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Generate Key Shares

How to Initiate a DKG Ceremony​

1. Select Operators​

Select your preferred group of operators from the operator registry of the SSV network.

For each chosen operator, you must obtain its network assigned id, operator key and DKG endpoint (which are not provided by the ssv-dkg tool)

The required Operators data can be collected via the SSV API and SSV Explorer.

Operators data can be supplied to the ssv-dkg tool as an argument or through a json file, as shown in the example below:

operators_info.json
[
  {
    "id": 143,
    "public_key": "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",
    "ip": "https://141.94.143.182:3030"
  }
]

2. Start DKG Initiator​

info

It is advised launching the tool as a Docker image as it is the most convenient way and only requires to have Docker installed. The team builds a Docker image with every release of the tool.

warning

Caution for Windows Users

Due to Windows operating system's limitation on handling file paths exceeding 260 characters, please verify the length of output file paths to avoid potential issues, as this could render them inaccessible.

All of the necessary configuration information can be provided in a YAML file (referenced as init.yaml from now on).

With this configuration, a typical configuration file would look like this:

init.yaml
validators: 10 # amount of validators to generate (nonce incrementing by 1) (default: 1)
operatorIDs: [143, 219, 33, 34] # array of Operator IDs which will be used for a DKG ceremony
withdrawAddress: "0xa1a66cc5d309f19fb2fda2b7601b223053d0f7f4" # address where reward payments for the validator are sent
owner: "0xb64923DA2c1A9907AdC63617d882D824033a091c" # address of owner of the Cluster that will manage the validator on ssv.network
nonce: 0 # owner nonce for the SSV contract (default: 0)
network: "holesky" # network name (default: mainnet)
operatorsInfo: '[{"id": 1,"public_key": "LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBSU0....","ip": "https://localhost:3030"}, {"id": 2,"public_key": "LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBSU0....","ip": "http://localhost:3030"},...]' # raw content of the JSON file with operators information
# Alternatively:
# operatorsInfoPath: /data/initiator/operators_info.json
outputPath: /data/output #  path to store the resulting staking deposit and ssv contract payload files
logLevel: info # logger's log level (default: debug)
logFormat: json # logger's encoding (default: json)
logLevelFormat: capitalColor # logger's level format (default: capitalColor)
logFilePath: /data/debug.log # path to file where logs should be written (default: ./data/debug.log)

Ceremony Output Summary​

After launching the ssv-dkg tool as shown above, it will commence a DKG ceremony with the selected operators.

Following the successful completion of the DKG ceremony, several files have been generated and placed in the directory where the command was launched from:

ceremony-[timestamp]
├── 0..[nonce]-0x...[validator public key]
    ├── deposit_data.json
    ├── keyshares.json
    └── proof.json
├── 0..[nonce]-0x...[validator public key] ...
    ├── deposit_data.json
    ├── keyshares.json
    └── proof.json
.....
├── deposit_data.json # aggregated
├── keyshares.json # aggregated
└── proofs.json  # aggregated

Files:​

  • deposit_data.json - this file contains the deposit data necessary to perform the transaction on the Deposit contract and activate the validator on the Beacon layer
  • keyshares.json - this file contains the keyshares necessary to register the validator on the ssv.network
  • proof.json - crucial for resharing your validator to a different set of operators in the future.

Troubleshooting​

[ERROR] dial tcp timeout
2023-10-11T16:36:26.745937Z     FATAL   dkg-initiator   😥 Failed to initiate DKG ceremony:     {"error": "Post \"http://79.44.117.213:3030/init\": dial tcp 79.44.117.213:3030: i/o timeout"}

When this error appears, it means that the ssv-dkg tool cannot connect to one of the selected operators.

This could be temporary, but if it persists, we recommend changing one of the operators.

[ERROR] invalid URI for request
2023-10-11T16:29:47.226138Z     FATAL   dkg-initiator   😥 Failed to load operators:    {"error": "invalid operator URL parse \"80.181.85.114:3030\": invalid URI for request"}

When this error appears, it means that the endpoint information for one of the operators is incorrect.

You could manually verify the operators_info.json or the initiator command generated by the webapp, or simply change one of the operators.

[ERROR] connection refused
2023-10-13T15:21:54.597429Z     FATAL   dkg-initiator   😥 Failed to initiate DKG ceremony:     {"error": "Post \"http://80.181.85.114:3030/init\": dial tcp 80.181.85.114:3030: connect: connection refused"}

When this error appears, it means that the ssv-dkg tool cannot connect to one of the selected operators, and the reason could be because their ssv-dkg operator node has shut down.

This could be temporary, as they will likely start the node again, but if it persists, we recommend changing one of the operators.

[ERROR] Please provide either operator info string or path
2023-10-18T12:14:52.667985Z     FATAL   dkg-initiator   😥 Please provide either operator info string or path, not both

This error appears when the operatorsInfo argument has been used in conjunction with the operatorsInfoPath. These options are mutually exclusive, so please remove one or the other from your YAML config file, or from the command used to launch the initiator.