Validator Key Fix Applied

Date: $(date)
Status: ✅ VALIDATOR KEYS REPLACED | ⏳ AWAITING BLOCK PRODUCTION

Critical Issue Found and Fixed

Problem

Besu was using node keys (for P2P communication) from /data/besu/key instead of validator keys (for block signing) from /keys/validators/validator-{N}/key.priv.

This meant:

✅ Nodes could connect to each other (P2P working)
❌ But nodes couldn't produce blocks (wrong key for block signing)
❌ Node key addresses were NOT in the validator set
❌ Validator key addresses WERE in the genesis extraData but not being used

Solution Applied

Replaced /data/besu/key on all validators with their validator keys:

Backed up original node keys to /data/besu/key.node.backup
Copied validator keys from /keys/validators/validator-{N}/key.priv to /data/besu/key
Set correct ownership: chown besu:besu /data/besu/key
Restarted Besu services to use new keys
Verified addresses match: All validator addresses now match between /data/besu/key and /keys/validators/validator-{N}/address.txt
Updated enode URLs: Collected new enode URLs and updated static-nodes.json and permissions-nodes.toml

Changes Made

Key Replacement

✅ VMID 1000: Validator 1 key copied to /data/besu/key
✅ VMID 1001: Validator 2 key copied to /data/besu/key
✅ VMID 1002: Validator 3 key copied to /data/besu/key
✅ VMID 1003: Validator 4 key copied to /data/besu/key
✅ VMID 1004: Validator 5 key copied to /data/besu/key

Address Verification

All validators now have matching addresses:

✅ Validator 1: 0x43ea6615474ac886c78182af1acbbf84346f2e9c
✅ Validator 2: 0x05db2d6b5584285cc03cd33017c0f8da32652583
✅ Validator 3: 0x23e1139cc8359872f8f4ef0d8f01c20355ac5f4b
✅ Validator 4: 0x231a55a8ae9946b5dd2dc81c4c07522df42fd3ed
✅ Validator 5: 0xc0af7f9251dc57cfb84c192c1bab20f5e312acb3

All addresses match genesis.json extraData ✅

New Enode URLs

Validators now have new enode URLs (since keys changed):

VMID 1000: enode://774723cbec02d8889114291d325cad544b7269fbfa0aa5ce4cd486d1806a90dff8767aa541cdea343c1911cc780992d5322c7c54bbfc55666128c4b8f7ee0702@192.168.11.100:30303
VMID 1001: enode://d29b70125da5d949e271e926ab0cbd5aa1f3f8aa9fe5fff2dd94f6a8509596f16c45be5c3a8aabdc525c778f00125349dbb82ddc66b0c769efc071e1a967c430@192.168.11.101:30303
VMID 1002: enode://ccf01ee56d1524568fb0f61f9d8d4b02f1707667c68da307dd639e479ab7ea6eb13f01682862c071329329f71b8d1479813e02bf3a1e59d97bf2becff89fce6d@192.168.11.102:30303
VMID 1003: enode://2582c3b991a49dec3aaa31ddfb80ada39309d1890d4e7566fd6b2921d48841e14ac519edb43b9434435c218160bfcbb61b27ec7c1bb10c67c7fcfa9da0ce8e8d@192.168.11.103:30303
VMID 1004: enode://fae5b339389a6d13e6b5417e4c753ce936523069c352a433ccfda1ddc773608c4d636b5a856a18ed76b8a750df512cb441d39c5a16aa3cc2814f412ba94454ef@192.168.11.104:30303

Configuration Files Updated

✅ static-nodes.json updated on all validators with new validator enode URLs
✅ permissions-nodes.toml updated on all nodes with new validator enode URLs

Expected Behavior

After this fix:

✅ Validators should use validator keys for block signing
✅ Validator addresses match genesis extraData
✅ Besu should recognize validators as part of the validator set
⏳ QBFT consensus should activate
⏳ Blocks should start being produced (every 2 seconds per genesis config)

Next Steps

✅ Validator keys in place (DONE)
✅ Enode URLs updated (DONE)
⏳ Monitor for block production
⏳ Verify QBFT consensus activates
⏳ Check that blocks are produced every ~2 seconds

Important Notes

Node keys backed up: Original node keys saved to /data/besu/key.node.backup on all validators
Enode URLs changed: Since validator keys replaced node keys, enode URLs changed
Sentry nodes unchanged: Sentries still use their original node keys (not validator keys)
Network should stabilize: Nodes need time to reconnect with new enode URLs

Last Updated: $(date)
Status: ✅ Fix applied, monitoring for block production

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