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Update the introduction section #123

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4d767e1
Fix types-of-node.md
jancionear Apr 25, 2025
bc150e8
Update keys.md
jancionear Apr 25, 2025
799954d
update grammar
jancionear Apr 25, 2025
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6 changes: 3 additions & 3 deletions docs/intro/keys.md
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Expand Up @@ -22,17 +22,17 @@ There are 3 types of key pairs on the NEAR platform:

There are two flavors of signer keys currently available, `FullAccess` keys and `FunctionCall` keys. The first has unrestricted control to "act on behalf of an account" (as used by NEAR CLI and NEAR Wallet to get things done for you). The second is limited to contract storage and compute. Both flavors of keys can be revoked by the account holder. There is no limit to the flavors of keys that the NEAR platform can handle so we can easily imagine keys for voting, shopping, conducting official business, etc. each with their own access controls on our data, programmable time limits, etc. But keep in mind that you do have to pay rent on keys issued to your account.

**Validator Keys** are used by validators (people and companies who are committed to maintaining the integrity of the system) to support their work of validating blocks and chunks on the network, nothing more. The human validators don't think about these keys beyond creating them and resetting them. Once added to a validator's node, validator keys are used by the node to do their thing of validating blocks and chunks. As a convenience to validators, validator keys are currently produced by a script at node startup if they don't already exist (in the case of NEAR Stake Wars, the `start_stakewars.py` script) but this may change.
**Validator Keys** are used by validators (people and companies who are committed to maintaining the integrity of the system) to support their work of validating blocks and chunks on the network, nothing more. The human validators don't think about these keys beyond creating them and resetting them. Once added to a validator's node, validator keys are used by the node to do their thing of validating blocks and chunks. As a convenience to validators, validator keys created by the node on startup if they don't already exist.

**Node Keys** are something no humans on the network think about except core contributors to the platform. These keys are used internally by a node to sign low-level communications with other nodes in the network like sending block headers or making other verifiable requests. Node keys are currently provided to a node at startup by a script. In the case of NEAR Stake Wars it's the `start_stakewars.py` script that produces these keys for now, but this may change.
**Node Keys** are something no humans on the network think about except core contributors to the platform. These keys are used internally by a node to sign low-level communications with other nodes in the network like sending block headers or making other verifiable requests. Node keys are generated by the node on startup if they don't already exist.

## Can Keys be Changed? {#can-keys-be-changed}

Yes, but only in that keys can be _reset_ (ie. regenerated as a new key pair). If a private key is lost or compromised somehow then a new key pair must be generated. This is just the nature of secure keys.

**Signers** can create new keys and revoke existing keys at will. NEAR Wallet also supports key recovery via SMS or seed phrase which makes it convenient to move signer keys from one computer to another, for example.

**Validators** have the option to reset their validator keys at any time but it makes sense to avoid resetting validator keys while staking. To reset their keys, a human validator stops their node, changes their validator key and restarts the node. All new validator output will be signed by these new keys.
**Validators** have the option to reset their validator keys at any time, but it has to be done carefully. If the validator is currently active, the network expects it to sign its messages with the validator key that was provided during the previous stake action. Replacing the local key file without updating the key that the network expects would cause the network to reject the validator's messages with an InvalidSignature error. To reset their keys, a human validator should create a new key, perform a stake action with the new key, wait until the stake action takes effect (in two epochs), then update their validator key file and restarts the node. All new validator output will be signed by these new keys.

**Nodes** should not need to reset their node keys.

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4 changes: 2 additions & 2 deletions docs/intro/types-of-node.md
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Expand Up @@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ You can run three different types of node - Validator Node, RPC Node, and Archiv

### Validator Node {#validator-node}

Validator nodes are the operators of the NEAR blockchain and are essential to the health of the network. Validator nodes participate in the consensus and produce blocks and/or chunks. You can see a real-time view of NEAR network validator nodes on the [NEAR Explorer](https://explorer.near.org/nodes/validators).
Validator nodes are the operators of the NEAR blockchain and are essential to the health of the network. Validator nodes participate in the consensus and produce blocks and/or chunks. You can see a real-time view of NEAR network validator nodes on the [NEAR Explorer](https://nearblocks.io/node-explorer).

### RPC Node {#rpc-node}

RPC nodes are RPC service providers that provide public RPC endpoints for developers to use. The NEAR Foundation currently maintains a public RPC endpoint `http://rpc.mainnet.near.org/` that is free for everyone to use. However, any participants are encouraged to run their own RPC node and offer RPC services through [an Open Source & Public Goods grant from the NEAR Foundation](https://near.org/blog/refining-near-foundations-grant-approach/). For more information, please check out Community section in the documentation and reach out in the Validator Channels on [Discord](https://discord.gg/ZMPr3VB) and on [Telegram](https://t.me/near_validators).
RPC nodes are RPC service providers that provide public RPC endpoints for developers to use. See https://docs.near.org/api/rpc/providers for a list of public rpc nodes. However, any participants are encouraged to run their own RPC node and offer RPC services through [an Open Source & Public Goods grant from the NEAR Foundation](https://near.org/blog/refining-near-foundations-grant-approach/). For more information, please check out Community section in the documentation and reach out in the Validator Channels on [Discord](https://discord.gg/ZMPr3VB) and on [Telegram](https://t.me/near_validators).

### Archival Node {#archival-node}

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