akash regen

A Dry Run script is also included, which runs the normal autostake script but skips sending the final TXs, and skips any health check pings.

npm run dryrun osmosis

You should expect to see a warning that you are 'not an operator' until your REStake operator information is submitted in Submitting your operator

Customise REStake and use your own node

You will likely want to customise your networks config, e.g. to set your own node URLs to ensure your autocompounding script completes successfully.

Create a src/networks.local.json file and specify the networks you want to override. Alternatively, set the NETWORKS_OVERRIDE_PATH environment variable containing the filepath. The below is just an example, you should only override a config if you need to.

{
  "osmosis": {
    "prettyName": "Osmosis",
    "restUrl": [
      "https://rest.cosmos.directory/osmosis"
    ],
    "gasPrice": "0.0025uosmo",
    "autostake": {
      "retries": 3,
      "batchPageSize": 100,
      "batchQueries": 25,
      "batchTxs": 50,
      "delegationsTimeout": 20000,
      "queryTimeout": 5000,
      "queryThrottle": 100,
      "gasModifier": 1.1
    },
    "operator": {
      "address": "OVERRIDE_BOT_ADDRESS",
      "minimumReward": "OVERRIDE_BOT_MINIMUM_REWARD"
    },
    "healthCheck": {
      "uuid": "XXXXX-XXX-XXXX"
    }
  },
  "desmos": {
    "prettyName": "Desmos 118",
    "autostake": {
      "correctSlip44": true
    }
  },
  "cosmoshub": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

Any values you specify will override the networks.json file. These are examples, you can override as much or little as you need.

Arrays will be replaced and not merged. The file is .gitignore'd so it won't affect upstream updates.

Note that REStake requires a node with indexing enabled and minimum gas prices matching the networks.json gas price (or your local override).

Setting up cron/timers to run the script on a schedule

You should setup your script to run at the same time each day. 2 methods are described below; using crontab or using systemd-timer.

In both cases, ensure your system time is correct and you know what time the script will run in UTC, as that will be required later. Both examples below are for 21:00.

Don't forget to update often!

Using crontab

Note: A helpful calculator for determining your REStake timer for crontab can be found here: https://crontab.guru/.

Updated versions utilize docker compose instead of docker-compose. If you run into issues, try substituting docker compose.

crontab -e

0 21 * * * /bin/bash -c "cd restake && docker compose run --rm app npm run autostake" > ./restake.log 2>&1

or with NPM:

crontab -e

0 21 * * * /bin/bash -c "cd restake && npm run autostake" > ./restake.log 2>&1

Warning: Using crontab with docker without the --rm flag will continuously create docker images. Add another cronjob to tear down the images weekly if required:

crontab -e

0 0 * * */7 /usr/bin/docker image prune -a -f

Using systemd-timer

Systemd-timer allows to run a one-off service with specified rules. This method is arguably preferable to Cron.

Create a systemd unit file

The unit file describes the application to run. We define a dependency with the timer with the Wants statement.

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/restake.service

[Unit]
Description=restake service with docker compose
Requires=docker.service
After=docker.service
Wants=restake.timer

[Service]
Type=oneshot
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/restake
ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker-compose run --rm app npm run autostake

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

For NPM installs, remove Requires and After directives, and change ExecStart to ExecStart=/usr/bin/npm run autostake.

Create a systemd timer file

The timer file defines the rules for running the restake service every day. All rules are described in the systemd documentation.

Note: Helpful calculator for determining restake times for OnCalendar can also be found at https://crontab.guru/.

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/restake.timer

[Unit]
Description=Restake bot timer

[Timer]
AccuracySec=1min
OnCalendar=*-*-* 21:00:00

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

Enable and start everything

systemctl enable restake.service
systemctl enable restake.timer
systemctl start restake.timer

Check your timer

$ systemctl status restake.timer

● restake.timer - Restake bot timer
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/restake.timer; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (waiting) since Sun 2022-03-06 22:29:48 UTC; 2 days ago
    Trigger: Wed 2022-03-09 21:00:00 UTC; 7h left
   Triggers: ● restake.service

$ systemctl status restake.service

● restake.service - stakebot service with docker compose
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/restake.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead) since Tue 2022-03-08 21:00:22 UTC; 16h ago
TriggeredBy: ● restake.timer
    Process: 86925 ExecStart=/usr/bin/docker-compose run --rm app npm run autostake (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 86925 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Monitoring

The REStake autostaking script can integrate with healthchecks.io to report the script status for each network. healthchecks.io can then integrate with many notification platforms like email, Discord and Slack to make sure you know about any failures.

Once configured, REStake will ping healthchecks.io when the script starts, succeeds, or fails. It will include relevant error information in the check log and is simple to configure.

Setup a Check for each network you run the script for, and configure the expected schedule. E.g. add a check for Osmosis every 12 hours, Akash every 1 hour etc. Set a timeout in the region of 5 minutes, or slightly longer than you expect the script to run.

Add your Check UUID to the relevant network in your networks.local.json config as below. You can also optionally set the address attribute if you want to self-host the healthchecks.io platform.

{
  "osmosis": {
    "healthCheck": {
      "uuid": "77f02efd-c521-46cb-70g8-fa5v275au873"
    }
  }
}

If you wish for your health checks to be created automatically, you can provide an API key to manage it for you. The default behavior is for the check to be named after the network, but this can be overridden with the name property.

Note that the uuid is not necessary when using an apiKey to create checks automatically.

{
  "cheqd": {
    "healthCheck": {
      "apiKey": "12_CanM1Q3T72uGH4kc32G14BdA4Emc4y",
      "name": "cheqd every 12 hours", // optional, defaults to the network name
      "timeout": 43200, // optional, expected seconds between each run
      "gracePeriod": 86400, // optional, grace period seconds before it notifies
    }
  }
}

Submitting your operator

Setup your REStake operator

You now need to update the Validator Registry to add your operator information to any networks you want to auto-compound for. Check the README and existing validators for examples, but the config for a network looks like this:

{
  "name": "akash",
  "address": "akashvaloper1xgnd8aach3vawsl38snpydkng2nv8a4kqgs8hf",
  "restake": {
    "address": "akash1yxsmtnxdt6gxnaqrg0j0nudg7et2gqczud2r2v",
    "run_time": [
      "09:00",
      "21:00"
    ],
    "minimum_reward": 1000
  }
},

address is your validator's address, and restake.address is the address from your new hot wallet you generated earlier.

restake.run_time is the time in UTC that you intend to run your bot, and there are a few options. Pass a single time, e.g. 09:00 to specify a single run at 9am UTC. Use an array for multiple specified times, e.g. ["09:00", "21:00"]. Use an interval string for multiple times per hour/day, e.g. "every 15 minutes".

restake.minimum_reward is the minimum reward to trigger autostaking, otherwise the address is skipped. This could be set higher for more frequent restaking. Note this is in the base denomination, e.g. uosmo.

Repeat this config for all networks you want to REStake for.

Note that the restake.address is the address which will be granted by the delegator in the UI to carry out their restaking transactions.

Submit your operator to the Validator Registry

You can now submit your Validator Registry update to that repository in a pull request which will be merged as soon as possible. REStake automatically updates within 15 minutes of changes being merged.

Contributing

Adding/updating a network

Network information is sourced from the Chain Registry via the registry.cosmos.directory API. Chains in the master branch are automatically added to REStake assuming enough basic information is provided.

The networks.json file defines which chains appear as 'supported' in REStake; so long as the chain name matches the directory name from the Chain Registry, all chain information will be sourced automatically. Alternatively chains can be supported in networks.json alone, but this is not a documented feature.

To add or override a chain in REStake, add the required information to networks.json as follows:

{
  "name": "osmosis",
  "prettyName": "Osmosis",
  "gasPrice": "0.025uosmo",
  "authzSupport": true
}

Note that most attributes from Chain Registry can be overridden by defining the camelCase version in networks.json.

Running the UI

The REStake UI now has it's own dedicated repository at eco-stake/restake-ui.

Check the project README for instructions on running your own UI.

Ethos

The REStake UI is both validator and network agnostic. Any validator can be added as an operator and run this tool to provide an auto-compounding service to their delegators, but they can also run their own UI if they choose and adjust the branding to suit themselves.

For this to work, we need a common source of chain information, and a common source of 'operator' information. Chain information is sourced from the Chain Registry, via an API provided by cosmos.directory. Operator information lives in the Validator Registry.

Now we have a common source of operator information, applications can integrate with REStake validators easier using the data directly from GitHub, or via the cosmos.directory project.

Disclaimer

The initial version of REStake was built quickly to take advantage of the new authz features. I'm personally not a React or Javascript developer, and this project leans extremely heavily on the CosmJS project and other fantastic codebases like Keplr Wallet and Osmosis Zone frontend. It functions very well and any attack surface is very limited however. Any contributions, suggestions and ideas from the community are extremely welcome.

ECO Stake 🌱

ECO Stake is a climate positive validator, but we care about the Cosmos ecosystem too. We built REStake to make it easy for all validators to run an autocompounder with Authz, and it's one of many projects we work on in the ecosystem. Delegate with us to support more projects like this.