4. Node Provider Workflow

This workflow applies to an entity who wants to host VPN nodes and earn rewards from VPN Providers.

4.1 Registering as a Node Provider

1. Deposit/Staking: Run:

   apivpn-cli node provider register --name "MyNodeProvider"

   This sends an on-chain transaction to the Node Provider Registry, staking a small initial deposit.

2. Listing Node Providers:

   apivpn-cli node provider list --count 10 --page 0

   Shows existing providers, including yours.

3. Checking or Adding Node Limits:

   apivpn-cli node provider limit

   This shows how many nodes you can deploy based on your deposit. To increase:

   apivpn-cli node provider limit add --count 5

   This will prompt for extra deposit coverage.

4.2 Deploying Nodes

1. After you have a sufficient limit

   apivpn-cli node add \
     --plan time \
     --hostname myvps.example.com \
     --country US \
     --region CA \
     --city "San Francisco" \
     --ip 203.0.113.5 \
     --ssl=false \
     --port 8080 \
     --path /api/v1 \
     --limit 100
   • Speed Test: The CLI also attempts to auto-detect your VPS IP/country if not provided.
   • A private/public key pair is generated for each node. The private key is saved in your config file (private_key)

4.3 Updating or Deleting Nodes

• Update:

  apivpn-cli node update --ip 203.0.113.5 --port 8081 --ssl=true

• Delete:

  apivpn-cli node delete --ip 203.0.113.5

4.4 Running the Node Server

apivpn-cli node server --port 8080

• Starts an HTTP server with /api/v1/connect and /api/v1/status.
• Launches an embedded V2Ray process for user traffic forwarding.
• Sends “heartbeat” messages to the aggregator URL (configured in config.yaml -> ton.endpoint_web2).
• Checks user tickets presented at /api/v1/connect.