# UNIVERSALDOT Application for Polkadot Thousand Validators Programme

## Ecosystem Contributions

### Open Source Contributions:
Developed 3 substrate pallets under Apache 2.0 licence
* https://github.com/UniversalDot/pallets/blob/master/profile/src/lib.rs
* https://github.com/UniversalDot/pallets/blob/master/task/src/lib.rs
* https://github.com/UniversalDot/pallets/blob/master/dao/src/lib.rs

Raised Issues on GitHub or contributed to improvements:
* https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-docs/issues/509
* https://github.com/substrate-developer-hub/substrate-docs/issues/516
* https://github.com/JoshOrndorff/recipes/issues/460

Accepted application for a grant:
* https://github.com/w3f/Grants-Program/blob/master/applications/universaldot-me.md

## Validator Setup

The Validator setup is composed of MasterNode which is used to manage deployments via Ansible and Regular Nodes that are instanciated as PolkaDot Validators. All communication between Nodes happens via Secure Shell Protocol (SSH).

For more details regarding the setup, see the diagram below.


* Our validator is setup based on the secure polkadot repo: https://github.com/w3f/polkadot-validator-setup with minor configurations.
* The polkadot validators have been active since August 2021 with no downtime.
* Running a validator from VPS in Latvia from underrepresented cloud provider.
* Implemented Validator Monitoring Dashboard through Grafana on linux instance: http://80.208.228.61:3000/login

#### Security Policies
* Used NGNIX Reverse Proxy
* Encripted key-based SSH access instead of password-based access.
* Not using root user on Ubuntu 18.04 but creating new user.
* Software firewall setup.
* only allow the proxy, SSH and node-exporter ports.

Strategy for Attracting Nominators
* Low or zero commission.
* Medium publication regarding validators: https://medium.com/@universaldot/universaldot-launces-validators-on-polkadot-relay-chain-8ca8c9b9ed37