How to Set up a Node for Navcoin Core for Staking

Do you know how to set up a node that you can use for staking NAV?

If this question has come to your mind, then you have come to the right place. For this guide, you will be setting up a node for Navcoin core and learning how to stake on it. With Navcoin, it is straightforward to set up a node that you can use for staking because each node created come with the settings by default.

Staking has to do with committing some portion of your cryptocurrency assets in order to be selected for block validation and to make a profit.

You might be wondering what is meant by “node for Navcoin core”. This means you will create a server that will be used for staking your Navcoin.

Setting Up Node for Navcoin

For setting up a node for Navcoin, they recommend you have a PC or virtual server with at least 2 CPUs and 8 GB of RAM. The benefit of running your own node is that you get to keep all the benefits from staking.

Another option for setting up a node locally is choosing a staking pool. A staking pool is a third-party server operator that lends you their computational resources for staking and receives a fee. An example of a pool is NavPool.

💡 Note: Your node has to stay online in order to take part in staking.

This guide contains steps for an Ubuntu 20.04 local machine, so you can follow along if you have an Ubuntu or get a virtual Ubuntu server from AWS or any other cloud computing providers.

On your command line/ terminal, run the command below and your node will be set. It usually takes about 30 minutes to 1 hour for the node creation to complete, depending on the speed of your internet.

curl -s <https://index.nav.community/setup.sh|sudo> -E bash

When the node creation is complete, they will give you your “staking address” and “electrum node address”. You will use the staking address for staking NAV in the node, while the electrum node address will be used to connect NavCash to the node server. You will learn about NavCash in the next section of this guide.

Setting Up NavCash

NavCash provides a way to spend, stake, and store your NAV. For this process, you will use NavCash to stake NAV. To set up NavCash, follow the steps below:

1. Download NavCash on your machine. If you are using a Linux machine, the downloaded application will be in AppImages format.
2. The NavCash application you just downloaded is not executable yet. To make it executable, go to your terminal and run the following command. Replace NavCash-5.2.4-x86_64.AppImage in the command below with the name of the file you just downloaded.
   chmod u+x NavCash-5.2.4-x86_64.AppImage
3. Now, run ./NavCash-5.2.4-x86_64.AppImage to run the AppImage application. An “Install Wizard” will come up, select the “Select server manually” option, then click the “Next” button.
4. Uncheck “Select server automatically” option, then paste your electrum node address in the box for “Server” and click the “Next” button.
5. Next, give your wallet a name and click “Next”. The name of the wallet is arbitrary, so you can give it any name you want.

6. You will now be prompted to a page for you to select the kind of wallet you want to create. Here, select the “Standard wallet” and click “Next” button.

7. It will prompt you to choose if you want to activate cold staking. Choose the option where you will need to attach your own stacking address.

Now paste the staking address you got after creating the node, then click “Next”. No need to set a voting address since you don’t have any, so just click “Next” again.

💡 Cold staking is the process of participating in staking using cold stored coins, that is, coin that is stored offline.

8. Next, if you are a new user, you will need to select the “Create a new seed” option and “Next”. Copy the text that it gave you and read the instructions carefully, then click “Next” button.

Confirm your seed on the new page.

9. Next, the wizard will prompt you to create a password. Do that and click the “Next” button.

Finally, a window like the image below will come up. What you need now is an address where you can store your NAV for staking. On the “Receive” tab, click the “New Address” button, and it will provide you with an address where you can send some NAV to. The address is the characters between the red bars below.

When you send in some NAV to the address you just created, it is used for staking, and you will be provided with rewards over time. You can now close the Electrum window and go about your daily activities.

Conclusion

In this guide, you were able to set up a node for the Navcoin core and set up a wallet on NavCash to enable you to send in NAV for staking. If you did not set up the node, an easy route to go if you want to stake is using a staking pool.

You can learn more about Navcoin on their official website, documentation, and blog.