Node SSL Setup

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Introduction

Node SSL certificates support secure communication with SKALE Chain endpoints. By default, each node of a SKALE Chain listens on HTTP and WS ports. If SSL certs exist on the node, then HTTPS and WSS ports are also turned on. Node SSL certificates aren’t required to start a node, register it, or create SKALE Chains. However, dApp developers using SKALE Chains need HTTPS/WSS endpoints to work with toolings such as API based wallets and other integrations. Therefore, SSL certificates are required for SKALE Network validator nodes.

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Node SSL onboarding

Here’s an example of a step-by-step process of setting up validator node SSL.

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Prerequisites

To upload SSL certificates to the node, you’ll have to do a few steps on your side which may vary depending on your domain name provider, certificate authority, etc. See here for reference example of how use free Let’s Encrypt certificates. The steps include:

• getting domain names for each node.
• issuing SSL certificates for them.
• uploading certificates to the node.
• setting up domain name for the node in the SKALE Manager smart contracts.

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Trusted authorities

When choosing CA for getting your SSL certificate, consider a source that will be trusted by most major browsers, operating systems, and other devices. Here’s a list of links that can help you with your decision:

• List of major CA providers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority#Providers
• CAs trusted by Mozilla: https://wiki.mozilla.org/CA/Included_Certificates
• CAs trusted by Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204132, https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209144

Also, here’s a list of the most popular and well-known SSL providers:

• DigiCert https://www.digicert.com/
• GeoTrust https://www.geotrust.com/
• RapidSSL https://www.rapidssl.com/

Besides that, usually, you could purchase an SSL certificate from your domain provider. That could be the most convenient way for you to manage everything from a single place:

• GoDaddy https://godaddy.com/web-security/ssl-certificate
• NameCheap http://namecheap.com/
• Name.com https://www.name.com/ssl

Most of them usually providing you with a few options like RapidSSL and DigiCert.

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Reference Letsencrypt tutorial

This brief tutorial shows you how to generate a wildcard SSL using Letsencrypt.