Announcement: How to Deploy a Matrix AI Network Masternode

6 min readApr 12, 2019

Deploy Matrix AI Network Masternodes starting April 13th!

With the Matrix Token Swap ongoing, the Matrix team is ecstatic to confirm that the Matrix Community will be able to start staking their Masternodes on April 13th at 11am (Beijing Time). Before attempting to deploy and stake your Masternode, please confirm that you have already swapped enough native MAN tokens. You cannot stake a Masternode on the Matrix Mainnet using ERC20 tokens! If you have yet to complete your token swap, you may download the Matrix AI Network Token Swap Manual for detailed instructions.

For those unfamiliar, deploying and staking a masternode is a multistep process. As such, the team has prepared a detailed Node Deployment Manual for MAC and Windows users . Please follow the steps with precision to ensure the successful launch of your Matrix Masternode. A summary follows.

Before deploying your Matrix AI Network Masternode

Things you need:

The Matrix AI Network Node Deployment Manual
Two Matrix web wallet addresses
A computer

The Matrix AI Network Node Deployment Manual

Please ensure that you download the latest version of the Matrix AI Network Node Deployment Manual. You can always find the latest version at https://www.matrix.io/downloads/.

Two Matrix web wallet addresses

While not an absolute necessity, it is recommended to use two Matrix wallets when deploying a Masternode. This will make your Masternode more secure. You will need to have access to both wallets’ keystore files. You can open new wallets and download related keystore files as necessary using the Matrix Web Wallet.

For the purpose of this guide, your two wallets will be identified as followed:

Wallet A: Your existing Matrix wallet that holds all your MAN tokens
Wallet B: A brand new wallet created for the purpose of deploying a Masternode

As a general strategy, after successfully setting up your node, we suggest keeping Wallet A in a safe place as this wallet will receive the block rewards. Wallet B can be used to manage daily Masternode activities and will not hold and MAN tokens.

A computer

Suggested configuration:

Operation System: Windows, MAC, or Linux
CPU 8 Core (Intel (R) Xeon (R) CPU X5670 @ 2.93 GHz)
· RAM 12G
Hard disk 300G

Suggested computer hardware configurations may be adjusted over time. The most up-to-date suggestion can always be found on the Matrix GitHub.

Deploying your Matrix AI Network Masternode

After ensuring that you have everything you need — including the two Matrix web wallet addresses — to deploy a Matrix Masternode,

Step 1: Download the gman files

Download and save the gman(windows).zip or gman(mac).zip package, depending on your operating system. Carefully follow the instructions in the Matrix AI Network Node Deployment Manual. Up-to-date versions of all files can be downloaded from the Matrix website.

IMPORTANT: BEFORE STAKING TOKENS IN THE NEXT STEP, YOU MUST ENSURE THAT YOUR MASTERNODE IS FULLY SYNCED. IF YOU STAKE TOKENS BEFORE YOU SYNC YOUR MASTERNODE, IT WILL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR SELECTION AND MAY REGISTER AS OFFLINE. THIS WILL IMPACT HOW MANY BLOCK REWARDS YOU CAN RECEIVE AND MAY RESULT IN NETWORK PENALTIES.

Step 2: Stake your tokens

The Matrix web wallet allows you to stake tokens to run Masternodes via the Deposit/Withdrawal tab. The wallet is accessible at http://wallet.matrix.io/.

1. Unlock your Wallet A on the Matrix Web Wallet (wallet.matrix.io) using the Wallet A keystore file.

2. Click the “Green Mining” tab and select the relevant Masternode (Deposit for Miner vs Deposit for Validator) by clicking the Deposit Type drop-down arrow.

3. Enter the amount you would like to stake. Please note that you must stake at least 10,001 MAN tokens to be eligible to run a Mining Masternode. Similarly, you must stake at least 100,001 MAN tokens to be eligible to run a Verification Masternode. The additional 1 MAN token will cover any related gas fees.

4. Input your Wallet B address. This will be a public-facing address for your Masternode. It will not contain any MAN tokens. All earned block rewards will be automatically send to Wallet A. Wallet B will allow you to manage the day-to-day operations of your Masternode without exposing your Wallet A balance of MAN tokens.

5. After successfully staking your MAN tokens, you will receive a confirmation similar to the one below:

IMPORTANT: AGAIN, PLEASE CONFIRM THAT YOUR MASTERNODE IS FULLY SYNCED BEFORE STAKING TOKENS.

How to release your stake

In the Matrix Web Wallet’s “Green Mining” tab, there is a “Release deposit” button near the bottom of the page. You must first release your staked tokens before refunding your stake to your Matrix Web Wallet.

Click “Release deposit.” This will initiate the process.
Wait 600 blocks (approximately 1 hour). After 600 blocks, you will be able to refund your tokens back to your wallet. If 600 blocks have not passed, you will receive an error message.

Don’t have native Matrix tokens?

If you do not have sufficient native MAN tokens in your Wallet A, you will not be able to stake a Masternode on the Matrix AI Network. You will need at least 10,001 MAN tokens to stake a Mining Masternode and 100,001 tokens to deploy a Verification Masternode. If you need to swap more tokens, please follow the detailed instructions in the Matrix AI Network Token Swap Manual. Do NOT send ERC20 MAN tokens directly to the Matrix Foundation Token Burn Account Address from an exchange wallet or hardware wallet.

About block rewards

The Matrix AI Network aims to generate a new block approximately every 6 seconds. Each block yields 10 MAN tokens. Of each block’s total block rewards, the Mining Network receives 30%, the Verification Network receives 50%, and everyone with staked tokens share the remaining 20%.

Every cycle (300 blocks), 32 Mining Masternodes and 19 Verification Masternodes will be selected. In addition, the Matrix Foundation will provide 3 voluntary nodes to assist in completing the block generation.

A full write-up of the rewards breakdown will be published in the coming days.

About troubleshooting

If you find that the Matrix AI Network Node Deployment Manual and this article are still insufficient for you to comfortably conduct the token swap, please contact a member of the Matrix team on Telegram.

One more thing

Prior to launching the Matrix Mainnet, the team announced plans to redistribute early block rewards earned from Matrix-controlled Masternodes to the Matrix community. These plans are still in place.

Of particular note is the Mainnet Airdrop. MAN tokens will be airdropped to every person who completes the token swap. This Airdrop will occur following the initial Matrix Web Wallet Auto-Swap period. People who are swapping tokens during this period will all be eligible to receive the Airdrop.

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