Nym API Setup

The nym-api binary should be coming out in the next release - we're releasing this document beforehand so that Validators have information as soon as possible and get an idea of what to expect. This doc will be expanded over time as we release the API binary itself as well as start enabling functionality.

Any syntax in <> brackets is a user's unique variable. Exchange with a corresponding name without the <> brackets.

What is the Nym API?

The Nym API is a binary that will be operated by the Nyx Blockchain Validator set. This binary can be run in several different modes, and has two main bits of functionality:

network monitoring (calculating the routing score of Mixnet nodes)
generation and validation of zk-Nyms, our implementation of the Coconut Selective Disclosure Credential Scheme.

This is important for both the proper decentralisation of the network uptime calculation and, more pressingly, enabling the NymVPN to utilise privacy preserving payments.

The process of enabling these different aspects of the system will take time. Operators of the Nym API binary for the moment will only have to run the binary in a minimal 'caching' mode in order to get used to maintaining an additional process running alongside their Validator.

Rewards

Operators of Nym API instances will be rewarded for performing the extra work of taking part in credential generation. These rewards will be calculated separately from rewards for block production.

Rewards for credential signing will be calculated hourly, with API operators receiving a proportional amount of the reward pool (333NYM per hour / 237600NYM per month) according to the % of credentials they have signed.

(Coming Soon) Machine Specs

We are working on load testing currently in order to get good specs for a Validator + Nym API setup. Bear in mind that credential signing is primarily CPU-bound.

(Coming Soon) Credential Generation

Validators that take part in the DKG ceremony (more details on this soon) will become part of the quorum generating and verifying zk-Nym credentials. These will initially be used for private proof of payment for NymVPN (see our blogposts here and here for more on this), and in the future will be expanded into more general usecases such as offline ecash.

Current version

<!-- cmdrun ../../../../target/release/nym-api --version | grep "Build Version" | cut -b 21-26  -->

Setup and Usage

Viewing command help

You can check that your binary is properly compiled with:

./nym-api --help

Which should return a list of all available commands.

```
<!-- cmdrun ../../../../target/release/nym-api --help -->
```

You can also check the various arguments required for individual commands with:

./nym-api <COMMAND> --help

Initialising your Nym API Instance

Initialise your API instance with:

./nym-api init

You can optionally pass a local identifier for this instance with the --id flag. Otherwise the ID of your instance defaults to default.

Running your Nym API Instance

The API binary currently defaults to running in caching mode. You can run your API with:

./nym-api run

By default the API will be trying to query a running nyxd process (either a validator or RPC node) on localhost:26657. This value can be modified either via the --nyxd-validator flag on run:

./nym-api run --nyxd-validator https://rpc.nymtech.net:443

You can also change the value of local_validator in the config file found by default in $HOME/.nym/nym-api/<ID>/config/config.toml.

This process is quite noisy, but informative:

```
Starting nym api...
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch > 🔧 Configured for release.
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > address: 127.0.0.1
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > port: 8000
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > workers: 4
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > max blocking threads: 512
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > ident: Rocket
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > IP header: X-Real-IP
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > limits: bytes = 8KiB, data-form = 2MiB, file = 1MiB, form = 32KiB, json = 1MiB, msgpack = 1MiB, string = 8KiB
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > temp dir: /tmp
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > http/2: true
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > keep-alive: 5s
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > tls: disabled
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > shutdown: ctrlc = true, force = true, signals = [SIGTERM], grace = 2s, mercy = 3s
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > log level: critical
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > cli colors: true
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch    > 📬 Routes:
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_registered_names) GET /v1/names
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnodes) GET /v1/mixnodes
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_gateways) GET /v1/gateways
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_services) GET /v1/services
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /v1/openapi.json
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_full_circulating_supply) GET /v1/circulating-supply
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_current_epoch) GET /v1/epoch/current
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_active_set) GET /v1/mixnodes/active
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnodes_detailed) GET /v1/mixnodes/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_rewarded_set) GET /v1/mixnodes/rewarded
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_gateways_described) GET /v1/gateways/described
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_interval_reward_params) GET /v1/epoch/reward_params
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_blacklisted_mixnodes) GET /v1/mixnodes/blacklisted
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_blacklisted_gateways) GET /v1/gateways/blacklisted
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_total_supply) GET /v1/circulating-supply/total-supply-value
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_circulating_supply) GET /v1/circulating-supply/circulating-supply-value
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_active_set_detailed) GET /v1/mixnodes/active/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_rewarded_set_detailed) GET /v1/mixnodes/rewarded/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /cors/<status>
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/index.css
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/index.html
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/swagger-ui.css
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/oauth2-redirect.html
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/swagger-ui-bundle.js
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/swagger-ui-config.json
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/swagger-initializer.js
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > GET /swagger/swagger-ui-standalone-preset.js
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnodes_detailed) GET /v1/status/mixnodes/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnode_inclusion_probabilities) GET /v1/status/mixnodes/inclusion_probability
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnode_status) GET /v1/status/mixnode/<mix_id>/status
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_active_set_detailed) GET /v1/status/mixnodes/active/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_rewarded_set_detailed) GET /v1/status/mixnodes/rewarded/detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnode_stake_saturation) GET /v1/status/mixnode/<mix_id>/stake-saturation
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (get_mixnode_inclusion_probability) GET /v1/status/mixnode/<mix_id>/inclusion-probability
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (network_details) GET /v1/network/details
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (nym_contracts) GET /v1/network/nym-contracts
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > (nym_contracts_detailed) GET /v1/network/nym-contracts-detailed
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch    > 📡 Fairings:
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > Validator Cache Stage (ignite)
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > Circulating Supply Cache Stage (ignite)
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.800Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > Shield (liftoff, response, singleton)
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > CORS (ignite, request, response)
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::launch::_ > Node Status Cache (ignite)
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::shield::shield > 🛡️ Shield:
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::shield::shield::_ > X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::shield::shield::_ > X-Frame-Options: SAMEORIGIN
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z INFO  rocket::shield::shield::_ > Permissions-Policy: interest-cohort=()
 2023-12-12T14:29:55.801Z WARN  rocket::launch            > 🚀 Rocket has launched from http://127.0.0.1:8000
 2023-12-12T14:29:56.375Z INFO  nym_api::nym_contract_cache::cache::refresher > Updating validator cache. There are 888 mixnodes and 105 gateways
 2023-12-12T14:29:56.375Z INFO  nym_api::node_status_api::cache::refresher    > Updating node status cache
 2023-12-12T14:29:57.359Z INFO  nym_api::circulating_supply_api::cache        > Updating circulating supply cache
 2023-12-12T14:29:57.359Z INFO  nym_api::circulating_supply_api::cache        > the mixmining reserve is now 220198535489690unym
 2023-12-12T14:29:57.359Z INFO  nym_api::circulating_supply_api::cache        > the number of tokens still vesting is now 145054386857730unym
 2023-12-12T14:29:57.359Z INFO  nym_api::circulating_supply_api::cache        > the circulating supply is now 634747077652580unym
 2023-12-12T14:30:00.803Z INFO  nym_api::support::caching::refresher          > node-self-described-data-refresher: refreshing cache state
 2023-12-12T14:31:56.290Z INFO  nym_api::nym_contract_cache::cache::refresher > Updating validator cache. There are 888 mixnodes and 105 gateways
 2023-12-12T14:31:56.291Z INFO  nym_api::node_status_api::cache::refresher    > Updating node status cache
```

Automation

You will most likely want to automate your validator restarting if your server reboots. Checkout the maintenance page for an example service file.

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