Run a Blacklight L1 Node
Node operators hold key shares for authors' sealed payloads, post their share when a trigger's condition is met, and earn fees plus protocol emissions for doing so.
The Blacklight L1 node app walks you through the whole process, including the on-chain registration that needs your wallet. Start there rather than assembling the steps by hand.
What you need
- A machine that stays online. A node ticks continuously and misses paid work while it is down. A small VPS is plenty.
- Docker.
- An archive Sepolia RPC endpoint. A node's cold-start scan reaches back further than public endpoints will serve, so a non-archive URL looks like a node that boots and then never finishes syncing.
- A wallet with Sepolia ETH and testnet NIL. Roughly 0.06 ETH covers registration plus the node's initial gas float. NIL for the stake comes from the faucet.
How setup works
- Run the node. It generates its own keys on first boot and prints a registration card containing its operator address and its master public key (
mpk). - Register from the app with your wallet. This approves the NIL stake and calls
register_node. You become the node's owner. - Fund the operator with a little ETH so it can post shares and rotate its key.
- The node detects the registration on-chain within seconds and starts working. No restart needed.
The node never holds your owner key. It only holds its own operator key, which is a hot key with no authority over your stake or earnings.
Two keys, two roles
| Owner wallet | Operator key | |
|---|---|---|
| Lives | in your wallet | on the node |
| Controls | stake, earnings, retirement | posting shares, rotating keys |
| Needs | NIL + ETH to register | a small ETH float for gas |
Stake and earnings always follow the owner, which is why losing the node's state file costs you the node but not your funds.
Back up the node's state file
On first boot the node writes its operator key and its IBE master secret to a state file. Back this file up once, after that first boot.
The operator key is never rotated, so a single backup stays a valid rescue for the life of the node even after many key rotations. Treat it like a wallet private key: it is unencrypted, and anyone holding it can act as your node.
Losing it does not cost you your stake or your earnings — both follow your owner wallet. It costs you this node: you would have to register a new one, and any work already assigned to the old one goes unpaid.
Earning
Two sources:
- Trigger fees — authors escrow payment up front, and you are paid per share posted. Your markup, set at registration, prices your participation.
- Emissions — protocol rewards distributed each epoch (6 hours on testnet), proportional to active stake.
Both accrue to your owner wallet.
Leaving
Retiring stops new work and settles emissions to that moment, and is reversible. Stake itself leaves only through the unbonding queue — start it, wait out the unbonding period, then withdraw. Nothing else touches your stake.