FAQ
Most frequent questions and answers
Is Nyzo a token or a coin ?
Unlike many other projects you may know, Nyzo is not a token – It’s a real coin and a very unique one too. Nyzo got developed entirely from the scratch and isn’t a fork from any existing blockchain – to deliver a fast and efficient blockchain with virtually unlimited possibilities for applications that utilizes the Nyzo blockchain.
What is Proof-of-Diversity ?
Nyzo doesn’t relay on common known blockchain-techniques like Proof-of-Work (PoW) or Proof-of-Stake (PoS) – Nyzo introduces with Proof-of-Diversity (PoD) a fully new approach – PoD uses analysis of verification cycles to establish the authoritative form of the blockchain. It is a totally new proof system that relies on diversity of participation for strength.
How can i mine Nyzo ?
Nyzo is not minable – but absolutely earnable. You can earn Nyzo by creating Nyzo-Verifieres participating in the Nyzo-Mesh – rented on a cloud platform like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Hetzner or any other Cloud Provider. Nyzo is highly efficient and doesn’t need much computing power – a small VPS is enough to get started. Of course, it’s also possible to host a verifier in your own home enviroment – but that’s way harder – the verifier will need to be online 24/7 and needs a public static IPv4 address.
What is the Nyzo Mesh ?
The NYZO mesh is basically the network containing in cycle verifiers and verifiers waiting in the queue to join the cycle. Only in cycle verifiers are eligible for earning NYZO and verifying blocks on the blockchain.
Joining the cycle is possible, if enough in cycle verifiers have voted for you or you got chosen through the lottery-system (since v502) by luck.
What is a 'Sentinel' ?
A sentinel protects an in-cycle verifer from dropping out of the cycle, if the verifer is not able to produce a block in time while it’s his turn. For example: When a verifier goes offline because of a hardware error or a DDoS attack – the sentinel is monitoring the verifier and will recognize that the verifier isn’t able to produce the block. The Sentinel will send the block for the faulty Verifier instead and keep the verifier in the cycle.
Since v549 the sentinel also protects queued verifiers waiting for joinning the cycle. In the past a faulty queued verifier would just be skipped in the joining process, if it couldn’t produce a block in due time. It’s always recommended to run at least one sentinel to protect your in- and out-of-cycle verifiers.
How long does it take to get into the cycle?
That’s a though question. Basically that depends on participants waiting to join the cycle and the current cycle lenght. Since it’s a lottery system, joining is based on pure luck. The more verifiers you’re running, the bigger are your chances.
It’s not possible to give a fixed estimated time. But it’s possible to calculate the probability of joining the mesh.
A very good ressource for calculating the probability is NYZO.TODAY
Since v605 the queue lottery uses IP spaces instead of identifiers to adjust probability. To better understand the impact of these changes we recommend you to read the release notes: https://tech.nyzo.co/releaseNotes/v605
My Verifier is yellow, what can i do?
When your verifier is Yellow it means that there is a tracking problem with it and it isn’t working properly. You should try to fix it as soon as possible, especially for In Cycle Verifiers or you’re risking a drop out. First try to restart the verifier with following command:
sudo supervisorctl reload all
Check the mesh after a couple of minutes. If this doesnt work, follow the instruction from our
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
My Verifier is red, what can i do?
Well, red isn’t good, right? When your verifier ist red it means that there is some communication problem with it. The mesh is not able to communicate with it and/or vice versa. Check if your VPS is online and reachable via SSH. It’s possible that your hoster have some trouble or your verifier got DDoS’ed. Try to restart your VPS with following command:
sudo reboot
Check the mesh after a couple of minutes. If this doesnt work, follow the instruction from our
TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
How can i downgrade a Verifier or Sentinel?
Trouble with a new verifier or sentinel version? No problem! Just head to the GitHub Commits page, copy the commit ID of the desired version and downgrade with following commands.
cd /home/ubuntu/
cd nyzoVerifier
sudo git reset –hard 9e6229e (Commit ID of v597)
sudo ./gradlew build
sudo supervisorctl reload
That’s it!
How to make a queue verifier track the blockchain?
Yes, that’s possible. With v549 the “loose tracking mechanism” got intruduced for out-of-cycle verifiers to reduce their power usage and energy waste. But you can set the always_track_blockchain parameter in the preferences file to enable blockchain tracking:
sudo nano /var/lib/nyzo/production/preferences
always_track_blockchain=1
(Use ctrl + to close the file. Press “y” the save the changes.)
sudo supervisorctl reload
