ECH0.RE validators
Dear Kusama & Polkadot Community,
I am currently operating validators on both the Kusama and Polkadot networks, actively contributing to their security and stability.
Please let me introduce myself as well as my validator nodes in this post.
About me
I have been working as a cybersecurity professional for the past five years. I started as a pentester, did a lot of programming, then moved towards malware analysis, reverse engineering, digital forensics and vulnerability research in various systems like iOS kernel and browsers.
I have been an administrator of Root-Me (@rootme_org), a cybersecurity e-learning platform, for a total of seven years. I was elected president of the organization two years ago and continue to serve in this role today.
I have several experiences in system and network administration as I have developed and managed multiple services in my professional roles, like a malware analysis sandbox for thousands of clients.
I am following and trusting the Polkadot network for more than a year now and I wish to continue contributing in this amazing project. One way to use my skills to help our community was to setup validator nodes.
About my validators
I have set-up one Kusama and one Polkadot validator node a few months ago, before applying in the Thousand Validators (1KV) Programme. I am proud to announce that I was recently accepted.
Here are the characteristics about my validator nodes.
Kusama
Validator address: Dfw2gjWfm19j3Q9ewn9PJiDyCdFsBs9QQ2ZiRAZ3k2QNVar (ECH0.RE/01)
Settings
- Name on telemetry: EchoStake-KSM-01
- Own stake: 154 KSM
- Rewards destination: staked
- On-chain identity: Verified (Reasonable)
- Commission fee: 10% (minimum allowed)
Polkadot
Validator address: 126cWhehuBFhQvbDqt26dWBNgELfkpc72WvJV3sx82qRogkT (ECH0.RE/01)
Settings
- Name on telemetry: EchoStake-DOT-01
- Own stake: 7 506 DOT
- Rewards destination: staked
- On-chain identity: Verified (Reasonable)
- Commission fee: 5%
On-Chain identity
I have a verified on-chain identity, including e-mail address (me@ech0.re), website (https://ech0.re), Twitter/X handle (@ech0re), matrix handle (@ech0.re:matrix.org) and discord username (ech0.re).
Hardware specs
Both Kusama and Polkadot validators have the same bare metal hardware specs, but each node has its own server.
Configuration
- Operating system: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS x86_64
- RAM Memory: DDR5 ECC On-Die 64 GB 5200 MHz
- CPU : AMD EPYC 4344P – 8 cores /16 threads – 3.8 GHz/5.3 GHz
- Storage: 2×960 Go SSD NVMe RAID 1
- Location: France (Roubaix), dedicated
- Public bandwidth: 1 Gb/s
Optimization
- SMT: disabled
- NUMA balancing: disabled
Security
- Seccomp: enabled
- Firewall: enabled and strict
- SSH: private key only, root disabled
- Updates: automatic for security and Polkadot packages
As you can see, it respects the recommended hardware for running a Polkadot validator as determined by the team, and follows all the optimization and security guidelines.
Benchmark
I pass all the required benchmarks of the Polkadot binary. Sometimes, it might happen that the Disk Seq Write benchmark is less than 100%: this is due to the fact that I have a RAID 1 setup where both of my 1 TB SSDs are in mirroring mode for disk redundancy: even if one disk fails, the node will stay up and operational.
I made this choice based on the fact that I pass the benchmark most of the times, overall performance of my servers is very good, and I do not need 2 TB of storage. That being said, if at any time the disk speed becomes a real issue, switching to a RAID 0 setup fill completely fix it.
Performance in the active set
Thanks to my nomination in the 1KV programme, I have been able to validate on Kusama in the active set. Unfortunately, since I am new in the programme, I didn’t have the time to reach rank 100 on Kusama, which is a requirement to be nominated by the 1KV stashes on Polkadot.
This means that I have yet never been in the active set on Polkadot. This is the reason why currently I have switched the Polkadot validator to a nominator, to get staking rewards while I’m waiting to be eligible for nomination by 1KV.
Thankfully, I was active on Kusama multiple times. So far, my performance as a validator has been excellent.
- One-T statistics: ECH0.RE/01 A+ grade validator
- Paravalidation: Thousands of votes, zero missed
- Last eras points: 6000, 2500, 1000, 12000, 10500, 7500, 4000, 6000, 14000, 11500
- No downtime
- Some produced blocks: 24989327, 25019245
I believe my Polkadot validator, with the same hardware and management, will perform just as good once it is in the active set.
Why nominating me?
In addition to my technical setup, please let me give you a few reasons to nominate me as a validator.
Professional experience
Cybersecurity
Indeed, security is one of the main aspects when it comes to validating on Polkadot as a validator node is critical for the network’s stability and safety. As a cybersecurity professional for several years, and having managed multiple IT security projects, I have a strong background when it comes to identifying and fixing security issues.
I also have system and network administration experience and I have operated large servers with a lot of traffic.
Community management
I am the current President of the Root-Me cybersecurity e-learning platform, counting more than 900 000 registered users, 20 000 X/Twitter followers, 20 000 Discord members and around 200 staff members in different teams: moderation, quality assurance and testing. I have built this community and the entire staff since my beginnings as an administrator in this project, seven years ago.
I have been a moderator and/or community manager on several other platforms such as Gameforge and BigPoint.
Activity
I am very active on various communication channels and interacting with the community, on the Discord servers:
- Polkadot+
- Polkadot (Official)
- Kusama (Official)
And Element/Matrix channels:
- Kusama Validator Lounge
- Polkadot Validator Lounge
- Both 1KV programme channels
I am always reading the channels, discussing with the community and happy to answer (or ask!) questions. I participate in discussions and try to solve issues with other validators.
In addition to that, I am responsive when it comes to replying by private messages on any communication network, or by e-mail.
Communication and transparency
Even if it’s the beginning, I often post about Polkadot and Kusama on my X account, and I plan to use my website to make technical posts about Polkadot, such as staking or validating processes, and more.
I take steps towards being very transparent about my validator nodes, such as detailing exactly what is my validator configuration, commission fee, hardware, and updating the information almost in real-time on a dedicated web page: https://ech0.re/validator, and making posts on my social media:
- https://x.com/ech0re/status/1826002783042208215
- https://x.com/ech0re/status/1836838574098108819
- https://x.com/ech0re/status/1837567468388143591
- https://x.com/ech0re/status/1840320492969836920
Motivation
I am engaged in being a reliable and transparent validator for Kusama and Polkadot networks, and always keeping a good validator grade by choosing the best specs for my nodes hardwares.
I have future plans regarding my activities around Polkadot networks, I want to communicate more, make blog posts, help the community and even build free tools for nominators and validators. For example, since I have experience in Swift iOS development, I started working on a lightweight and clean native application for monitoring nodes, just like what Prometheus/Grafana does but much lighter and cleaner. Of course, it’s just a draft project and I’m doing it for fun.
Since I am active, fluent in French and English, and I have experience in moderation on several platforms, I’d also like to candidate in the future to be a discord moderator in Kusama and Polkadot servers.
Conclusion
I believe having trustworthy, transparent and active validators in both Kusama and Polkadot networks is important for the community.
I know that the Thousand Validators (1KV) programme is ending very soon (31st of October) and the new Decentralized Nodes programme is coming. Indeed, I will not have the time to reach rank 100 on Kusama to be able to actively validate on Polkadot before the end of the programme, but this does not matter: I have applied to the new DN programme as well and I hope I will be among those trusted validators, as I was when I was chosen among 1KV members.
I am very proud of being part of this community, and contributing to the security of the networks.
As you may know, the new DN programme focuses on nominating a set of validators for a defined period of time (four months), and the idea is that each validator becomes independent before the end of this period. In contrary to the 1KV programme, the new one really pushes the validators to seek for external nominations among the community and this is exactly what I am doing here: seeking your support and being accepted as a trusted Kusama and Polkadot validator.
I will be glad if you add my addresses in your validators list:
- Kusama:
Dfw2gjWfm19j3Q9ewn9PJiDyCdFsBs9QQ2ZiRAZ3k2QNVar - Polkadot:
126cWhehuBFhQvbDqt26dWBNgELfkpc72WvJV3sx82qRogkT(in nomination mode for now!)
Please not that my Polkadot address is nominating other validators for now, as I have explained, since I am waiting for the start of the new DN programme. Renting powerful servers isn’t cheap and getting staking rewards while waiting helps paying a part. I will switch again to validation mode once the programme starts or if I see that a consequent number of people want to nominate me. You can already nominate the Kusama validator!
Thank you for your support, and feel free to reach out with any question or feedback.
Best regards,
Ech0.re validator
Much deserving!