Why crypto?
CA: 5u83eeMKS5drqAdchhJQeUpt7x4DNaU7ZBnaMZjUpump
That is the ARRR token on Solana. The token has one job on this network: it decides who gets to run a node. This page explains why we use a token for that, what holding one actually gets you, and what it does not.
You do not need ARRR to build or to play
Building an app, publishing a game, getting a test room and playing are all free and never touch the token. The 10 GB a month free tier is paid for in nothing. ARRR only matters if you want to run a node: a machine that hosts other people's rooms and saves.
The problem: an open network has to keep strangers honest
ARRR is a mesh. The machines that hold rooms and player saves are not all ours. Anyone can offer one, and we want that, because more nodes in more places means lower latency and a network that does not depend on one company staying up.
But "anyone can join" also means anyone can join many times. If running a node is free, one person can start a thousand of them in an afternoon and try to fill the network with machines they control. These are called Sybil attacks, and every open network has to answer them somehow. The usual answers are:
| Way to let people in | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| Let anyone in for free | One person can pretend to be a thousand operators. |
| Approve every operator by hand | We become the bottleneck, and the network is only as open as our inbox. |
| ID checks and a credit card | Leaves out most of the world, puts personal data in our hands, and a card proves you can pay, not that you will behave. |
| Put something of value up to join | Each extra node costs real money to start, so faking a crowd gets expensive fast. |
The last one is what proof-of-stake blockchains like Ethereum and Solana use to choose who validates their blocks, and what many decentralized storage and compute networks use to choose their operators. It works without anyone asking who you are, from any country, at any hour, and anyone can check it.
How it works on ARRR
Coming soon
Running a node is not open to everyone yet. This is how it will work when it is.
To run a node, you hold 3,000,000 ARRR in a Solana wallet.
- Open the console's Run a node tab and connect your wallet (Phantom, or any Solana wallet in your browser).
- Your wallet signs a one-line message proving it is yours. This is a signature, not a transaction: nothing is sent and there is no fee.
- We read the wallet's ARRR balance. With 3,000,000 or more, you get a node key and a one-line command that starts your node.
- Your node is given its own name and certificate and joins the mesh.
Your tokens never leave your wallet. We do not lock them, hold them or move them, and we could not if we wanted to. We only read your balance.
Then, every hour, we read it again:
- If it is still 3,000,000 or more, nothing happens.
- If it drops below, two hourly checks in a row, your node goes dormant: it is given no new rooms or players. It keeps serving what it already holds, so nobody loses a save because a balance dipped. A single failed check is never enough, so a hiccup at the blockchain provider cannot knock you out.
- Top back up and your node is back to normal within the hour.
The rules that keep this from being gamed:
- One node per wallet. Ten nodes cost 30,000,000 ARRR, not 3,000,000.
- Borrowing does not work for long. Borrow 3M, get a key, give it back, and your node goes dormant at the next checks.
- Proof, not an address. Typing someone else's wallet address gets you nothing: the wallet has to sign.
What happens to a bad operator
Here we should be precise, because "staking" often means something we do not do.
On many proof-of-stake chains, the stake is locked in a contract, and a validator caught misbehaving has part of it destroyed. This is called slashing. ARRR does not slash. Since we never hold your tokens, we cannot take any of them.
What we can do is take away your place in the network. A misbehaving operator can be warned, benched (made dormant) or have their key revoked, which drops their node from the mesh. Every penalty is recorded with the reason and who made the call, so it can be answered.
That is still a real cost. To keep a node, you have to keep 3,000,000 ARRR in your wallet instead of selling it or putting it to work elsewhere. Lose the key and you lose what that money was buying.
We chose this on purpose. Real slashing means putting your tokens in a contract we control, and that asks you to trust our code with your money and needs an outside audit before anyone should. Holding is simpler and cannot lose anyone's tokens. If slashing ever comes, the score below is what it would be measured against.
The stake is not the only lock
Admission is the stake's job. Keeping players safe does not rest on it alone:
- Nodes cannot read player data. Saves are encrypted on the player's device before they leave it. A node stores scrambled bytes it has no key for.
- Nodes cannot fake a write. Every change to a save is signed by the player, and a node cannot forge that signature.
- No node is the only copy. A room is mirrored across nodes and takes over if its main node dies. Saves are copied to several nodes, run by different operators where possible, and repaired automatically when one disappears.
So the worst a hostile node can do is drop out, and the network is built to survive that. The stake makes sure nobody can afford to own enough of the mesh to make it matter.
Recognizing the operators who do the job well
Putting up a stake keeps people out. A token also lets us measure who is doing the job well, in a way anyone can check.
Every node gets a score out of 100 over the last 7 days, built only from what the network already sees:
| What we measure | Weight |
|---|---|
| Uptime: is the node there when it says it is? | 40 |
| Rooms: when we hand it a room, does it take it? | 20 |
| Saves: is its save storage up and answering? | 20 |
| Peers: can other nodes reach it? | 10 |
| Up to date: is it running a current version? | not counted yet |
You see your own node's score in the console. The "up to date" line counts for nothing until nodes report their version.
Being honest about where this is: today the score is a record, not a payout. There are no operator rewards yet. A token is still the best way to add them. It can pay a node in Lisbon and a node in Seoul the same way, with no bank in between, and the payment can follow a public score instead of a private deal with us. We have built the score first so that if rewards come, they reward the operators who earned them.
The token, plainly
| Contract address | 5u83eeMKS5drqAdchhJQeUpt7x4DNaU7ZBnaMZjUpump |
| Chain | Solana |
| Symbol | ARRR |
| To run a node | hold 3,000,000 in your own wallet |
| To build an app, publish a game or play | nothing |
Always check the full address before you buy. Anyone can make a token called ARRR; nobody can make another one at this address.
The nodes we run ourselves are exempt from holding the token. They are scored like everyone else's.
Nothing on this page is a promise about price or returns. ARRR is how you join the network as a node operator, not an investment product.
Next steps
- Run a Node: coming soon
- What is ARRR?: how the mesh orders messages and keeps rooms alive
- Player data: how saves stay unreadable to the nodes that hold them